How TripAdvisor Changed Travel • Hacker News Board

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#51

Post by philliphaydon » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 1:54 AM UTC

chadash wrote: post #5

I'm fed up with TripAdvisor, Yelp and similar review sites. Too many of the negative reviews are off topic and they bring down the overall ratings (similar issue for positive reviews as well... people tend to rate things they love or hate, but not things in the middle). For example, Amazon is loaded with one-star reviews from people complaining that they received counterfeit items. This has nothing to do with the pro…

> That's why I find the aggregated professional movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes more helpful than the crowd-sourced reviews on IMDB.

Wow really? I stopped using RT and moved to IMDB, because critic reviews on RT are so bad.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#52

Post by RussianCow » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:03 AM UTC

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…

It's funny that this is your take on those two reviews, because my initial reaction was exactly the opposite: I would weigh the pub review more highly. In general, I have found that people (especially Americans) tend to vastly over-exaggerate service issues at restaurants, and it's always unclear from those kinds of reviews whether this was just a one-time thing or something systemic. Plus, I'm not sure how it's possible to tell that "everyone hates their jobs" from one visit. On the other hand, someone saying that the crab cakes were "mostly batter" is a pretty objective observation about the food (you know, the most important part of going out to eat) that I can use to make my decision.

Either way though, I think we're mostly in agreement about how to find good places to eat.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#53

Post by RussianCow » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:06 AM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #49

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?

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…

It goes both ways: As you get closer to the booking time, if the rooms that the third parties have allocated aren't mostly booked, they generally start to drop prices in order to fill the inventory (I'm assuming because they have paid for the rooms in advance), whereas I have never seen a hotel do this directly. I have gotten some great deals from booking last-minute through sites like Agoda where the price was significantly lower than it would have been going through the hotel directly.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#54

Post by Aloha » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:21 AM UTC

passivepinetree wrote: post #32

r00fus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

(Disclaimer: I work in the travel industry.) What you want to do is search on these sites and then book at the actual business's sites. Even if the fares are different, it's worth it. Ever had to try to get a flight/hotel/car changed or cancelled through Expedia or a similar site? Whatever savings you get from aggregator sites aren't worth it.

This.

I travel extensively for work - and I direct book as much as I can, even avoiding our travel agent.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#55

Post by philliphaydon » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:30 AM UTC

RussianCow wrote: post #53

philliphaydon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It goes both ways: As you get closer to the booking time, if the rooms that the third parties have allocated aren't mostly booked, they generally start to drop prices in order to fill the inventory (I'm assuming because they have paid for the rooms in advance), whereas I have never seen a hotel do this directly. I have gotten some great deals from booking last-minute through sites like Agoda where the price was signi…

True, deals exist everywhere if you're willing to look.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#56

Post by splonk » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:32 AM UTC

Simple rule for using TripAdvisor in any even vaguely touristy place: Ignore the top ~20 or so restaurants/hotels when sorted by rating. You can pretty much guarantee that at a minimum, they're soliciting reviews from a pool of satisfied customers, and a good chunk of them are just flat out buying reviews. This rule doesn't work as well for attractions, since the big ones tend to make their way to the top regardless, but the attraction list is pretty useful on its own if you dig down a ways. I've found lots of interesting small places that I'd have never otherwise found down in the sub-50th percentile rated attractions.

I do generally like the trick mentioned below of only looking at bad reviews, but I'm fairly relaxed about certain things. Bad neighborhood, overpriced food, poor valet service? Meh, don't care. Room smells of smoke? Not staying there. Most of my hotel research is based on filtering out unacceptable things, rather than optimizing the positive aspects.

For hotels, I have vaguely more trust in booking.com reviews, since in theory you have to stay at a hotel to leave a review there. (I do mention every time in these threads that the booking.com review scale is wack, and the median score was actually something like 8.1/10 when I scraped a lot of them, so take those 7.0 "Good" ratings with a grain of salt). In theory in the US Opentable ratings would work the same way for restaurants, but that's restricting the pool of restaurants to those that take reservations, and I don't use those ratings myself, so I'm not totally sure how accurate it is. Still probably beats Yelp, and definitely beats TripAdvisor.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#57

Post by splonk » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:36 AM 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?

> In general hotels are more expensive when booked directly and not through an aggregator

This is because the aggregators have "most favored nation" clauses in their deals with hotels that forbid hotels for undercutting the aggregator's prices, either on their own site, or on other aggregators.

One of the workarounds is that these clauses don't apply to customers with whom the hotels have a preexisting relationship, which is why you can sometimes get better rates by just signing up for a loyalty program, and searching a hotel's own site while logged in using that program. Another is that amenities aren't necessarily covered in that agreement, so it's possible that you can book the same room for the same price on the hotel's own site, but get later checkout, a free breakfast, cheaper parking, or whatever.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#58

Post by rfvisuals » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 2:50 AM UTC

Based on previous posts I feel comfortable sharing a project with the HN community in this thread. It's a web app with for anyone to post travel related tips/thoughts. I'm open to honest feedback. www.worldpeer.com Thanks!

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#59

Post by joezydeco » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 4:06 AM 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…

In a lot of cases, the trip booked through the aggregator blocks you from collecting loyalty points from the chain.

Re: How TripAdvisor Changed Travel

#60

Post by JoshMnem » Fri, Aug 31, 2018, 6:24 AM 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?

> how do you even find them without sites like Tripadvisor?

Stay in hostels. Many of them have private rooms in addition to dorms. Ask the other travelers and hostel staff for recommendations. Book directly and help the hostels save money on the ridiculous commission fees. (It's usually cheaper too.) Don't plan too far in advance. If you travel outside of high season, finding accommodation isn't a problem.