Can guest reviews be trusted in planning a vacation?
Recently my family and I went on vacation to St Thomas and St John’s in the US Virgin Islands. My job was to book the accommodations and flights and my wife would do all the research about places to go and things to do. I have a 6 year old daughter and 10 year old son which never want to sit still, so booking the right place to stay is very important.
I read reviews on the major travel websites and chose a great 5 star property on St John’s that people raved about. I booked through American Express travel since I was using some travel points and the wonderful agent with American Express called the resort to confirm the bedding arrangements for the rooms. I love my kids but I don’t want to share a hotel bed with them for a week. Sure enough they were not able to accommodate me and I had to change resorts. Did I forget to mention I waited to the last minute to book my accommodations? After changing resorts my wife checked Trip advisor reviews on the new resort and they were not very favorable. At this point I was very happy that there was not a website for writing reviews about husbands.
It turns out the resort on St Thomas was wonderful. Everything the negative reviews said about the resort we found the complete opposite when we arrived. The reviews complained about the resort staff. My family loved them, they were great fun and helpful with everything. Another review complained the resort was run down. The resort must have done an episode of extreme makeover before we arrived. Was it brand new? Of course not! Most of the resorts on St Thomas have been around a few years but it was well maintained and very clean. One negative review complained about the beach being too small and little water activities. My family snorkeled, rented waver runners and paddle boats. We even chartered a sail boat with a crew to take us to the British Virgin Islands and back for a day. The beach had plenty of sun lounge chairs available and room for my kids to build sand sculptures. The resort even had a sand sculpture contest for kids on the beach. My family would go back in a minute.
This makes me wonder just who wrote the negative reviews about this resort? Was it real guest at all or former disgruntled employees? Could the negative reviews be competing hotels and condo resorts trying to cause people to book elsewhere? The sad thing is I can’t find out. Most review sites don’t even require proof that someone was even a customer of a hotel to write a review. Before this happened I would have believed the reviews and would not have booked with this resort, which would have been a shame because this vacation was one of our best ever! User reviews of places to stay should be a great source of information for consumers not completely familiar with a property before they book it, but only if they are honest and fair.
I know that with my Orlando vacation home rental company Florida Spirit Vacation Homes we post consumer reviews on our website. We request from our guest to write a review of the property they stayed in. Currently someone cannot just go to the site and add a review, which perhaps is limiting site users from sharing more of their experiences with us. Should websites that post reviews of business of any kind be required to authenticate that the person writing the review is truly a customer and not a competitor. Not of just the businesses best interest but also the consumers, because without it can we really trust what people are writting?
