How much value do you put on review sites for vacation planning?

I like the sites where actual people, not travel writers and other “experts”, who have recently visited place write reviews.

I take most reviews with a grain of salt. Some people are pickier than others and some people have an attitude towards people in the service industry and get an attitude in return.

@lillycoyote Yeah, me too. The sites I looked at were “actual people” reviews.

Hm. Well, I’m an obsessive review reader. I read them a lot before buying toys for the kids..because I can’t stand getting a shitty product.
When it comes to hotels, I find it’s usually what you make of it, and what sort of vacation is it going to be? If I’m going to be at the hotel a lot, then I want a damn nice hotel, but if I’m just using it to sleep..then I mainly look for location.
I do read reviews because if I see multiple ones with bad reviews regarding cleanliness, then I most likely will not book the place. If it was bad ohh, lets say room service? I don’t give a crap about that because I never use it (usually too expensive)

I like Trip advisor and contribute to it regularly – both positive and negative.
I pretty much ignore reviews that are more than a year old. That’s like 7 in “Hotel years”.
Everything can change in a year.

@casheroo The Paris portion of our trip is supposed to be fancy. :) We’re not going to spend much time in the hotel (cause we’ll be in Paris!) but it’s our splurge city.
I’m all about making the best of things, but with the amount being spent, and the fact that this is probably a once in a lifetime event, I want to be somewhere luxurious and worth the money.
The hotel we booked looked amazing, but I saw terrible reviews (recent, @worriedguy) with pictures attached of stained drapes, ugly, crumbing bathrooms, ugh. I’m big on bathrooms.
We’ve rebooked somewhere else. :)

I have never been mislead by Trip Advisor. I am also very jealous of what sounds like a*fabulous* trip!

@SuperMouse Thanks! Is “thanks” an appropriate response to jealousy?

Many are content swapped. It is best to stick with the big names such as Trip Adviser.

Call me a cynic, but after following the website Flippa where those who build content-added web sites sell them and seeing dozens of sales like this one I do not trust any small sites at all to have genuine content.