Here are Belize hotels awarded "TripAdvisor" Travelers' Choice Awards for 2011. Special congrats to the winners on Ambergris Caye. Hope I didn't overlook any winners among the TripAdvisor listings.

--Lan Sluder

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Hamanasi Adventure & Dive Resort, Hopkins: #10 in Top 10 Best Hotels for Service in the WORLD

Hamanasi Adventure & Dive Resort, Hopkins: #2 in Top 10 Best Hotels for Service in Central & South America

The Phoenix Resort, San Pedro: #2 in Top 10 Relaxation/Spa Hotels in Central & South America

The Phoenix Resort, San Pedro: #7 in Top 10 Hotels for Service in Central & South America

Coco Plum Island Resort (private caye off Hopkins): #4 in Top 10 Best Hotels for Romance in Central & South America

Hickatee Cottages, Punta Gorda: #7 in Top 10 Best Inns & B&Bs in Central & South America

Las Terrazas, North Ambergris: #7 in Top 10 Luxury Hotels in Central & South America

Victoria House, San Pedro: #8 in Top 10 Best Hotels for Romance in Central & South America

Xanadu Island Resort, San Pedro: #10 in Top 10 Best Hotels for Service in Central & South America

It is important to put TripAdvisor ratings in perspective, read between the lines and form your own opinion:

"Condo Resorts" with an owner per condo will all put a positive review online, thus being in the advantage over resorts with a single owner.

There is no mechanism to prevent untrue reviews being posted by competitors or disgruntled persons:
TripAdvisor or its staff seem to sometimes have their own agenda:

Short is right. Anyone can write a review, valid or otherwise, and hurt or help an establishment or manipulate the voting. TA is a great source of info, but not the only one and take it all with a grain of salt.

I am very proud of our Belizean resorts for receiving this accolade. Every little bit helps to promote our beautiful Belize.

I agree that there are some downsides to TripAdvisor. To note just one in connection with Belize, in these awards there really isn't an adequate category for lodges or jungle lodges, so that puts Belize's many superb lodges at a disadvantage.

There are other issues, too, having to do with TripAdvisor's editing process, and with phony or suspect or just naive positive and negative reviews.

But as Katie and others note, it can be a very useful travel tool, especially if you approach it with some skepticism, just as you would a hotel website (or a travel guide). Ignore the extreme positive and negative reviews and put any review to a quick "sniff test" for authenticity. Doubtless, though, a really clever poster with an agenda can still fool us occasionally.

I'd like to see more focus on requiring TripAdvisor posters to provide real names and other personal information, much as Amazon.com did with its book and other product reviews, which I think are now somewhat more reliable and less likely to be posted by those with hidden agendas.

--Lan Sluder

On my personal vacation where I was the tourist I used Trip Advisor months prior to booking and it was an eye opener.
I developed a lot of insight and empathy for people traveling into the unknown.
Trip Advisor was an extremely useful tool.
Trip Advisor, its members and users are not stupid, deception is possible but not the rule.
Anyway you look at it, its going to be difficult to not sound like sour grapes if your a hotel/resort not on the list above and criticizing them.