Do You do On-line Reviews?

[Bonny]

And if you do, what motivates you to leave a review? How often and what services do you review?

As background, the property manager for our cabin which is in vacation rental service sold his business to a new company effective December 15th. We were actively looking for a replacement PM because through out 2015 there were always serious problems when we would visit. We thought we would give the new folks a chance but we're not happy with the new owners. They are a big company that manages cabins in about 50 locations and they seem far more focused on expanding their business rather than working on the existing relationship. 

So far we've received two five star reviews on the company's website for which we are grateful, especially since the first one came from a couple who stayed for Christmas through New Year's. We got contacted by the company New Year's Day morning to advise us that the propane ran out on NY day and there was no heat. It was below freezing and it took 7 hours for the propane company to fill after I called.  (This happened despite the cabin being on a "keep full" program).

Another renter checked in and the cabin wasn't cleaned. She tried contacting the company but no one answered the customer service line.  She got a hold of me because we had left several messages on the cabin landline dealing with the propane issue. I was able to contact the local area manager and he got a cleaning crew out about an hour later. We refunded the cleaning fee and I offered her a discount on her next stay. I also complimented her on how well she handled the situation. Frankly I wouldn't have been as nice and professional as she was.

She did not leave a review.

So what motivates you to leave a review?

[Deleted]

I guess I'm a frustrated travel writer. I have over 200 reviews on tripadvisor.com. (I use the name Athena53 there, too, if you want to check them out.) I also enjoy contributing because tripadvisor is a great source for our own travel planning. If you throw out the vague ones, especially by those who have written only 1 or 2 reviews, and read the details you can get a very good overview of a place. I can honestly say I've never made a bad choice this way.

I review every place we stay, even an overnight at a Hampton Inn on the highway, so it's not just places I love or hate. Most reviews have pictures. I say exactly what I like or don't like and why- the fitness center, the pool, the room, the channel selection on TV, etc. Your priorities may be different from mine. When I read reviews, that's what I look for as well.

[ArchietheDragon]

something really awesome or something really terrible. 

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

When a product does not work as advertised.  Last one I left was for a shower chair I bought from Amazon after my surgery.  It specified it had a 250 lb weight limit.  I was nearly 100 lbs under that.

After a year of sitting on it in the shower, the legs splayed such that it was no longer safe for me to sit on.  I tossed it as I was reaching the point where I could stand up in the shower, so no longer needed it so didn't want it replaced.  I probably should have contacted Amazon about getting my $60 back though, but at that time I was not wanting reminders of that mess.

[Bonny]

Feb 8, 2016 13:48:06 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

I guess I'm a frustrated travel writer. I have over 200 reviews on tripadvisor.com. (I use the name Athena53 there, too, if you want to check them out.) I also enjoy contributing because tripadvisor is a great source for our own travel planning. If you throw out the vague ones, especially by those who have written only 1 or 2 reviews, and read the details you can get a very good overview of a place. I can honestly say I've never made a bad choice this way.

I review every place we stay, even an overnight at a Hampton Inn on the highway, so it's not just places I love or hate. Most reviews have pictures. I say exactly what I like or don't like and why- the fitness center, the pool, the room, the channel selection on TV, etc. Your priorities may be different from mine. When I read reviews, that's what I look for as well.

I do check reviews before I stay and have the same "throw out the 1 or 2 review posters". They are usually negative over something stupid.

I only have 13 reviews on Trip Advisor. I generally only review if the place doesn't have a lot of reviews or if my experience was substantially different from the other reviews. I don't see the point of piling on if a place has a lot of reviews.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Feb 8, 2016 13:48:06 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

I guess I'm a frustrated travel writer. I have over 200 reviews on tripadvisor.com. (I use the name Athena53 there, too, if you want to check them out.) I also enjoy contributing because tripadvisor is a great source for our own travel planning. If you throw out the vague ones, especially by those who have written only 1 or 2 reviews, and read the details you can get a very good overview of a place. I can honestly say I've never made a bad choice this way.

I review every place we stay, even an overnight at a Hampton Inn on the highway, so it's not just places I love or hate. Most reviews have pictures. I say exactly what I like or don't like and why- the fitness center, the pool, the room, the channel selection on TV, etc. Your priorities may be different from mine. When I read reviews, that's what I look for as well.

I used this thoroughly for planning our trip to France.  I'll likely use it for South Africa too, and have already decided which resort we are going to stay at in the Maldives.

I should go back and place some reviews for the places we stayed in France.

[gregintenn]

I usually leave a review for private owners of condos and cabins. I also leave feedback and sometimes reviews for items purchased from places like ebay and amazon.

