If you are going to be in Dubai in transit or on a layover for a few hours, it’s better to stay in the airport than to venture out to see the city for a number of reasons. In 2012 they were banned from claiming their reviews are trustworthy after a four-month investigation by the British Advertising Standards Authority, which argued that wording on Tripadvisor’s website — claiming that the site contained reviews you can trust” and honest” opinions from real travellers” — was misleading as Tripadvisor could not prove that the reviews posted without any form of verification were genuine.
The Essex-based 20-year-old posted a review of the restaurant — where the losing team gather before the boardroom showdown with Lord Sugar — on Trip Advisor, and praised the (rather grim-looking) establishment as a great cafe for a break from the boardroom”.
But the more I learned as a hotel reviewer visiting hundreds of Paris hotels every year for Expedia and Fodor’s Guides, the more I found TripAdvisor reviews to be dominated by travelers lacking the perspective or experience that would make their reviews useful.
Instead of proposing that the average person, which happens to be the person I’m looking for when I’m looking at reviews, not even be counted when it comes to positive or negative experiences while traveling, how about instead recommend that the average person using TripAdvisor be a little more thorough with their review searches and take everything with a grain of salt.
A skilled travel writer knows that one person’s cozy” is another person’s claustrophobic”, but an anonymous reviewer expecting a coffin-sized room might then gush about its spaciousness (luckily most savvy travelers are already suspicious of extremes on both ends and discount those reviews).