I think I’m addicted to Trip Advisor

It says it all in the title of this blog. I’m addicted to something. A website. 

Life before Trip Advisor was so easy. You wanted to go to hotel or restaurant, you just go. Ok, you may have asked friends if they had been and based on their feedback you would make a judgement on if it was worth going to said destination.

Now you check the reviews online because you don’t want to be the idiot who will pay for poor service, poor food or a poor experience

My addiction to Trip Advisor started when I moved house about a year ago. I moved from a town that had only a few typical food chains to visit to a big city that had hundreds of different independent establishments to try.  Seeing that I did not know many people in the area where I lived I had rely on the good people of Trip Advisor to tell me if it was wasting time and money visiting. 

I’m really fussy about which information I trust. I won’t visit a restaurant with less than 50 reviews. You would ‘assume’ staff or friends of staff would be among the first lot of people to leave a positive review. So the larger review core the better. I’ll make a point in reading the very good reviews and the poor reviews. I won’t read the ‘Excellent’ or ‘Terrible’ reviews. I’m always suspicious on these reviews. Not sure why. Generally it will be people who had a really nice meal and didn’t actually pay themselves (Excellent) or people who did pay and something was not to their own standard (Terrible). It is as if I have my own formula to finding a great place to eat. Some people would call this sad (and rightly so) 

So now before dining out I will spend about an HOUR looking at all the places where I would like to eat and decide on the opinion of other people, people I don’t even know (who may have an agenda). Let’s be honest, we all have our own standard of what good food is. Some people think Nando’s is incredible, when let’s be honest, it is just posh KFC? 

I’m also finding myself writing reviews of each restaurant I visit. One’s where I have already left a review. There really is no need. At first I was just commenting on the food and the service. Now I am writing about the decor or the cleanliness of the toilets (please someone,  dis-connect my Trip Advisor account). I am using quotes from others in my party to describe the food. On a recent visit to a restaurant my mother said ‘the best fishcakes I have ever tasted’ – I included this in my review! As if anyone would actually care (cringe). If my mum was a world class chef, then maybe this would be a good review.

II spend too much time previewing where I am going to eat, and reviewing what I have eaten when I get home. My addiction to Trip Advisor is at a manageable level. It is when I start recording audio commentary into my phone during a meal for later use, which is a time to seek professional help.

 

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