6 WAYS YOU'RE USING TRIPADVISOR WRONG

Have you ever filtered restaurant reviews to read what locals have to say? Do you realize TripAdvisor hides hotels it can't make money from? Are you being suckered by TripAdvisor's domination of Google results? The behemoth of the travel industry can be one of the best - or worst - tools around.

BUY MY BOOK Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious

FOLLOW ME ON

EM PORTUGUÊS:

Volunteers: Angelo Lucas, Suellen Porto

[osvldo]

Adorei que o tema desse canal não seja como 99% dos canais de viagem que esfregam na sua cara "Olha que incrível essa viagem chique que você provavelmente nunca irá fazer". É uma abordagem bastante diferente, parabéns pelo conteúdo Seth!

[joncpersonalemail]

I really wish I was inspired to travel more because your TripAdvisor hacks seem like they’d actually help me get the most out of the site. I’m filing this wisdom away just in case there’s a sudden uptick in my wanderlust.

[timdianafry]

Yes, it took me awhile to catch on to the fact that when Trip Advisor said there were "no rooms available" in all the other possible places to stay in this area for the dates I had chosen, they meant "no rooms left on booking.com, etc.". And I never thought of changing to the local language for restaurant reviews. I miss the old days at TripAdvisor when it was all suggestions and reviews for travelers mostly generated by travelers. For awhile I quit using it and doing reviews. However, I've come back because once one wades through all the "best" lists and down to the actual ratings, one can find fantastic local suggestions and information about almost any location in the world. And by reviewing a place, I might encourage someone else to share in my good experience. It's a way to say thank you!

[georgekrivosic]

As a hotelier I agree 100% a great presentation. Tripadvisor was originally an awesome site driven by traveller reviews, but became monetised when they were sold to Expedia. Several years ago I was "roped" into an annual contract by one of their "Sales executives" who promised it was a "Pay as you Go" monthly ad campaign and if I didn't like it? Cancel at any time. Well, It turned out the guy left the company and I was saddled with a 1 year contract which apparently was only cancellable within the first 28 days. I wasted over £2000 promoting a light blue "Hotel Website" button only for it to disappear behind an OTA sponsored "popup" when you tried to point the mouse at it! NEVER AGAIN!

As hospitality businesses we are in search of “quick fix marketing” and “the best reviews” but that takes, knowledge, time and money. OTA's and large Hotel chains can afford huge marketing campaigns, SEO and agencies writing “convincing” reviews for them and answering guest complaints. The rest of us rely on having a genuine great product, USP's (unique selling points) emphatic well trained staff that identify customer needs and provide genuine customer service. Creating a relaxing environment and taking the time to engage with customers is key – Word of mouth personal recommendations are the cornerstone of marketing. The Current Social Distancing is a disaster!

Back in 1989, my wife and I had 4 years, experience as hoteliers we ran a 10 room B&B with 4 rooms en-suite and far from the Underground, but our clientele were blue collar workers with vans, working in London Monday to Thursday, we would be empty for 3 days! There was no marketing other than an A5 leaflet drop of our prices on car windscreens parked in adjacent streets.
The Cunard International, now the Novotel Hammersmith was the only good hotel in West London, the others, including ours were at best “Well rough”.

One weekend some polite, scruffy looking, American teenagers came to stay at our Dalmacia hotel. They were worried about leaving a their speakers, amplifiers, guitars and a drum kit in a parked van overnight and they wanted to pay on departure as they only had US dollars. Being a small hotel we were sympathetic and trusting, so they signed our visitor’s book, and we took their passports for security (Trusting not stupid). Back then there were no computers, websites or PMS systems, just an A4 sheet of paper with 70 squares, showing 10 rooms and 7 days.

Our USP was 4 Sky channels, Colour TV in all rooms, a hotel phone system and fax machine. After 3 days stay the phone bill was already more than the accommodation cost. We were anxious, but on check out day they brought a black bin liner of £1 notes and 2 buckets of coins, to pay. (WTF?) It was the money from Nirvana's London gig, they were too tired to count it all out. Following that visit they came a few more times in the following years, took loads of pictures and recommended many other bands. Dave Grohl liked our English Tea so much he mentioned it in a recent press interview, google it.