As far as property rental reviews, I like to leave them because I find the ones other folks leave helpful. If the owner and'or management company doesn't give me any problems, and the place is as described, you'll get a glowing review from me every time.

If I'd have not had heat, or the place wasn't cleaned, I'd either elect to not leave a review if you were good to work with, or else leave an honest, scathing review. I would never lie and say it was great when it wasn't, even if it were free.

I don't usually bother posting a review of a Holiday inn or whatever, unless there's something of special note one way or the other.

[Bonny]

Feb 8, 2016 13:58:53 GMT -5 gregintenn said:

I usually leave a review for private owners of condos and cabins. I also leave feedback and sometimes reviews for items purchased from places like ebay and amazon.

As far as property rental reviews, I like to leave them because I find the ones other folks leave helpful. If the owner and'or management company doesn't give me any problems, and the place is as described, you'll get a glowing review from me every time.

If I'd have not had heat, or the place wasn't cleaned, I'd either elect to not leave a review if you were good to work with, or else leave an honest, scathing review. I would never lie and say it was great when it wasn't, even if it were free.

I don't usually bother posting a review of a Holiday inn or whatever, unless there's something of special note one way or the other.

The people who were left without heat for one day had stayed for two weeks. This was their third or fourth visit. The rating system gives an option into some more detail such as cleanliness, location, et cetera. There is also an option to leave comments. They went for the more detailed option but elected not to leave any written comments. We didn't get a perfect score; oddly enough we only got four stars for cleanliness. I tried to follow up with them on that but the wife didn't respond to my e-mail.

[alabamagal]

I write them for restaurants and hotels, especially if it was a really nice stay or really bad. I also read them for major purchases, but sometimes I think there are a lot of stupid reviewers out there.

Like for Tvs when it's gets great reviews by most and then a few that say the pic was terrible. I wonder if they did not use the correct connection.

When I bought my refrigerator a couple months ago I got a good deal on one, but it had a lot of negative comments about the LED light taking too long to turn on. I bought it anyway. So if you open the door at a normal speed at first it looks dark inside, but by the time the door is open it is pretty bright. It does take some getting used to, and I just wonder about the people who must be jerking the door open and then have to waste a second out of their lives waiting for the light.

[happyhoix]

I don't do them often but I feel bad that I don't. I like to read other people's comments when booking a trip, so I should be helping to document these places, too.

I think the last one I posted was on Trip Advisor because someone dissed on my favorite Italian restaurant. The place has real Italian food, cooked by an Italian chef and his wife, not the Ragu American style (Olive Garden) Italian food, and someone from out of town stopped in there and left a really nasty review about the restaurant having 'weird' food and how her 10 year old daughter wouldn't touch her plate because it was so awful.

She also complained about the horrible ambiance - it's in an old tannery and has the original floors and beams, but has very upscale tables/chairs/light fixtures. I guess for someone expecting a nice, new, bright fast food restaurant it looks 'old and shabby' but I think it's very chic (but I love the idea of rehabbing old buildings for new uses rather than tearing them down).

It motivated me to post about their fabulous calamari and how I always want to lick the plate when I have one of their dishes with their béchamel sauce.  

Great now I'm hungry.

[Deleted]

Ah, that's another type of review I discount. People who expect Hilton service at a B&B, or a deluxe room at a Fairfield Inn.. Not happening. Some people have the wrong expectations going in so of course they're unhappy.

It's really sad that chain restaurants can warp consumers' concept of "real" Italian or other ethnic food.

[Bonny]

Last week I read one of the funniest negative reviews.

I was shopping for some chair covers and came across a matching stool cushion. Some guy posted a one star review for the stool cushion. He said he was very disappointed that he didn't get both the stool and cushion. He ended the review with a "I guess I should read the description more carefully".

Our cabin got a one-star review several years ago. The PM forgot to turn the heat on. The heater is on a basic thermostat so it's a simple flip of the switch to turn it on. The person went on and on about how they had stayed at the PM's inn before several times and never had a problem. She said it was so awful that she would never rent a cabin again. Um yeah, it was the cabin's fault.

I sometimes wonder how people like that function in the real world.

[milee]

Feb 8, 2016 18:12:41 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Last week I read one of the funniest negative reviews.

I was shopping for some chair covers and came across a matching stool cushion. Some guy posted a one star review for the stool cushion. He said he was very disappointed that he didn't get both the stool and cushion. He ended the review with a "I guess I should read the description more carefully".

