Comments on: Another reason why not to trust hotel and cruise reviews

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:18:39 +0000

@ Brad

While I understand your frustrations, I had to remove the potentially libellous part of your comment – sorry!

By: Brad

Brad — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:19:55 +0000

I recently posted a review of Carnival Victory on cruise critic but the line breaks were all stripped out so I asked if I could redo it. They responded stating that my review was not “comprehensive” enough and that it was rejected. It was a fairly long review, what were they talking about?

It was an honest review listing both the good and the bad with an overall negative rating of two stars. Should people not be made aware that this ship was basically a floating “Trailer Park”. If I was a first time cruiser, I would want to know.

Report this comment

By: Stuart Falk

Stuart Falk — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:03:22 +0000

Both Conde Nast Traveler and Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine contain prominent and unambiguous statements to the effect that their editors, writers or other employess never accept free travel as to do so would compromise the integrity of their reviews and reporting. Do Cruise Critic employees accept free or substantially reduced rate cruises? If so, do you think that the very desire to maintain that perk would influence them to write favorable reviews?

Report this comment

By: Darren Cronian

Darren Cronian — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:23:35 +0000

@ David

“You rarely find a proper review that discusses the pros and cons in a proper structured way that makes sense.”

I agree – but to be fair most consumers (including myself) will either write all of the good things about the hotel (or cruise) or all bad things about it. They will never be a 100% perfect review system, thats why they’re really there to help you form to some form of opinion.

P.s I am in Leeds too.

Report this comment

By: David Brice

David Brice — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:24:38 +0000

There is nothing wrong with asking your customers to write a review, but giving them a reward for writing a positive review without disclosing that fact will damage the credibility of user generated reviews. Personally, I have never been a fan of them anyway as they have always been open to abuse by competitors. You rarely find a proper review that discusses the pros and cons in a proper structured way that makes sense.

Travel is all about finding things out for yourself. It’s about discovery and exploring new places. If we have to read reviews before we make a decision on where to go then travel won’t be as exiting in the future in my opinion.

David
Global Holidays (Leeds)

Report this comment