In 2014 we closed our Dalmacia Hotel after 29 year in business. I took down the Dalmacia Hotel sign shown in pictures of Nirvana, sitting on the steps of our hotel.

The building is still there but the Dalmacia hotel name and reputation is not. Tripadvisor are showing it as 678 out of 1155 currently available hotels today and someone even left a review in 2018, 4 years after we closed. How is that possible? Just emphasizes your observations in the video, they are out of touch.
In 1997 we opened Adria Hotel, in a better location, a larger building and much closer to the Underground, many of our previous Dalmacia Hotel guests still visit.
Hospitality is a great business you meet interesting people from around the world, from all walks of life many of whom leave a lasting impression.
Now the whole world is waiting for a combination of incompetent journalists, corrupt politicians and unscrupulous bankers to show us the way forward.
We are in for a long wait, Stay safe.

[PLANETAAZULcanal]

Thank you very much for this youtube channel. This way I gonna get better and better in my listening English.

[gamessongs]

The Acrobatic Cow... how funny! Hahaha! I missed your videos in English. Now I can see them again. Thank you. XOXO

[biancabm]

Oh, what is also very helpful is to look at the photos taken by the guests! They really show you if there are dusty lampshades, mouldy bathrooms and dirty floors, it's great to see how well the hotel is mantained. I also like to keep track of how old the review is, because a review that's older than 2 years might not reflect the actual state of the hotel (for better or for worse), some hotels go through renovations and staff change so all bad reviews from 2015 could be irrelevant by now!

[cfbalthazar]

OMG! Best video ever! Original, useful, made from one traveler to another traveler!
I was using it wrong!
Thanks Seth!

[sarahjosua]

That's interesting! Thanks for the tips, the channel is being very useful and fun :)

[AlineSilva-soce]

Excellent tips. I always search hotels and restaurants in TripAdvisor. In July I intend to Go to Santiago in Chile. So I AM doing a lot of searching about accomodation in the last days.

[yoarirlurodi]

Amei essas dicas, uso muito o TripAdvisor mas sempre fico meio ligeiro com as armadilhas mesmo. Depois do vídeo, fiquei expert!

[julianaduarte]

Que bom, descobri pelo seu vídeo que já estava pesquisando direitinho, Seth! Quem prefere planejar antes de viajar, tem que descobrir que não pode ser preguiçoso se não vai pagar caro por coisas que você descobriria por conta própria. Eu confesso que não gosto muito de surpresas, prefiro planejar, diferente do que você disse no seu outro vídeo. Mas já começo a me divertir nas pesquisas. Bem legal o canal.

[kellysondias]

Esse canal já é tão bom que eu não estou mais me contentando com 1 vídeo por dia!

[robinparisi]

Loved this and, although I knew some of these tips, definitely learned enough to quit avoiding TripAdvisor. This was my first look at your videos (though I used to read you in the Times). I am looking forward to watching more! Oh, and btw, I really appreciate the editing and “get to the point” approach.

[crisRocio]

Excelente. Eu usava alguns filtros, mas usarei mais. Valeu a dica.

[richardreynolds]

Since I haven’t really used Trip Advisor much this was extremely useful...thanks.

[enggabriela]

Hi Seth! I started using trip advisor when it did not sell anything, and I agree with you that they changed a little bit, you should use it wisely. I keep using it, mostly for hotels, not so much for attractions. I like to read the user's experience about the hotel, like rooms' size, if it's a noisy area, if the beds are ok, if the breakfast is good and of course any tip that a traveler has to share about it. (When I went to Japan everybody adviced about specifiyng non-smoker room otherwise the smell of the room would be annoying, so I took extra care about it). Of course, I like to share my own tips also! Oh, and I also look at the user's ranking and ignore the newbies. About the attractions, I like to read some blogs and get some tips about places and experiences that made the difference in their travel, like an unmissable place. And that's why I started watching Amigo Gringo's channel, to learn NY tips from the view of a New Yorker. 😃😉🇧🇷

[Monalberta]

What an awesome video!! Thank you, 7!!

[ga]

Thank you this video helped me tremendously

[borismeira]

Não conhecia esse site, vou viajar para os EUA, nada verdade vou para trabalhar 1 mês lá.