My favorites are the reviews of recipes that go something like this:

2 stars - terrible recipe!  This spaghetti sauce tasted just awful.  My dinner guests wouldn't eat it.  This chef should be ashamed since this was the worst recipe ever. Oh, I was out of tomatoes, olive oil and basil, so substituted rutabaga, coconut oil and a pinch of a green weed that I have growing beside my front sidewalk.  My husband is allergic to red pepper and tomato paste - well, he really just won't eat most red foods - but he'll eat ketchup so I used that instead of the red pepper and tomato paste.  DD#1 prefers fried food, so I tried to deep fat fry the sauce but it just kept coming apart.  Bon Appetit should be embarrassed to publish this crap!

[Deleted]

I was looking at the reviews for a blanket on sale at L.L. Bean's. I looked at some of the positives and then clicked on some of the negatives.

I was really surprised at the number of people who gave it one-star but a glowing review.

Do they really not understand the system?  Or do you think they were pressured into changing the review but not the stars? 

Once I reviewed a coffee maker that didn't work well on Amazon.  The coffee didn't get hot enough to please DH.  I guess technically it "worked" but not well.  I didn't want the hassle of packing it up and returning it at my own expense per their return policy.  They also charged a restocking fee.  They offered return postage and no restocking fee to remove the review.  I did.

[Abby Normal]

I do for vacation rentals especially if the pm is really good or really bad.

I did one just recently because the cabin was great, but the pm didn't disclose the stairs and distance between the house and parking. Got there and it didn't work at all for our elderly guests. They haven't posted my review .

[TheOtherMe]

I always write a review when I travel.  I would say 90% of them have been positive, but I had a bad experience at a hotel over Thanksgiving and wrote about it.  Also, had two bad restaurant experiences in two different cities at non-chain restaurants.  The negative experience were not about the food.  They were about the service in both cases.

[happyhoix]

Feb 8, 2016 19:36:26 GMT -5 milee said:

Feb 8, 2016 18:12:41 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Last week I read one of the funniest negative reviews.

I was shopping for some chair covers and came across a matching stool cushion. Some guy posted a one star review for the stool cushion. He said he was very disappointed that he didn't get both the stool and cushion. He ended the review with a "I guess I should read the description more carefully".

My favorites are the reviews of recipes that go something like this:

2 stars - terrible recipe!  This spaghetti sauce tasted just awful.  My dinner guests wouldn't eat it.  This chef should be ashamed since this was the worst recipe ever. Oh, I was out of tomatoes, olive oil and basil, so substituted rutabaga, coconut oil and a pinch of a green weed that I have growing beside my front sidewalk.  My husband is allergic to red pepper and tomato paste - well, he really just won't eat most red foods - but he'll eat ketchup so I used that instead of the red pepper and tomato paste.  DD#1 prefers fried food, so I tried to deep fat fry the sauce but it just kept coming apart.  Bon Appetit should be embarrassed to publish this crap!

LOL this reminds me of my mom. She asked me to give her my recipe for white chili. I did, and the next time I went to visit her, she made it, and it was horrible. She told me I must have not given her the right recipe, or I left parts of it out, because she copied it exactly.

She told me she boiled the chicken breasts in water and then used the water instead of chicken broth (because that's the same thing). Then she didn't have cumin and didn't want to buy any just for this recipe but it couldn't have been very important because she never needed it before.  She couldn't find mild Italian sausage but she had some left over ground chuck she used instead, but that couldn't have mattered. And she doesn't like her food too spicy so she left out the cayenne pepper. So essentially she had boiled chicken cut up and put in a pot of water along with some browned hamburger meat, a teaspoon of oregano and some kidney beans and then blamed me when it came out crappy.   

[Anne_in_VA]

I write reviews for all kinds of things including Uber.  In fact, I just wrote a review on a doctor and his service and staff.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

It is really pretty easy to sift through reviews of those that aren't quite there.  Many times, it seems like nothing the service does would be right, despite all attempts to fix it.

For instance, when we were in Paris, we needed some work done on the bathroom and needed to be out of the room.  Most visitors in Paris would have been out of the room and this shouldn't have been an issue but the only problem was that TD was down for the count and so sick, he had pretty much passed out on the bed at 2 in the afternoon.  When I told the hotel manager this, she made arrangements for us to sack out in another room until the work on the bathroom was done (it was about 2 hours).  Not only that, she came up and made sure he had all the blankets he needed in order to be comfortable.

Stuff happens.  How the hotel deals with it is one aspect.  But there are some that will be disgruntled, regardless of what the hotel does to try to help you out.

[steph08]

Feb 8, 2016 18:12:41 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Last week I read one of the funniest negative reviews.

