I recently read a review titled What you Don’t Know About TripAdvisor, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to express my thoughts on one of the most popular trip review websites. As an experienced travel agent and traveler, I find myself agreeing with the article.

I have first-hand experience that these reviews are not always a good resource for people looking for advice on a property.

For instance, I had booked a family group that had issues from the start, forgetting passports, losing wallets, couples fighting and when they got to the resort they were already so stressed that nothing would make them happy, so they gave the resort a bad review at one star. I had a second group go two weeks later to the exact same resort and loved everything about it and gave it a five star review.

Some people are just not great travelers once they get out of their element and nothing can make them happy. Some first-time travelers will give a negative or positive review, but it’s hard to take that review seriously when first-time travelers have absolutely nothing to compare it to.

The reviews also go beyond hotels as well. I traveled to London last year with my family and to make the vacation great, I asked each family member to choose one thing that they wanted to do or see so that each of us had part in planning the vacation. One family member went to TripAdvisor and chose the number 1 rated tour on Tripadvisor. We all decided that since it was number one on TripAdvisor that it must be the best tour with the best tour company and we were wrong. The tour was not great and no way the number one tour that we did out of the nine tours that we did in London. It was our worst pick. While we were on the tour, the tour guide asked us to please give their tour a five-star rating because it helped her keep her job, and if we had bad something to say, please don’t give them a review. I did not write a review but I will never recommend it to my clients.

It can be hard to take advice from reviews because every traveler is different. The best advice that you can get is from a professional experienced travel agent. Not only do they have the experience, but they have access to review forums that non-agents can’t see. A travel agent wants their client to come back to them to book their next trip. They want to make their clients happy, and they want their clients to refer them to others. We also receive feedback from all types of clients that have stayed at properties or have experienced the tours. Please consider this next time you read a review on Trip Advisor and other sites.