AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Caye Caulker Use Trip Advisor

I think that the tourists have every right to know where there money is going in advance. All I can say is check the website for Trip Adviosr for hotels on Caye Caulker. That's what I did, and listened to a few bloggers who advised well. You may find blogs that are possibly phoney on Trip Advisor.......in other words check all the submissions and if you see 5* ratings and then read for more over all.....you will get closer to reality. Some hotels had very poor reviews going back to the spring, with a few brillant 5* rating just recently. Figure things out for yourself. We consumers DO have the right to know what are getting for our hard earned cash for maybe only once a year holiday!!! That's no joke to us!!! And I am sure that your C.C. businesses do not want us going to other locations in Belize.

Did you know that over 70% of the people logging on to this site are owners/managers/marketing staff to check the status of their property. Take them away and Tripadvisor no longer gets the hits to make it the number one, so Tripadvisor imprisons owners once they are registered by a guest on the site? Many owners are there because members of Tripadvisor put them there not at their own request!! Should that be an acceptable method of joining?

Did you know that because of this amount of people logging on to the site, it is creating traffic through the site and thereby making it the No 1 site by moving it up the search engines etc?

Did you know that everytime you check on a link like hotels.com etc that you are making money for Tripadvisor because all the links on Tripadvisor are pay per click??

Did you know that TA is in the only site World Wide that refuses to allow property owners/managers/marketing representatives delete their property from the site? They delete the members who speak out, but never the owners they just BLACKLIST them and they never get another positive review, but now we have other sites to review Tripadvisors on - google Tripadvisor and find out all about them.

The figures are false because many property owners/managers and marketing representatives do not need this type of cheap marketing to advertise establishments that have taken years to build up, have a good standard and a large percentage of repeat business?? Many of negative reviews are rants, over exaggerated with management response edited before posting if they post them at all!!

The figures are false because if Tripadvisor deleted when requested the hotels, restaurants and guesthouses that made that request, the owners would not be logging on to check their properties and then Tripadvisor would soon become as far down as number 5 or 6.

Did you know that it is Tripadvisor that is holding the owners/managers and marketing executives to ransom by refusing them their right to delete their property from their site?

Do you know that many owners/property managers& marketing representatives actually tell people not to post on Tripadvisors for them because the site is open to abuse from Whingers, Cranks, Fake Reviews & False reporting? It is now more socially accepted within hospitality circles not to have any reviews on Tripadvisor than even 100s of positives . It is not the place to have your property listed. Full Stop!!

Do you know how many of the reviews (even positive ones ) have been disputed, but Tripadvisor ignore those disputes? Reviews on properties closed or that have changed ownership still remain on the site. It is the most antiqued Travel Site on the web with review remaing for years on end.

How many properties are listed on Tripadvisors that are no longer in business, with some not trading for up to 2 years?

Tripadvisor is holding management & property owners - many owners now reporting that guests are threatening tripadvisor on them if they charge cancellation fees, refuse to upgrade or allow late check out - Is this a fair system of review???

DO YOU KNOW THAT TRIPADVISOR HAS AN UNFAVOURABLE RECORD FOR BUSINESS DEALING ACCORDING TO THE MA BBB - WHY NOT ADD TO THE RECORD BY LOGGING ON AND MAKE YOUR COMPLAINT TOO !!!!

I use the TripAdvisor Forums every time I take a trip to a new destination and lots of times, only for dreaming of a new destination. I've been doing this for years. I'm able to sift the wheat from the chaff, thank you very much.

I will agree that it may be a bit harder for someone that just signed onto Tripadvisor to be able to do the same.

Sorry you are having a bad experience with TA. Why not tell us what brought it about for you?

I do the same thing. You have to go through a lot of posts and after a while you can spot a trend and also if somebody is trying to covertly affect the ratings.

I have stayed in resorts that were reported to be under construction after reading the posts that stated that the noise etc wasn't a problem - and you know what - it wasn't a problem and we got to stay in a $500 suite for $150 a night! Sweet.

If I question a post, I look up the poster and see what other posts they've made and if they've made any other reviews. It really doesn't take all that long to figure out what is going on. For example, if one were to look up a well-known denizen's backpacker type place, one might see a glowing post from a lovely young woman. I haven't checked lately, but I don't think she's ever posted for any other places. ;^)

IMO Trip Advisor is a dreadful site. My business and those of very competent hoteliers here were much maligned by deliberate spiteful posts that were evidently just that, yet Trip Advisor refused to do anything about removing or even flagging these posts. They're still there. I have often implied that I regard AC.com as too heavily and partially moderated, but I infinitely prefer that to the way that Trip Advisor is totally unmoderated.

I have seen good businesses go under because of malicious posting campaigns on TA. Don't forget that TA is partners with Expedia Travelocity, Hotels dot com etc. So when they do business with you and get your commission, they are more willing to remove bad posts. I know someone who gets his bad posts removed each and every time. When you don't do business with them, they keep you hanging to dry. The people that man TA have got no clue what so ever about the destinations they talk about. Some people posting on there are really miserable. The whole site radiates negative energy.

That being said, I also look at TA, but don't look for the top rated hotels. It is pretty tough looking through their smokescreen, but the best hotels are usually not in the top 5. Their rating system is pretty subjective.

I'll agree with your position on the top-rated hotels. Regardless, it's a list with which one can start a search. I particularly like the candid tourist pictures. That said, I repeat, that I rarely actually read the hotel reviews. The majority of my research is done through the forums.

I've never booked a trip through TA and don't know why I ever would.

As for the people that post on the forums at TA, I haven't noticed them to be any more miserable nor any more upbeat than posters on lots of other message boards, whether those boards be related to travel or whatever.

Yes, I've seen posts deleted by TA admins, but in my experience, it has been the deletion of people like Soma or someone blatantly and repeatedly posting expressly for their hotel or to get hired as a guide, etc. In this regard, I can give specific examples, if need be, to support my position.

I've also seen the hotels be allowed a rebuttal to negative posts (including a very popular hotel on AC).

I don't know to what you refer when you say that the people "that man TA have no clue what so ever about the destinations they talk about". I'm sure that posters like Hon, JeanH and Barb would be pretty surprised to hear that said about themselves.

In an attempt for clarity; I read TA forums for all my destinations throughout the world and have most recently received very good advice on Peru, Greece, Jordan and Frankfurt.

The people who man the site; the admins, mods, powers that be. I have seen posts that were clearly about a different hotel (on multiple occasions) that could not be moved or deleted according to the hotel in question after corresponding with TA.

In my experience TA rating is dead wrong for destinations in Panama and Mexico that I visited recently.

OK, thanks for the explanation.

Myself, I just had a recent experience that directly mirrored a posting about a hotel in Jordan. In that case, I'd done no upfront research, but upon having the most horrible experience, I looked up the hotel. The postings were mostly leaning the way I saw things, but one posting was almost exactly what I'd experienced. It was uncanny. Of course, there were other posts that leant towards a better experience but none were particularly glowing. I suspect that these "good" posts were more supportive because the hotel has a bar and large rooms. Frankly, I don't know how drunk I would have had to get . . . lol.