Tripadvisor???

[Jordyboy9]

Does anyone take the comments on tripadvisor as an honest and true,our friends have paid a deposit for a holiday in pathos in January the hotel gets terrible things said about it and they are asking our opinion,I said I am sure that they can't be that bad or surely the travel firm that they are dealing with would step in?anyone got any thoughts on this?

[ubasses]

Agree with most of the comments about how to interpret the reviews. Will just add that having used Mercury a few years ago I was less that enamoured with one of their 4 star hotels. So it would not surprise me that they are using a Hotel below standard.

[Retrochic]

but there are 423 'very good' reports -they can't all be friends and family of the owners can they?

[237SJ]

Yes, I always look at it, mainly for the Travellers Photos rather than the Professional Photos.

[Maydup]

I wouldn't go anywhere without checking it out on TripAdviser, but I can filter the very bad reviews and happy to make a balanced judgement. But if there are misearable photos and general bad feelings then I would avoid that place and continue my search for an alternative. Its just the same as bad word of mouth, we all moan but if we'd had a good stay we wouldn't have anything to moan about would we!

[auntie-bertie]

I am a regular contributor to TA; I think I am in their top 10% - anyway if someone has only contributed once then I ignore their posts; I also look at the frequency of posts - anything written 2 years ago can be ignored and much could have changed since then.
However if they are concerned before they go, then in my experience they will be continually looking out for dirt/faults/etc and it will not make for a good holiday. Can they not change to another hotel??
And I have to ask, but why did they book the hotel before reading the reviews? I never book anything without research first. Buyer Beware and all that.