I could not agree more. We run quality tours in Peru, stayed in every hotel we suggest in our custom itineraries and would not think to include any hotel we would not stay in ourselves since our reputation is on the line.

Some people want luxury some want economic but everyone desires secure lodgings, good location, clean room & bath, good breakfast and friendly staff.

Recently a pax said no to the hotels we recommended in Lima and insisted on one with a better tripadvisor rating. I refused to book her there, stayed within her budget and insisted on our proven hotel of choice. Afterwards she thanked me for not buckling when she was able to check out the one she wanted.

tripadvisor sucks!

I also feel that Trip Advisor’s advice is biased by how much the targeted establishment bribes them. I feel that Trip Advisor is extorting the businesses via the internet.

I contracted to rent a condo in Belize through the Tripadvisor Website. I was asked to place a deposit of $1060 to hold the unit with the full remaining balance to be paid on 4/19/2016. My wife suddenly became ill and is being operated on for heart issues and can no longer travel out of the country in June which is when the contract was for. I contacted the owner on 4/15 and she graciously agreed to refund my full deposit. She sent a letter to that effect to Tripadvisor and they agreed to send my deposit to me. I have talked to their “customer service” people in India for a total of 2.5 hours trying to find out when my refund would come. I was told that if the owner allowed this she would end up owing tripadvisor a $150 dollar booking fee but tripadvisor would credit me for the full amount of my reservation. The Tripadvisor call center has been the most inept group of people I have ever dealt with. They told me that I would have to cancel my reservation on their site. When I tried to do that it said “do you really want to cancel your reservation and showed that if I pressed yes I would receive 0 dollars credit. I told the person that there was no way I would agree to that and that once they fixed it to show that I would receive the full credit I would click the tab. He became argumentative and said that was the only way to do it and to “trust him” I then asked to talk to his supervisor. His supervisor said that they still needed confirmation from the owner even though it was acknowledged that they had already received confirmation. She sent another letter to them stating her wish to have my ENTIRE deposit sent back to me because I had paid her directly for the $150 that Tripadvisor was going to keep. I have since talked to three more of their representatives without any confirmation that my deposit is on the way. They said that a “special team” was working on it. I asked to talk to that team and was told there was no way to get ahold of them. I asked how they would get the money back to me and was told that it would be deposited into my bank account. I asked them how that was possible since they didn’t have my bank information and he didn’t have an answer. This company is impossible to get ahold of at their MA. headquarters. You are stuck with people with very limited English and no authority to do anything towards resolving the issue.