People have shared their most disastrous holiday experiences to warn others against always trusting reviews.
In 2020 more than two million reviews were rejected or removed from Tripadvisor in 2020 for reasons including fraudulence, bias and violating community standards.
Now that holiday-starved people are attempting to book holidays in great numbers, being able to trust a review amid the hustle and bustle is more important than ever.
In conjunction with a new app called Triend, which pays users to share unedited videos of locations while travelling in order to improve trust in reviews, spurned holidaymakers have shared experiences of when they've been spurned.
'The hotel looked like an abandoned building' - Zach Blenkinsopp
Scouring reviews to find the perfect hotel, Zach Blenkinsopp, co-owner of Digital Roofing Innovations, thought he had done just that… until he got there.
He explains: “When I arrived at the hotel, there were no signs of it being open at all. The place looked like an abandoned building with broken glass on the ground outside and no lights inside. The lobby door had also been smashed open with a crowbar!”
“When I went to my room to check if everything was ok, I found that there were no carpets on the floor and my room looked like it had not been cleaned for a very long time.
"There were stains everywhere, including the bedsheets and pillowcases. There were also holes in the wall where there should have been pictures hanging.”
Zach had forked out more than £160 for the night.
When he requested a different room, he was told that there were no more available. Feeling uneasy about staying in such an unclean place, he requested a refund but was told that he could not get his money back or swap hotels.
‘I drank the same cocktail all day at a well-known beach bar - but each tasted completely different’ - Ashley Chubin
Ashley Chubin, COO of FlyHi, visited a number of restaurants and bars while on holiday in Cancun after being inspired by their glowing Tripadvisor reviews…
“Most of the places I visited matched none of my expectations. I couldn’t be the only person having a completely different experience while visiting these establishments though, and that’s when I realised that many of the places I visited had a lot of fake reviews.
“For example, I made a list of beach bars I wanted to visit based on reviews before heading out. My first stop was a highly rated beach club that was said to be excellent.
“However, the service and drinks left a lot to be desired from. Although the drinks were good, they were very inconsistent.
"We decided to drink the same Moscow Mule all afternoon, but every time they brought us a glass, it tasted like a completely different one.
“The waiter also didn’t even clean our table, which was clearly full of crumbs. We had to ask him to do so before he brought our first set of drinks.”
Ashley found himself having a similar experience in many of the other places he visited.
“The details just didn’t add up to the number of positive reviews they had," he continued.
"I never felt that I was outright ripped off or anything, but it did feel like I was being lied to about how these places truly were.”
His experiences have left him “very suspicious when a place doesn't have a single review below four stars!”
‘I wasted a whole day looking for places that didn’t even exist’ - Shawn Richards
It was again a result of false reviews that led Shawn Richards, expedition coordinator at Ultimate Kilimanjaro, to spend an entire day of his holiday searching for places that didn’t actually exist.
He explains: “While travelling in Medellin in Colombia, I wasted a whole day looking for recommended places and reviews on Tripadvisor.”
It turns out that the review website had done a poor job of updating information about places that closed during the pandemic.
Shawn ended up facing disappointment after disappointment while wandering around the city in search of restaurants and cafes that were no longer there.
“I found out pretty quickly that talking with locals and getting recommendations was the best way to go about it, but wasting a whole day left a sour taste in my mouth.”
‘The hotel looked so different from the photos that I thought it was the wrong place’ - Mario Cacciottolo
Rave reviews convinced Mario that he had booked the perfect hotel for his vacation but upon arrival, he found the lodging to bear so little resemblance to the one in the reviews that he was convinced it was the wrong place!
The PR manager at SBO said: “The photos were lovely, the reviews looked good and everything seemed positive overall. I immediately booked my room and was excited to enjoy my vacation.”
Rave reviews gushed about the spacious rooms and tidy, well-made beds - he thought that he was onto a winner.
However, he found the blankets and pillows to have been thrown over the bed, room service to be hurried and the room to not just be cramped but the smallest he had “ever been in”.
“Reviews and photos indicated that there would be plenty of space to store snacks and food in the closet - my room did not even have enough room for a closet to contain snacks and the fridge did not work," he said.
“Reviews also stated that the views were beautiful; they even had photos to show it! I’m not sure if something changed drastically before I got there, but the view was not nearly as pleasant as I expected it to be.”
Thankfully, Mario was able to cancel after one night and switch to a different hotel.
‘I jumped on a flight, rented a car and drove for four hours to find the town almost deserted’ - Will Hatton
Will Hatton, founder of The Broke Backpacker, was encouraged to visit Ocean Isle after seeing Tripadvisor photos of the place bustling with tourists, going with the intention of interviewing them for an article.
Jumping on a flight, renting a car and embarking on a four-hour drive, he arrived to find the town almost deserted due to it being off-season.
While the reviews weren’t deceptive per se, they did completely omit the very important detail that many hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars close during that particular time of year.
This, unfortunately, prevented Will from being able to fulfil the reason of the trip and cost him a lot in the process.
‘Zante’s most highly recommended restaurant didn’t know the difference between hummus and taramasalata’ - Kirsty Devine
Visiting the then highest-rated restaurant in Zante on Tripadvisor, Kirsty thought she was in for a real treat. Reviews praised reasonable prices, amazing food and friendly staff.
Unfortunately, she was left disappointed.
It certainly wasn’t the fine dining experience she expected: the staff rushed her to finish her meal and make room for new customers, were rude and served hummus instead of taramasalata.
Kirsty explains: “I actually found myself apologising for their mistake as the waiter rolled his eyes at me. When the correct condiment finally did arrive, it was thrown down on the table in a rude manner, tasted very bland and was accompanied by cold pittas.”
“It was probably the most disappointed we’ve ever been and have been cautious with Tripadvisor ever since. I hardly use it now.”
Triend attempts to iron out some of the problems that can crop up by relying on written reviews.
It encourages users to film themselves sharing their opinions on places all over the world or find ones that others have posted - and uses a 'help to earn' model paying users for reviews.
The app also uses geolocation technology to checks whether the review's location matches the location where the user claims to be talking about.
Video-recorded reviews put a face to the reviewer’s name, holding them accountable for what they say.
A Tripadvisor spokesperson said: “Tripadvisor takes the issue of fake reviews extremely seriously and for the last 22 years we have used the best in technology and human moderation practices to identify and remove misleading content from our platform.
"Our recent 2021 Review Transparency Report goes into more detail about the approach Tripadvisor takes to ensure the integrity of its content.
"The report shows that in 2020, we took action against more than 1 million fraudulent reviews submitted to the site – 67.1% of which never even made it onto the platform.
"Of those that did get published, 85% reported by the community were assessed by our moderation team within four hours of being submitted, and 43% of all community reported reviews were removed following that assessment. The full report is available to read here."
They added that "Hundreds of millions of travellers across the globe" use and trust Tripadvisor each month.
"That said, our fight against fake reviews never stops, it’s a race to perfection and we’re constantly evolving our tactics to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters," they continued.
"Our advice to all travellers is simple; if they see a review they believe is misleading, malicious or breaches any of our guidelines, they should report it to us.
"Our team will then investigate and take any action necessary to protect those people who are looking to Tripadvisor for guidance to support them in making decisions on where to go and what to do.”
