When you’re traveling to an unfamiliar destination, it can be difficult to decide where to stay. Fortunately, Bing Travel’s hotel rate indicator can help you narrow down the options.
Sometimes, though, you want advice from friends, family and colleagues, or recommendations from Web sites that you trust. That’s why hotel reviews have become immensely popular. When you search for Vegas hotels on Bing, for example, you can read reviews of individual properties (provided by Travelpost.com).
However, the growing popularity of hotel review sites means that there’s more incentive for business owners to manipulate their ratings by publishing fraudulent reviews. Posts that appear to come from guests but were actually written by hotel managers could lead a property to rank higher in the list than it might have otherwise.
Now, TripAdvisor, the largest hotel review site, is fighting back against such tactics. A prominent warning message has started appearing on the pages of businesses it suspects of attempting to “manipulate our popularity index by interfering with the unbiased nature of our reviews.”
What’s your take? Do you think this strategy will discourage unscrupulous business owners from gaming the system? How do you distinguish between glowing reviews posted by other travelers and ones that may not be authentic? And do you trust hotel review Web sites, or are there other tools you use to help you decide where to stay? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section.
Well, it depends on the website on how reliable are they. When I went to Oakland to attend christening, I wasn't familiar with the place, I dont know where to stay so I went to Expedia and read some reviews. I also visited the hotel sites, and other websites for another reviews, then I will compare it. The thing I like about reliable ticket-websites are, you posted comments on it, you have an account with them, before they posted it in their website, they will verify just to make sure you have that account that you really stay in the hotel.
So, yeah I do. After my trip, I'll go back to the website and I will make sure I will comment on what I like or not. :)
Hi, Sonja,
For my two cents, I find the TripAdvisor site reviews to be very good - meaning genuine. The only thing is that they often conflict as some like what others don't, but as shamnaraine says it is a really good practise to compare and read reviews on places like expedia and orbitz as well. You can generally get a feel for a property or service based on the reviews on such reputable sites. On my site I will not put a review of a property I have not been to, unless it's a guest post by someone who has personally visited somewhere I have not. Mine is small, granted, but I have received lots of positive feedback because the reviews are genuine, honest and personal. Also, as shamnaraine mentions, if you have an experience worth sharing - good or bad - be sure and do your part by contributing your review to places such as Tripadvisor (or wherever you may have gleaned your info. from before you made your travel decisions) - give back!
TIP: ALWAYS compare pricing on travel websites. Countless times I have found one to be significantly less expensive than another for the same hotels, etc.. Without naming names I can tell you that this has saved me many hundreds of dollars over the past couple of years alone. I'll do a price and review comparison on two or three major sites (at least) and then book with the best price.
I can tell you it is not only the hotel manager that might post good reviews for their property but the competition also post bad reviews. For example I know one hotel I almost didn't go to because of the "freeway noise" come to find out there is not a freeway within 30 miles. It was a lovely hotel on 60 acres in the country.
Fortunately when I travel I always call the visitors center of the city and pretend to be a woman traveling alone with small children and ask for a clean quiet safe Hotel. So far the visitors center in any city has not let me down.
Its all depends on the site....One should not believe the site reviews blindly I think....
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Before heading out to any hotel i always read reviews and what to do in that area.
I think this Hotel Rate indiciator is a great idea!
We have been slowly creating our own hotel review site for our local town to ensure everyone gets the best hotel to suit them.
Good on Bing for another worthwhile addition!
Is user-generated content helpful to travelers? When the topic is restaurants, I think it can be. Such
I have used this tool a few times and it seems to be pretty accurit. I work in the industry so know a thing or two. I would give this an 8 out of 10.
Most travelers rely the opinion of some friends, family members, and most in the website. I would say 80/20 trust on the web. They meet the requirements before their article will be posted on the site.
I believe it depends on individual opinion. hotel reviews are very useful because it gives you 80% of confidence before to select any hotel.
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Its really difficult to take decision on which place to visit , although there are lot of hotel review sites are doing their job honestly.
I will like to share my experience. After reading a web-review, I planned to visit Mahabaleshwar, located at Maharashtra. I chose Previlage Holidays and really it was wonderful decision. I was so impressed with the staff, hospitality, shedules and food that I, myself posted 3-4 reviews for this hotel. Further, I came to know that they present at lot of other tourist places and will like to visit one of them soon.
thumbs up from my side. A must visit place
www.previlageholidays.com
Their cotact details are as follows:
Previlage Hospitality Pvt. Ltd.
1stFloor, Swagat Building, Shraddahand Road, Near Navin Bhai Thakkar Hall,
Vile Parle (East), Mumbai - 400 057
Email :activation@previlage.in
Tel. No.: + 91 022 2614 7488 / 022 2612 2189
Mobile No.: + 91 93233 47561
