Write a Quick Trip Advisor Review Like a Professional Travel Writer

Okay, so you've just returned from a weekend trip and had an experience that you want to share (good or bad). Sharing your tales can be one of the best ways to enjoy traveling more. Here's how to put together a great review that won't take you hours to write.

1. Check your ego at the door.
Even when we are asked by an editor to write in a voice that puts us into the article, we have to keep in mind that the story is ALWAYS about the destination, not about us. If you are angry about an experience, it's always best to wait a couple of weeks to let your ego move along to better things. Then if you still have something useful to say, have at it.
2. Don't fill in the rating circles or write the title first.
Once you write a title your brain sets out to prove it. Your review will be more accurate if you write about the experience first, then give it a title and a rating.
3. Be helpful, not hurtful.
No matter how bad your experience was, your goal is to help other travelers make a decision, not to intentionally harm someone's business. Professional travel writers are in the business of building up the travel industry, not tearing it down. Reviewers that write nasty stuff flag themselves as cranks and are usually ignored by readers anyway.

Structure of the actual review:
Lead with a positive statement.
Trust me, we have been in some places where positive statements were scarce, but look hard enough and you will find something nice to say.
Two straightforward facts that are not opinionated.
State the room size, the price range, or maybe meal details. Don't exaggerate or use descriptive terms like huge or tiny. Those are your subjective opinions. If your goal is to be helpful to fellow travelers, or even if your goal is to make a property manager do a better job next time, your review will be taken far more seriously if you are careful to accurately describe what you saw.
Describe your experience in three sentences or less.
Even if it was so wonderful or so horrible that you could write a book, pick your top three things to say. Anything longer and you will lose the reader. Here is where you get to the heart of what you liked or disliked. Be sure to keep future travelers in mind as you write information that is useful. Your sentences should be detailed and descriptive. Don't use meaningless words like beautiful or filthy. Describe the beauty. Exactly what did you see that was dirty? What did the place smell like, what did it sound like? What did the bellhop do that was rude? What did the housekeeper do that was helpful?
Give one travel tip.
Something like "Room 7 has a better view than we had in room 10" or "Call ahead for reservations." Readers want to learn from your experience how to improve theirs, not just hear your story. The travel tip usually works great as a title.

You just wrote a professional review that people will actually appreciate. Maybe you could make a living at this, huh? It's not really a bad gig.

Trip Advisor Review

We have a love hate relationship with Trip Advisor. As owners of a resort we live in fear of those hard to please people who feel the need to pile on their crankiness with no regard to the harm caused to a small business. What we do appreciate are the people who take the time to post constructive reviews of lodging facilities, ours or others.

Rule of thumb: 
Ignore half of the negative reviews and about a third of the positive ones.

Assume that at least half of the negatives are based on traveler's expectations that were out of line with their choice of property. Then assume that at least a third of the positives are from friends of the property owners, even though that is officially against the website's rules.

How do you tell the difference to help you find your perfect Travel Happy lodging facility? Look for harsh language in the negatives and little or no constructive advice. Read any owner's responses to the negatives. Often they provide insight into the reality of the situation. Oddly, length of the review can provide a clue to its authenticity. Really long negatives with no positive comments are often written with people who have an ax to grind. Conversely, long positives are most likely the genuine thing, especially if they contain words like, "the only thing that would be better..." or "almost perfect..."

Can you use Trip Advisor to benefit you?
The absolute best way to use Trip Advisor is to find places that you might miss otherwise. Search your destination on the site to find B&B's, small inns, and non-chain lodging options. Look for properties that have predominately positive reviews, then dig deeper by finding the property's own website. Trip Advisor charges fees to the properties for linking their review listing to the property's site so you may not find a direct link; it may require a Google search.

The bottom line is to keep in mind that review sites thrive on train-wreck reviews that get spread around the Internet and that the people most likely to take the time to post are Unhappy Travelers.

VRBO.com Review

We have intimate knowledge of both sides of the VRBO story: as travel consumers and as vacation rental owners who pay VRBO for a listing on their site. So here's what we know and how it may help you Travel Happy.

If you are unfamiliar with VRBO, it stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner. The concept is that people who own a property in a potential vacation destination can list that property on the VRBO website (for a fee) to attract nightly rentals from travelers. As the traveler, you can search through thousands of listings located around the world to find the house, condo, cabin, or apartment that suits you best. You then use the links on the website to contact the property owner for further details and/or to arrange a potential vacation.

Here are the positives:

• The website is intuitive, easily navigated, and loaded with travel facts about your destination.
• There are listings that REALLY make you want to visit some destinations.
• Many listings include an availability calendar.
• The website makes shopping for lodging options that AREN'T hotels easier than ever before.
• There are reviews of many properties and the website seems to attract reviews that are of a more positive and constructive nature than what you find on the review only sites.
• There are bargains to be found if you dig deeply enough.
• If you own a vacation house VRBO gives you a far easier and more visible option for listing your property than building your own website. They have lots of bells and whistles like the availability calendar and even a payment acceptance plan.

Here are the negatives:

• We have found many of the listings are actually inactive or at least "unmanned." When planning a trip to Curacao last year we attempted contact with the owners of 15 listed properties with a zero response rate. We have heard similar stories from other travelers who use VRBO. One woman told us that she travels for work and always tries to use VRBO but frequently gets no response. Just speculation here, but it's possible that some owners use the site to "prove" to taxing entities that their second home is a legitimate rental business that they actively attempt to rent.
• Private homes rented in this fashion are not always good for a community. Of course there are lots of factors to consider, but in some communities, sites like VRBO are quietly putting the small "Mom and Pop" lodging businesses out of business. The owners of these homes are often just looking for a little supplemental income to help pay their vacation home mortgage, so their sometimes lower rates are hard for small businesses to compete with, especially when the private home owners don't comply with costly government regulations. 
• Renting a private home doesn't usually give you access to knowledge and assistance you may need in an unfamiliar location. That's not a problem if you have done plenty of homework before your trip, but if you often rely on a front desk clerk or a B&B owner to point you to the best restaurants or the local pharmacy then renting on VRBO may make your travel a bit more challenging.
• The home you rent may look nice, but what about the neighborhood it's in? Use a program like Google Streetview to get a better look around.
• Many properties will not have liability insurance (and the oversight that comes with a good hospitality industry liability policy) so be extra cautious about all things electrical, gas fired stoves and grills, pools, and spas. They may or may not have been inspected for safety before your arrival. 
• Last minute travel is difficult to arrange.

Our Advice:

• As with any method of choosing travel accommodations, do your homework. Study the location and the surroundings of each rental you consider. 
• We always recommend checking with the local Chamber of Commerce when possible. They can often steer you away from rentals that are not up to the standards of the rest of the hospitality community. Private rental owners that join their local chambers are far more likely to actively participate in the community AND in the maintenance of their rental unit.
• Use search engines like Google to look for rentals with their own websites that may have a lower price per night simply because they AREN'T paying listing fees to big websites.
• Always check with the Mom & Pop lodging facilities to see not only what they offer, but if they are willing to price match on comparable accommodations.