In Reply to: Referals to TA posted by bobg on Monday, 7. July 2014 at 17:19 Bali Time:
Whenever I am planning a trip, I always have a look at the reviews on Trip Advisor. I tend to ignore a review if the poster has very few reviews of hotels or restaurants. Whereas a poster that has submitted quite a few reviews of various hotels/restaurants/ places to go, is generally seen as a reliable source of information.
I look at the general "scores" that a hotel has received in regard to star rating of excellent/very good/ poor/terrible. I have noticed in regard to Bali, that it depends on the nationality of the poster. For example, quite a few reviews from girls in Japan/Singapore rate a hotels poorly because "there was lizards everywhere"(geckos!), whereas an Australian person would love that hotel as it's quintessentially Balinese.
Americans love a whinge and may be a little harder to please, as a lot of reviews that I have read from Americans can be quite scathing if things are not exactly to their liking.
All in all, Trip Advisor is a great source of information and a great way to see photos of accomodation as it really is, from people that have actually stayed there. How many people have turned up to a hotel and their room looks nothing like on their website!