I was shopping for some chair covers and came across a matching stool cushion. Some guy posted a one star review for the stool cushion. He said he was very disappointed that he didn't get both the stool and cushion. He ended the review with a "I guess I should read the description more carefully".

I'm looking at carpet cleaners right now. One of the one star reviews is "THIS IS NOT A VACUUM!!" Well, uh, duh?

[Deleted]

Feb 10, 2016 14:43:56 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Stuff happens.  How the hotel deals with it is one aspect.  But there are some that will be disgruntled, regardless of what the hotel does to try to help you out.

I agree- typically DH and I don't bother raising issues with hotel management unless it's major (e.g. noisy neighbors that keep us from sleeping, something missing from the room that we really want/need).  If my complaint in a review is something I never gave management a chance to resolve, I note that.

[violagirl]

I use Tripadvisor reviews a lot when planning trips. I also take reviews with a grain of salt. Generally 1 star reviews are not worth reading since people who do 1 star reviews tend to be dramatic types. Or it was just a one off situation that probably will not occur again.

Especially for food it really is subjective. I'm probably not going to give Olive Garden 5 stars. But then again, if I am reviewing Olive Garden I would not have the same expectations as a Michelin star restaurant either. Don't pay for a budget hotel room and expect the Ritz. 

I am planning a trip south this winter and one review I read gave the place 2 stars because "it was too quiet and there were a lot of old people". In my opinion that is exactly what I am looking for!! I'm an octogenarian at heart. I hope other partiers will read that review and stay away from the place. 

[busymom]

I rarely do reviews. When I do, it's because the experience was exceptionally good, or very poor.

[CCL]

Feb 8, 2016 16:32:41 GMT -5 Bonny said:

Feb 8, 2016 13:58:53 GMT -5 gregintenn said:

I usually leave a review for private owners of condos and cabins. I also leave feedback and sometimes reviews for items purchased from places like ebay and amazon.

As far as property rental reviews, I like to leave them because I find the ones other folks leave helpful. If the owner and'or management company doesn't give me any problems, and the place is as described, you'll get a glowing review from me every time.

If I'd have not had heat, or the place wasn't cleaned, I'd either elect to not leave a review if you were good to work with, or else leave an honest, scathing review. I would never lie and say it was great when it wasn't, even if it were free.

I don't usually bother posting a review of a Holiday inn or whatever, unless there's something of special note one way or the other.

The people who were left without heat for one day had stayed for two weeks. This was their third or fourth visit. The rating system gives an option into some more detail such as cleanliness, location, et cetera. There is also an option to leave comments. They went for the more detailed option but elected not to leave any written comments. We didn't get a perfect score; oddly enough we only got four stars for cleanliness. I tried to follow up with them on that but the wife didn't qrespond to my e-mail.

But is there an option for "No heat for one day. Someone forgot to fill the propane tank"? Maybe they didn't want to leave a perfect score, but were too lazy to write out a specific comment, so just took a star off for cleanliness instead? Who knows? It could have been anything. People are goofy.

[CCL]

Feb 9, 2016 12:51:02 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

Feb 8, 2016 19:36:26 GMT -5 milee said:

My favorites are the reviews of recipes that go something like this:

2 stars - terrible recipe!  This spaghetti sauce tasted just awful.  My dinner guests wouldn't eat it.  This chef should be ashamed since this was the worst recipe ever. Oh, I was out of tomatoes, olive oil and basil, so substituted rutabaga, coconut oil and a pinch of a green weed that I have growing beside my front sidewalk.  My husband is allergic to red pepper and tomato paste - well, he really just won't eat most red foods - but he'll eat ketchup so I used that instead of the red pepper and tomato paste.  DD#1 prefers fried food, so I tried to deep fat fry the sauce but it just kept coming apart.  Bon Appetit should be embarrassed to publish this crap!

LOL this reminds me of my mom. She asked me to give her my recipe for white chili. I did, and the next time I went to visit her, she made it, and it was horrible. She told me I must have not given her the right recipe, or I left parts of it out, because she copied it exactly.

She told me she boiled the chicken breasts in water and then used the water instead of chicken broth (because that's the same thing). Then she didn't have cumin and didn't want to buy any just for this recipe but it couldn't have been very important because she never needed it before.  She couldn't find mild Italian sausage but she had some left over ground chuck she used instead, but that couldn't have mattered. And she doesn't like her food too spicy so she left out the cayenne pepper. So essentially she had boiled chicken cut up and put in a pot of water along with some browned hamburger meat, a teaspoon of oregano and some kidney beans and then blamed me when it came out crappy.   

LOL!