Saturday, March 16, 2013

I am the 1% - of Tripadvisor Reviewers

It was pretty exciting to get an email from TripAdvisor letting me know that I am among the top 1% most-read reviewers of all time. Considering how many people are posting reviews (there are over 100 million reviews on the site!), it is rewarding to know that folks are taking time to read the reviews that I put up there. I joined TripAdvisor in 2005 because we were getting ready to take a family vacation to Jamaica and I wanted to find a resort that would meet the needs of everyone. What attracted me to the site is the fact that the reviews are posted by ordinary people who are usually quite honest about their experiences. Because the site has been so helpful to me, I have always returned the favor by posting photos and a description of what my experience was like. I know they have taken some flack lately about possible bogus reviews, but personally I think the percentage of people who does that is pretty small. I always discount the exceedingly glowing reviews (unless a good number of people are glowing), and I also discount the one star reviews. In the case of negative reviews, I look really closely at what they are complaining about. If their only complaint is that the towels were not soft enough or some other minor infraction, I can discount their review. I feel that overall you can get a pretty good sense of if the hotel, resort, restaurant or attraction is one that you personally will enjoy. TripAdvisor - don't leave home without it!

So cheers to being in the top 1% - I just hope the government doesn't decide to tax me on it, because obviously I am having way too much fun!