Can someone just tell me if the beach is nice?!

Friendly Marriott Staff

Like millions of people, TripAdvisor.com is the first place I go when looking for a hotel -even though sometimes I get so annoyed I vow never to do it again. It's hard to weed through the long, bitter rants followed up by someone who writes as though she's just been to Nirvana. Eventually, I do stumble on a good reviewer: one who gives the pros and cons in a fairly level-headed manner and recognizes the things the hotel actually has control over (umm..the fact that it rained the first 3 days of your vacation has nothing to do with the hotel so you can just leave that part out, ok?)  But, just how accurate are these people anyway?

Turns out that studies show TripAdvisor and other hotel review sites (whose content is user-generated) are mostly right on the mark.  You just have to remember to "be like an Olympic judge" and toss out the lowest and the highest scores and go with the meat in the middle. 

When all else fails, if it's in the top 10 it can't be that bad, right?


To read more about the study click below:
Need a good hotel room? Follow the herd.