[saryant]

I like this.

The biggest problem with TripAdvisor hotel reviews (besides fake reviews) is that varied background of the individual reviewer.

Witness how a Holiday Inn can wind up rated higher than a Park Hyatt, simply because of the background of the majority of TA reviewers.

I've largely given up on TA for reviews. For chain hotels, I find FlyerTalk's convention of a dedicated thread per hotel or locality far more valuable, especially because those reviews are specifically from the perspective of frequent travelers rather than once-a-year flyers heading to Disneyland.

For example, 2100+ posts on every possible minute detail of the Conrad Hong Kong: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilton-hilton-hhonors/124932-...

[aknicol]

Yeah, I agree; in my experience, high-end hotels often get unfairly rated on TA, in large part because they often get a lot of negative reviews from people who thought that they were too expensive or offered poor value for money. They often end up ranking far too low.

FlyerTalk is a great resource, although you do have to spend a lot of time reading a lot of reviews. The advantage of an aggregator like TripExpert, with snippets from various sources all on one page, is that you can get a much better sense much more quickly of what a place is like.