How TripAdvisor Changed Travel • Hacker News Board

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#21

Post by Canada » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

I look at TripAdvisor, Yelp, and other regional restaurant review sites. Tablelog is the only one with overall ratings that seem to reflect reality, but that's Japan only. Even though the big two are more noise than signal as far as reviews go, at least I can see pictures. Often I use these sites while sitting in the place to decide what to order. I'm starting to use Google Maps more because TripAdvisor and Yelp sites suck so bad and I refuse to install their low quality, spammy apps. What I wish existed:

- NO reviews. I want facts not opinions.

- Food photos only. No useless photos of people, random interiors, drinks, etc. Delete those and ban the idiots who upload them.

- Ruthlessly curate the photos. I want a couple of photos of each dish, only the best quality ones that are recent.

- Caption the photos and tag the food. I want the exact string on the menu neatly displayed on each photo. I want to be able to search "pizza" and get a stream of photos of the food.

- A clean set of photos of the menu so I can see the prices. OCR that into searchable text.

- Let me privately rate the food.

I guess what I'm describing is kind of Tinder for food. And no ads of course. Not gonna happen.. but hey I can dream.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#22

Post by calt » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:45 PM UTC

4ad wrote: post #10

Panoramix wrote: post #4

I do a lot of traveling. My experience improved dramatically when I stopped using TripAdvisor and similar apps. I just go with the flow. Talk to real people. Like a bunch of American tourists (insert any country here) would know what, say, authentic Thai food is supposed to taste like. It all comes down to a bunch of -at best- uninformed people ranking stuff, at worst fake reviewers, bots and scammers. Why would I wa…

I agree that Tripadvisor is useless for restaurants, but how do you find/book hotels? In general hotels are more expensive when booked directly and not through an aggregator, however, how do you even find them without sites like Tripadvisor?

Hostelworld... ok so I'm probably not the demographic you're looking for answers from.

However, Booking.com is by far the world's largest hotel booking website.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#23

Post by 4ad » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:45 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #16

4ad wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that Tripadvisor is useless for restaurants, but how do you find/book hotels? In general hotels are more expensive when booked directly and not through an aggregator, however, how do you even find them without sites like Tripadvisor?

Uhh.. Google Maps? Kayak/Travelocity/Expedia/Orbitz/etc/etc? If I'm staying near a business client or family I ask them. If they don't know I search. Then I see what's available on the booking sites. Tripadvisor only ever came into the picture if I was visiting a resort area where I didn't know anyone.

> Kayak/Travelocity/Expedia/Orbitz/etc/etc

Sorry, I should have been more specific. To me, all these sites are the same quality as Tripadvisor. I use them all, but I assumed someone who would avoid Tripadvisor would also avoid these sites.

> If I'm staying near a business client or family I ask them.

That's weird. If they already have a real place to stay in some place, why would they know anything about hotels?

> Tripadvisor only ever came into the picture if I was visiting a resort area where I didn't know anyone.

That's pretty much all the travel my family and I do these days.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#24

Post by trophycase » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

If you're the kind of person who likes unstructured travel instead of a checklist to get all those instagram pics, TripAdvisor really isn't the place you should be going. I recently used Yelp/TA in Jamaica and it put us at Rick's Cafe, one of the most highly rated and visited places in all of Jamaica. They had a gift shop and their $25 "jerk chicken" was literally baked chicken breast covered in barbecue sauce. Absolutely embarrassing and I felt shame for even giving them my money. I could have gone across the street to any jerk center and got something an order of magnitude better for 5 bucks.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#25

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:51 PM UTC

4ad wrote: post #10

Panoramix wrote: post #4

I do a lot of traveling. My experience improved dramatically when I stopped using TripAdvisor and similar apps. I just go with the flow. Talk to real people. Like a bunch of American tourists (insert any country here) would know what, say, authentic Thai food is supposed to taste like. It all comes down to a bunch of -at best- uninformed people ranking stuff, at worst fake reviewers, bots and scammers. Why would I wa…

I agree that Tripadvisor is useless for restaurants, but how do you find/book hotels? In general hotels are more expensive when booked directly and not through an aggregator, however, how do you even find them without sites like Tripadvisor?

