Tripadvisor

I had used Trip Advisor occasionally but after a really bad restaurant experience in Denver, I decided to never try a restaurant while traveling without consulting it first. It has proven to be invaluable to my family when we travel and even locally when we want to look up a restaurant. Recently we found some great restaurants by using it and have not had a bad experience by following TA. It is good for hotels too but for attractions in new cities and restaurants you can't miss with it.

Trip Advisor is not so different from the other travel sites. However, what I really like best about this site are the amateur photos taken by the travelers. For example, if you are looking for a hotel, you would see more than 50 amateur photos that simply show you what the hotel looks like in actual. Honestly, I don't think I can find that elsewhere. You would normally see pictures taken by the hotel themselves, so it's usually very much edited.

I use trip, advisor extensively when traveling to find reviews of restaurants and hotels. They are also a great way to find out about free things to do in a town.

I don't expect any place to have all 5 star ratings, because that is not life. I look to see how people report a problem handled and if things that bother them are the same things that bother me. For example, if people report that the front desk is rude at check in, that's not a biggie to me. Life is too short to be upset by rude people. However if they report a room is dirty or has bedbugs, then I stay away.

It's a great way to get a real feel for a place

Whenever I plan, I always consult with TripAdvisor, I truly appreciate the time the guests are giving to write their comments, experiences, tips, guidelines that really helps a lot for the reader to make a decision. Though everything will be my decision at the end of the day, I feel more comfortable and secure when I read information. It gives me a real glimpse on how the guests feel towards their experience especially when they share their photos.

TripAdvisor is comprehensive and an excellent resource for hotel information, which has two major shortcomings:
1. As some have noted before, it is mostly helpful regarding hotels, and less so when it comes to tips or travel guides. For those I would recommend googling specific locations, or consulting forums. A general tip: get on local sites, and use Google Translate; you won't believe the amounts of unbiased information you can get there.
2. The site is more informative and doesn't allow enough space or volume for complaint. Granted, it is not an anti-fraud site like this one, but the reason most people get on it in the first place is to make sure their hotel won't be terrible or they won't get ripped off by it, etc. So when someone has a dreadful experience with a hotel, their review gets lost in the sea of other reviews (many of which are completely useless and "vanilla" - if you have nothing to say, don't say anything!). That's why the size of the site is a pro and a con.

The new logo is over the top. I don't care what your sexual orientation is….but don't make marketing a travel business a venue to advance something many don't agree with.

We have tried using Tripadvisor to list our beautiful new bnb rental. Our rental was built to ADA wheelchair accessibility guidelines, because there is a lack of access on the island regarding vacation rental homes. We have not had a dingle booking in three months! Upon investigating, we find our listing doesn't even show up on their map, and if we search by "wheelchair accessibility" it doesn't show either. They appear to be truly biased towards hotels, and towards their long-standing client bnbs. Save your money and list your bnb on Facebook instead!

Our business received a 1 star review but wait... that's not the issue, the person treated our staff with COVID19, threaded to burn down our property and continued with verbal assaults. After reporting this to the local police who are investigating and reporting to Trip Advisor they replied with "After completing a thorough investigation into your report, we've found that the review in question complies with our submission guidelines. As a result, it will remain published on Tripadvisor." complete disregard for the truth and zero accountability for the protection of business.