Ever been fooled by a rave restaurant review? Marina O’Loughlin has – and that’s just the start of her problems with the site
It was in a small seaside town in Croatia that my dislike of TripAdvisor petrified into loathing. The site’s top listing wasn’t one of the ad-hoc shacks down by the beach that sold the freshest fish grilled over wood (where my nose would have led me), but we went along with it all the same. Never before or since have I eaten in a restaurant where our hosts fished the meal from a vast chest freezer in full view. Remember to write about us on TripAdvisor, they urged as we dolefully paid our bill, giving us a free liqueur that tasted of Cif and cynicism.
Despite the fact that virtually every week brings a new story about how useless TripAdvisor is, how it enables users who are corrupt/greedy/mendacious, the site trundles on like a marauder, spewing an ever-increasing volume of freely given, unpaid “content”, as it has since its conception in 2000. Despite all evidence to the contrary – in 2013 its CEO, Stephen Kaufer, pocketed more than $39m– TripAdvisor has convinced its contributors that it is “one of us”, like a digital version of Nigel Farage or Donald Trump.
The Manchester top 10 proves it’s not fit for purpose. I don’t see how it could help a newcomer get a feel for the city
The thing I hate most is seeing staff being insulted and having their names put in a bad light online
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