TripAdvisor reviews you can trust

The growth of TripAdvisor and similar review sites makes it easy to form decisions about places to stay and eat, or does it? People can have widely differing opinions about what constitutes a good hotel or meal.

Reviews can be a great way to help you decide where to stay or eat and there are ways to sift through to find what you are looking for.

On TripAdvisor the quickest way to decide if it is worth reading a lot of reviews is to check the grid that rates the numbers of reviews in each category from excellent to terrible. If the top two categories have less than 80% between them, stop there.

Then look to the key words in the reviews. If free breakfast, wifi, family friendly or a specific location is important to you then look at those reviews.

Trust regular TripAdvisor reviewers: you can check how travelled people are and get an idea of the places they like by clicking on their profiles.

Ignore accommodation with a lot of one-off reviews, this can be an example of canvassed reviews.

Regional variances can also affect reviews. For example travellers from the United States may complain about the size of rooms in European cities whereas Europeans know that space is at a premium.

There are also the TripAdvisor threateners; people with a grudge against a place who air their grievances online. Sometimes they can be obvious while at other times they are not so easily spotted.

Hotel booking websites collect reviews from guests and it can be easy to hone in on top-rated properties. One rarely sees bad reviews on these sites as the poor performing hotels rank lowest.

Review sites have worked hard to defend their reputations and winkle out unscrupulous use.

Always be prepared to read at least a dozen before making a decision.