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How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

theguardian.com

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Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#41

Post by tjr225 »

agumonkey wrote: post #28
tjr225 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I was thinking about that part of my comment and I believe what I failed to convey was that there seems to be no real cultural or educational priority to question what you see communicated on the internet, at least to my limited understanding.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#42

Post by lotsofpulp »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #34
lotsofpulp wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I find there is a problem here - hotel chains "sell" some of their room-nights (#) to the third party channels. I think it works like options - but it means I phone the hotel to book a room i can see is available on all these third party sites (including trip advisor) but the hotel cannot sell that room-night to me because the channel has first dibs. which seems like the hotel is cutting off its own nose (#) notnsure…

None of the big US brands do that. They each have a best price guarantee that gives you a free night or 50% off or something if you are able to reserve for cheaper than on their official website.

The only thing they might engage in is opaque pricing, which is Priceline and hotwire auction. But that is different since it's not a publicly advertised price, the buyer puts in how much they want to pay and they are stuck with whatever hotel Priceline or hotwire give them.

But reputable hotels don't resort to that since that attracts price sensitive guests that aren't desirable anyway, such as prostitutes and drug dealers.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#43

Post by newhotelowner »

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?

Look for a hotel on maps.google.com. There 90% chance that the hotel is offering the same price as OTAs. Book directly on the hotel site, and use their reward system to get points.

Most of the hotel offers the same rate as OTA. We - Hotel owner can't offer a cheaper rate than OTA.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#44

Post by lotsofpulp »

ctchocula wrote: post #40
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find there is a problem here - hotel chains "sell" some of their room-nights (#) to the third party channels. I think it works like options - but it means I phone the hotel to book a room i can see is available on all these third party sites (including trip advisor) but the hotel cannot sell that room-night to me because the channel has first dibs. which seems like the hotel is cutting off its own nose (#) notnsure…

I think the idea is they get an acturay to estimate how many rooms will be empty at some future date, and sell the room-nights they estimate they couldn't fill anyways to 3rd party channels. This way, they at least recoup some money on empty rooms and why Priceline can offer rooms that are much lower than what booking directly at the hotel costs.

I'd be shocked to find out any hotel uses an actuary. The big ones have sales teams dedicated to booking groups and events, and the smaller ones are usually franchised and managed by a small staff. Most brands use h inventory management software too that auto updates pricing based on prior years' performance and how quickly rooms are renting (or canceling), much like airline ticket prices.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#45

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

stephengillie wrote: post #37
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…

The trick which hasn't failed me yet is to look at exclusively 1-star reviews. I've been using Google Maps, and I'm assuming this trick will work with other services also. First, look at the ratio of 1-star to other reviews - do the 1-star reviews create a "hockey stick"? What's the ratio of 1-star to 2-star? 1-star to all reviews? Second, see what people are complaining about, for example, these 2 1-star reviews rev…

During my travels I was definitely surprised at first just how effective that buying a beer for someone sitting next to you at a pub is for getting all sorts of information. It's definitely the cheapest investment you can make into having a great time abroad.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#46

Post by dpeck »

whitepoplar wrote: post #38

Tips that have improved my travel experience: 1) Don't go to a "destination" city. Don't go to a city that derives too much of its income from tourism. 2) Trip length: not too long, not too short. 3) Make a loose itinerary, but rip it up occasionally. 4) Bring a phone, but no laptop. Don't use TripAdvisor/Yelp/etc. Ask around. Walk around. Have strange conversations. Don't be afraid to stay in non-traditional lodging…

| 1) Don't go to a "destination" city. Don't go to a city that derives too much of its income from tourism.

This is good advice. Generally the "second cities" of a country gives a better experience. More open borders and intermixing has been wonderful, but it does mean that a lot of capital/primary cities feel very similar.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#47

Post by pgodzin »

newhotelowner wrote: post #43
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?

Look for a hotel on maps.google.com. There 90% chance that the hotel is offering the same price as OTAs. Book directly on the hotel site, and use their reward system to get points. Most of the hotel offers the same rate as OTA. We - Hotel owner can't offer a cheaper rate than OTA.

I've found that some perks, like free cancellation, is only available on the hotels' sites for significantly more than OTAs. Also my CC gives me a 10% on some OTAs.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#48

Post by brosirmandude »

stephengillie wrote: post #37
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…

The trick which hasn't failed me yet is to look at exclusively 1-star reviews. I've been using Google Maps, and I'm assuming this trick will work with other services also. First, look at the ratio of 1-star to other reviews - do the 1-star reviews create a "hockey stick"? What's the ratio of 1-star to 2-star? 1-star to all reviews? Second, see what people are complaining about, for example, these 2 1-star reviews rev…

Oh this is interesting. Someone more code-inclined than me should build a review scraper (if it doesn't exist already).

>enter business

>scrapes reviews

>pulls out most mentioned phrases and can filter common ones like "great", "awesome", etc

>specifically highlight the negative reviews that DON'T mention the certain things you care about.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#49

Post by philliphaydon »

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?

Hotels allocate a portion of rooms for sites like agoda, trip advisor, etc. And keep a small portion for direct bookings and walk ins.

The price is almost always cheaper when booked direct or onsite than it is through a 3rd party. That’s cos the cut these people take is upwards of 15-30%. Hotels are literally forced to pay this because if they don’t they don’t get business. Under cutting the websites for going direct allows them to get more profit.

If you ever try book a hotel and it says there’s no rooms avaliable. There’s a good chance you can get a room by going direct.

There are benefits to using the 3rd party which is refunds and cancelations. A lot of hotels don’t offer refunds at all or have conditions on refunds and cancelations. The 3rd party sites handle the refunds themselves tho.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#50

Post by Scoundreller »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #42
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find there is a problem here - hotel chains "sell" some of their room-nights (#) to the third party channels. I think it works like options - but it means I phone the hotel to book a room i can see is available on all these third party sites (including trip advisor) but the hotel cannot sell that room-night to me because the channel has first dibs. which seems like the hotel is cutting off its own nose (#) notnsure…

None of the big US brands do that. They each have a best price guarantee that gives you a free night or 50% off or something if you are able to reserve for cheaper than on their official website. The only thing they might engage in is opaque pricing, which is Priceline and hotwire auction. But that is different since it's not a publicly advertised price, the buyer puts in how much they want to pay and they are stuck…

> But reputable hotels don't resort to that since that attracts price sensitive guests that aren't desirable anyway, such as prostitutes and drug dealers.

Maybe at the 1 or 2 star level, but every other hotel on the planet secretly loves the price discrimination that Priceline and Hotwire offer.

You won't see a $1400/night boutique hotel on there, but a $300/night place will offload for half the price if they're relatively unbooked.

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