Warning over bogus holiday reviews

[pubestone]

apologies, i dont buy papers much or see the news much so was not aware of this last year.

I really appreciate your detailed response and understand where you are coming from.

It just makes me mad, this forum isnt to bad compared to others i wont continue to name, but it have made me dubious all the same, however, i do take reviews with a pinch of salt. If i believed all i read about Kiroseiz, St Goerge and Ghazala Gardens, i would never have gone, but you know what? I had the time of my life and that what matters most.

What is also nice about HW is the mods are active on the boards, not juut lurking in the background, so this is such a refreshing change. This is why i have stopped using Trip Advisor as it is policed by its members who only wants printed what suits them, then sends you a tirade of abuse when you dont agree with them.

Kind regards and thanks again.

[lilibet]

To suggest that this site is used by those people who only want to promote or publicise their own properties I think is outnumbered by the many genuine users who apart form putting their own personal reviews on the site talk to other holiday makers which is demonstrated by the varied posts which are here. I havent looked in great detail at the sites which are reported to go in for self promotion, but as I have commented on before against a previous post it is good to see that the opinions of the users is published whether this is good or bad.
There will be cases where users have very different experiences of any holiday location or accommodation they go to and it is up to the users of the site to make their own judgement.
I feel it would be grossly unfair to suggest that the moderators are not committed to the factual information which is posted here and again i would point anyone with doubts to look at the number of member, the time they have been members and the posts which are here.
If the publicity has managed to encourage more people to come and to look at this site then that can only be a good thing, people however are free to make their own minds up and it is refreshing to see that we have a site where there is the free and frank discussion forum which allows both side of any arguement to be aired, surely this would not be the case if this site only represented the good by the promoters of such.

[HW iaintwoeyes]

As Expertcruiser said, even negative publicity is good publicity!! Thank you Which and GMTV

Personally I would like someone from Which or GMTV to come and join this discussion.

This forum is used for the purpose of research. It is a usuful tool to find what others think about hotels. However, as others have said, you have to read carefully as different people want different things from a hotel.

Often the review is diluted with lots of other information that has nothing to do with the hotel. We leave this information in the review as it is important for "review creditibilty". Recently one hotel that often scores 9/10 or 10/10 got a 5/10 and a 6/10. This wasn't down to the hotel, this was due to problems with other elements of the holiday.

So......read carefully.

As a previous thread has stated and it has been said in this thread, the mods work hard at keeping the HW House in order! All posts are mapped.....we know where everyone is!!!! (Country, city or town)
All bogus posts and self promotional posts are dealt with quickly and the user will usually get their computer address banned.

At the end of the day, the general public will decide the success of hotel review sites and the future of Which!

[mgzt260]

I tend to agree that the main faking issues are with Tripadviser. I went to a hotel in Italy that openly told me they'd written a few themselves for TA!

I think the likes of Holiday Watchdog and **** give a far more accurate view of overseas holiday hotels used by the UK public.

I've always found both sites to be totally accurate - not so of TA!

If there's lot of reviews it's very unlikely that they're all fake!

Stick with UK based review sites like HW, HU and even HT's I'd say.

[Surfer Chick]

I tend to find that its the opposite. I have read reviews-both good and bad, and have still been on the holiday and found i loved it majority of the time!!

Reviews are all very personal anyway. No two people are the same and everyone has different preferences so one person could love a hotel which another person could think is a complete dive.

With regards to hotels posting their own opionions....whos to stop them!? everyone needs business and these sites and forums are for peoples opinions and advice so why not?

[HW iaintwoeyes]

Surfer Chick.....we'll stop them!!

This site is all about genuine visitors to hotels, not staff or management posting biased reviews.

It is quite easily to spot fake reviews and our team of reviewers review every review prior to it being posted on the site.

As far as forums go....we map all IP addresses and agian...if its evident that's the post is spam then the post gets deleted and the user banned.

[sun, sea and sand]

Just thought I'd stick my two pence worth in. I read the reviews on this site and others before booking but I'm also aware that they should be taken with a pinch of salt. As someone else has said you can read about a hotel that gets 9/10 or 10/10 but the same hotel will also get a 5/10. I'm inclined to think that it's a miserable so and so who is looking for things to complain about rather than a rival hotel going to the trouble of writing a bad review.

Perhaps I'm just naive but as long as you have an idea what to expect from the majority of reviews you can make your own judgement. All the holidays I have booked after reading holiday review sites have been great and the reviews proved to be accurate.

