Tripadvisor.

It was not too long ago, people had to rely on the pictures in travelbrochures to form an idear about the destinations they were going to choose.
Nowadays, with everybody on the WorldWideWeb, it is much easier to get information about where to stay, where to go, what to visit and/or what to avoid.
Everybody can share and read opinions on the numerous websites covering reviews on cities, restaurants, hotels etc.

Basicaly, I think that is a good thing, provided that the writer has actually been in the place reviewed, and the website providing the space to review ,not only hosts the site to earn income out of advertisements.

Having to deal with hotelreviews almost on a daily basis,I pretty much formed my opinion about these sites.

First there are the reviews published on the hotels website itself.Unreliable!
Sure, the reviewer has been there and undoubtly has had a "great time with a very good breakfast, comfortable beds and friendly staff". But let's not forget that in the backoffice of this site, there is the hotelier aproving or deleting the reviews to be published.So you only read the positive comments.

On the other hand, there are the reviews on the various bookingsites, sites where you can book your hotel online. After securing your booking, they send a request if you wish to be contacted after your stay, to review the place you booked. And they publish it, good or bad!
It is never nice to read a bad review, but I think every hotelier should read them carefully and act on them if neccesary. We made numerous changes, big and small, in our hotel. after reading a review and basicaly agreeing with the subject reviewed.
We are only human and cannot know what all those thousands of guests who visit yearly prefer.We learn too and are happy to provide.
Sometimes the review is based on false interpertation or experience and we contact the guest to set the record straight.
But all in all, if you listen to the guest and act upon their comments, you see your review ratings rise.
If only the guest was so brave to spill their comments during their stay, so we can act immediately to make their stay more comfortable to their wishes....

Then there are the commercial review sites. I mention Tripadvisor.com, since they are the biggest, but there are many out there and I include them too.
They provide a platform for everybody to review everything and anything, categorised per country/city/hotel/etc, in the meantime hoping you click on the advertisements so they can make some money.
It's a chatforum where totaly irrelevant questions are asked as:
"where do I buy a busticket in Amsterdam". (I would say....On the bus??!)
And everybody can join every chat and subject, no matter what harm it can do.

Let me give you an example:
About 1 1/2 year ago I came to work at 07.00 AM finding a guest in front of the hotel who was completely out of it. He'd really lost it, obviously having spent most of the night in coffeeshops ( and I don't mean Starbucks).
I escorted him to his room, hoping he would sleep it off and not disturb the neighbours or other guests.
Within half an hour, before the reception/breakfast actually opens, he was banging on the reception door, half clothed, screaming there were rats in his room (...) and he wanted to check out immediately. You cannot handle someone in such a state, so I let him go, ofcourse calling the local authorities there was someone in the neighbourhood needing assistance.
Two weeks later there was a big discussion on Tripadvisor about this case. He posted a review that was absolutely killing for the hotel, still seeing all those rats in his room.Although Tripadvisor disencourages hoteliers to react, I had to, mentioning Amsterdam is a city of many cultural events and not only....
My reaction stayed the top subject for several weeks, and everyone had an opinion about it.
Even people who thought Holland is a provence of Belgium, Amsterdam is the capital of Sweden, people who never visited Europe, let alone Holland, let alone Amsterdam, let alone our hotel.
They all "knew" we were the worst hotel in the world.

So review sites may be helpfull for you to decide where to go and what to book, but,
READ BETWEEN THE LINES!

Harry