| ▲ | rsynnott 3 hours ago | |
Honestly, the ratings on those sites are essentially useless anyway, because people are bad at reviewing. I generally sample the lowest rating written reviews, to check if people are complaining about real stuff, or are just confused. For instance, if a hotel doesn't have a bar, some of the negative reviews will usually be about how the hotel doesn't have a bar; these can be safely ignored as having been written by idiots (it is not like the hotel is hiding the fact that it doesn't have a bar). Occasionally some of the positive reviews are similarly baffling. Was recently booking a hotel in Berlin in January, and the top review's main positive comment about the hotel was that it had heating. Well, yeah, I mean, you'd hope so. I can only assume that the reviewer was a visitor from the 19th century. | ||
| ▲ | sgerenser an hour ago | parent [-] | |
The worst thing I’ve found with positive reviews is ones that are obviously fake/incentivized. I looked up reviews recently for a hotel that I used to stay at a lot for work, and had gone way downhill with many issues (broken ACs, mold, leaking ceilings, etc.). I was curious if they ever fixed their problems. I was at first surprised that they had a fairly positive overall review rating. But looking deeper, the many negative reviews were just crowded out by obviously fake reviews. Dead giveaways: every single one named multiple people by name. “Dave at the front desk was just so friendly and welcoming! Barbara the housecleaner did a fantastic job cleaning. And Steve the bartender just made my day! I love this hotel! 5 stars!” (Almost) nobody reviewing a hotel for real does that. | ||