Blood pressure keeps rising at TripAdvisor’s dodgy rankings

THE odd reader may recall I’ve written about TripAdvisor before.  Maybe some normal ones too. And that just mentioning it gets my blood pressure up. Now, I’ve warned you: don’t get me started! Oh, OK then …

If you fancy dining in London, you’ll be regaled with a choice of some 10,000 restaurants to choose from on TripAdvisor.  So, you’d reasonably expect any restaurant that’s snagged (at the time of writing) the number one slot – ahead of Michelin-starred eateries like Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Le Gavroche and Petrus – to be out of this world, located on some alien planet, wouldn’t you?

Well, maybe the particular Streatham-based tapas restaurant/bar in question is, if you read some reviews: 

“This restaurant gets three stars, TripAdvisor itself gets one star. Of course this should not be the #1 restaurant out of nearly 10,000 in London. And it’s really funny that it is. But not a great reflection on TripAdvisor as a credible source of restaurant reviews.”

“Visited and was a waste of time, food is rubbish. If you look at other reviews they are almost all from newbies (first-time reviewers), the truth is something different.”

Whatever you make of rave (or rubbish) ‘reviews’ on TripAdvisor, here are a couple of facts. It’s no secret there are agencies which allow establishments to ‘improve their rankings’ on it. Secondly, TripAdvisor was set up to be a review site for travellers and it all worked well until the entire world cottoned onto the fundamental flaw.

Under the cloak of anonymity, anybody can write anything, and unfortunately risk killing the golden goose with vested interest views.

Unlike the UK, which has many other restaurant guides, here in Spain we’re more dependent on TripAdvisor, many reviews inevitably written by tourists.

Which begs the question: even if you accept TripAdvisor reviews as genuine, why trust a bunch of tourists to decide which restaurant is the best in town? What’s the criterion? Walking distance from the hotel? 

Now, I know restaurants are having a really rough time but so are consumers. So, wouldn’t it be in everyone’s best interests to treat TripAdvisor with more care  and caution? 

PS I’ll certainly be recommending this unbiased article!  Five stars! 

Warning: this column may not be written by a real person.

Nora Johnson’s thrillers ‘Retribution’, ‘Soul Stealer’, ‘The De Clerambault Code’ (www.nora-johnson.com) available from Amazon in paperback/eBook (€0.89; £0.77) and iBookstore. Profits to Cudeca