[andy jarvis]

I've seen reviews I just fail to believe, in particular We stayed at the Houda in Skannes Tunisia the end of september begining of october, this was our second time there. We really enjoyed ourselves, suffered no upset stomachs or other illnesses, found the staff friendly and courteous and the hotel spotlessly clean yet people who must have been there the same time as us have given the Houda some really poor reviews complaining about upset stomachs (aparently half the hotel guests were suffering) poor cleanliness (cleaners were on the go 24/7 working very hard to clean up after messy guests), Rude staff (absolutly not) Poolside activities and music being compaired to what you would expect from a Club 18-30 resort (excuse me, all the activities were aimed at the family and the music was not that load), pool never cleaned (funny that, the pool was vacuumed 3 times a day, Oh and even complaints about the sea and beach being dirty because of a little seaweed acctualy the sea and the beach are pretty clean. Obviously different people have different ideas on what they expect but I think a lot of people think just because it's not for them and they didn't enjoy themselves then nnobody else should dare to like the place, I do feel that many issues are greatly exagerated. Knowing what I do about the Houda in particular I take any review with a pinch of salt.

[Surfer Chick]

Iain-Fair enough!

I completely agree with andy.
Hotels with bad reviews are not always bad. As Iain stated, people post their OPINIONS. Anyone who chooses to base their holiday on these opinions, it is entirely their choice but i certainly would not let reviews stop me going somewhere. Not a crowd follower, i prefer to make my own mind up!!

[andy jarvis]

Sorry if I keep using one hotel as an example but here is the Latest report on the Houda, obviously this person did have some issues but I can assure you this is blatently exagerated in many areas.

Quote

My husband and I have just returned from the worst holiday that we have ever had, my husband is still undergoing treatment for diarrhoea and sickness. He has lost 3 stone in the past 8 days, this hotel rates itself as 3 *, whether 1* or 5* basic food hygiene should still count. We monitored the same cold meat tray for 4 days before being changed. Constant recooking of meat from one day to the next, vegetables in place for 3 days constantly with flies included.

As all inclusive, we foolishly believed that food and drink would be available from 10am till 12 midnight, not so, as in previous reviews, you were allocated times when you could queue for your food then go to your allocated table, to eat your now cold food. Constantly being bitten by the mosquitoes and gnats, which lay in wait for you under your table, whilst shooing off the flies around your head, not a pleasant experience.

The advertised golden sandy beaches were not in fact golden but were covered in horse faeces, which covered 30% of the beach, the rest of the beach was covered in a thick string like seaweed and garbage such as empty plastic bottles and cans and old shoes. Not the romantic walks we expected, how parents let their children play in this water is a mystery, the beach was definitely a health hazard and should be investigated.

Disappointment followed disappointment, our rooms were basic as expected, however the tv did not work, the maid did come in every day whether you put the "do not disturb" notice out or not, they then proceeded to make the bed and do designs with the towels and sheets and for reasons known only to her, make designs from your worn underwear, what they did not do was clean!

The First Choice rep was nowhere to be seen, we only met him two days before leaving by chance to tell us the procedure for leaving the hotel.

Most of the advertised facilities were unavailable, the sauna was closed, the fitness room was closed, pedalos were in disrepair and in our opinion unsafe. The snack bar by the pools were closed whilst most of the " Animation " team were professional in how they conducted themselves, Rico and Carlos spring to mind, one of their team did let them down, my husband and I were accosted by one and told to send him (brand name) clothes from England, he did apologise after we complained.

We changed up money three times in the hotel and twice we were given the incorrect amount and had to challenge the person behind the desk, not a good sign.

To sum it up, we went on this holiday for the all inclusive food and drink, the beach, sun and a relaxing holiday, none of our expectations were fulfilled, what is the point of all inclusive if its impossible to consume what is available, we will not be returning.

Unquote

I know this place well and a few things don't ring true here.

First thing that sticks out is the complaint about food and drink not being available, the actuall truth is that the main bar opens at 10am and closses at midnight, the night club bar opens at about 9pm and closses at 2am the snack bar starts serving food at 11am throught till 4pm then re-opens late at night, there are more than adequate facilities to eat outside main meal times without spending money.

Secondly, the beach at the Houda is quite small but it would take an awfull lot of horses to cover 30% of the beach in manure, people do ride horses along the beach, as they do in many euro resorts and even in this country, horses are not house trained so inevitably they will poo where they like, however I can honestly say I have never seen horse poo on the Houda beach.

Thirdly, Seeweed on the beach, get a life please, seeweed is a natural substance and late summer/autumn it does start to break down, doesn't mean the sea is polluted, I was there early october and the seeweed was breaking up yet I had fish swimming round me some of them were 2-3lbs, as for rubbish on the beach, this is down to the the guests that think just because they are on holliday someone else can clean up the mess, the beach staff seem to spend a lot of their time cleaning up after thoughtless guests.

Forthly, the First Choice rep is there every day exept Fridays (Day off) and Sunday (Airport Duties) the times he is there are well documented, in the First Choice information folder, on the notice board and in the info given at the welcome meeting.

Sorry to hijack the thread but IMHO this is a prime example of what I would call a bogus review, as I have said I know the place well and have been twice at roughly the same time as the person who posted this review, it is obvious that something happened to this person whilst there that caused her to exagerate some issues and post a very negative review aimed at putting people off. In this case I would ask the moderators to look at the review and perhaps remove it.