The big US chains are always cheaper directly (Marriott/Hilton/IHG/Wyndham/Choice). Use roomkey.com and you can search them all at once. This is because the brands own room key so they don't pay commission so pass on some of the savings to you.

You can also contact a hotel directly and say you're thinking about reserving on so and so website (aka travel agent), and if you reserve directly, they might give you a discount for not having to pay commission.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#26

Post by 4ad » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #25

4ad wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that Tripadvisor is useless for restaurants, but how do you find/book hotels? In general hotels are more expensive when booked directly and not through an aggregator, however, how do you even find them without sites like Tripadvisor?

The big US chains are always cheaper directly (Marriott/Hilton/IHG/Wyndham/Choice). Use roomkey.com and you can search them all at once. This is because the brands own room key so they don't pay commission so pass on some of the savings to you. You can also contact a hotel directly and say you're thinking about reserving on so and so website (aka travel agent), and if you reserve directly, they might give you a disco…

Good to know, thanks!

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#27

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:53 PM UTC

kbar13 wrote: post #18

ryaniscool wrote: post #7

Really strange to see the negative comments. My favorite thing about TripAdvisor is that I feel empowered when I have a terrible experience at a venue. I can just go leave them a crappy review. It's very cathartic. Also, I find most of the reviews to be generally accurate. It sounds like other people disagree with that which is strange. I've never used TripAdvisor to find a restaurant or a hotel and then felt like th…

i think your story is a great example of why open review aggregation sites are a broken model. these reviews are not comprehensive. a lot of people only go there to post about a shitty experience or out-of-this-world experience. it's also broken in situations where reviewers are not familiar with the culture or standards of the place they're visiting, i.e. critiquing the service/cleanliness/decor of an authentic hole…

Why would you not want to be aware of bad service or cleanliness in a restaurant?

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#28

Post by agumonkey » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:55 PM UTC

tjr225 wrote: post #17

agumonkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is there a term to express our this era technology is just allowing useless noise to pass as signal ? when myspace et al started to pop, web 2.0, dynamic webpage interactions was the fastest way to heaven, now it seems we read the map upside down. ps: maybe we're rediscovering how mobs are bad

There is a great flattening in what it once took to publish a thought or an idea and have it reach an audience. Unfortunately almost everybody is deluded, insane, stupid, at the very least totally uninsightful - or some sort of weird combination of all these things. The web is a great place to be uninformed or even deceitful, I strive to be cognizant of this.

I don't understand the last part of your comment. But I wonder hard almost weekly about that flattening effect of the computer era.

People (and I at times) complained how institutions were imposing too much on whatever content (articles, music, movies). Without their curating effect, everything goes. Some say it's better because now you're sure you'll never miss a great thing that would have been killed by some radio or studio. But I'm less and less convinced of that.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#29

Post by altec3 » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 9:59 PM UTC

ryaniscool wrote: post #7

Really strange to see the negative comments. My favorite thing about TripAdvisor is that I feel empowered when I have a terrible experience at a venue. I can just go leave them a crappy review. It's very cathartic. Also, I find most of the reviews to be generally accurate. It sounds like other people disagree with that which is strange. I've never used TripAdvisor to find a restaurant or a hotel and then felt like th…

Maybe not faked, but they are curated. I had $400 USD stolen from a mechanic that worked at an establishment with an extremely high Trip Advisor rating. I didn't realize until days later and 1000's of miles away. I got on all the review sites and left reviews with my experience. Sure enough, within a week Trip Advisor had removed my post after initially approving it.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#30

Post by 4ad » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

Canada wrote: post #21

I look at TripAdvisor, Yelp, and other regional restaurant review sites. Tablelog is the only one with overall ratings that seem to reflect reality, but that's Japan only. Even though the big two are more noise than signal as far as reviews go, at least I can see pictures. Often I use these sites while sitting in the place to decide what to order. I'm starting to use Google Maps more because TripAdvisor and Yelp site…

> Food photos only. No useless photos of people, random interiors, drinks, etc.

I agree that photos of people are ridiculous, but I want photos of the interior. The ambiance of a place is even more important than the quality of the food (to me), and it's one of the attributes hardest to portray in reviews (mostly because people who review are not professional reviewers). Good photos help here.