NYTimes article: online airline reviews (seats, service etc)

Quite interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/busin ... views.html

Thanks for the article, made me laugh. An American on a flight during Super Bowl. Why!

Interesting read

Yes it is an interesting article.

The problem with a 'review' is it based hopefully on facts but it is personal interpretation of those facts. I'll often read something on this forum or perhaps on the BAflyer and think to myself "really, that's not how I see it".

One sentence I would pick out right at the end of the article relates to how trustworthy reviews are ?|

Recently we rented a villa in Orlando. On the vrbo site, the villa description, photographs and importantly the previous reviews were brilliant. However we honestly found the exact opposite. The place was a tired run down villa, so many things were just substandard.

I posted a comprehensive & constructive review of our findings, only to have the villa's owner reply with some terrible rude and accusing comments. Amazingly several 5* reviews, each of which refuted each and every comment I had made, followed immediately I wonder how genuine those supposed reviews really were ii). I think the owner posted them himself in order to undermine all of my comments.

So all these various review sites via the internet pose the question - how genuine & accurate are the comments really

So all these various review sites via the internet pose the question - how genuine & accurate are the comments really

That's a good question.

It's fairly well known, I think, that certain big brands pay for "likes" on Facebook.

So you do have to wonder whether there's a hidden army of impoverished students or something being paid to write false glowing reviews of certain hotels etc.

I seem to recall someone once saying you should ignore all 1 and 5 star reviews on Tripadvisor because they're likely to have been written by serial moaners with no sense of reality or stooges. The 2, 3 and 4 star reviews are much more likely to be an honest account of genuine, ordinary customers' experiences.

I seem to recall someone once saying you should ignore all 1 and 5 star reviews on Tripadvisor because they're likely to have been written by serial moaners with no sense of reality or stooges........

Oh dear, no

I gave Discovery Cove a 5star rating review on TA - it was really good, honestly

I think what people need to remember is that reviews from the public are their personal feelings on a product. It's different if a company is to review a product (like Which?), that you would expect to be emotion free and balanced.

I have heard the 'ignore the top and bottom 5% of reviews' rule, but I often find that if you read a review, it doesn't always match the rating they have given IMO.

Here are two takes on this issue by XKCD!

http://xkcd.com/1098/

http://xkcd.com/958/

Best,

NYLON

Whilst I realise there probably are some reviews that are written by owners/relatives or friends of owners, I post a review on every hotel I stay in on TripAdvisor, be it good or bad, so I know mine are all true and my feelings on the places - I also have the ability to send me a message/question ticked and have answered plenty of things for people wanting to know more. Best bet I always think is to checkout the latest 6 reviews only and make a judgement on that.

Whilst I realise there probably are some reviews that are written by owners/relatives or friends of owners, I post a review on every hotel I stay in on TripAdvisor, be it good or bad, so I know mine are all true and my feelings on the places - I also have the ability to send me a message/question ticked and have answered plenty of things for people wanting to know more. Best bet I always think is to checkout the latest 6 reviews only and make a judgement on that.

I too try to do this, and whilst knowing that my review reflect my experience, and no one else's, I hope that on balance you get a fair picture. That said, there are well known TA scams where owners post reviews of their own hotels. However, if you read between the awful and the amazing, as Hamster says, I think you get something more real.When reading TA for example, if the reviews are good I search for the really poor ones to see things from a different perspective, it may be that a reviewer was in a room with noise, or something happened and the instant response was poor - so it provides tips on things to avoid even in good properties.