Fake reviews?

[marco]

I guess it's pretty much "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", too. After returning from a cruise I'll read some reviews of the cruise I was just on just to see what other's though of it and sometimes two reviews will be the polar opposite of each other.

Edited September 21, 2015 by marco

[moniquet]

What would anyone have to gain by making a false negative review? I don't understand. A positive one yes as they could be getting paid by a cruise line.

[wwcruisers]

What would anyone have to gain by making a false negative review? I don't understand. A positive one yes as they could be getting paid by a cruise line.

 

I guess some folks just have WAY too much time on their hands, LOL! ;)

[Nic6318]

What would anyone have to gain by making a false negative review? I don't understand. A positive one yes as they could be getting paid by a cruise line.

 

Have you ever heard of any cruise line paying people to post a positive review?

 

The unwarranted negative reviews are seen on this site often. This can be determined at times when the op is questioned about specific details.

 

Carnival is a particular target of people who would by their admission have no dealing with the company and yet will be found making any number of outrageous negative comments on the Carnival threads just because they want to get a rise out of people and they can. Yes, I agree. Why do they bother?

[Kris74]

Yes it is the positive reviews that I sometimes wonder about.

 

This crossed my mind as Ive sometimes read bookreicews for new books and they have been overly positive. Then having bought the book Ive found it to be poorly and by that time also the reiviews have shown according declined in stars. So Ive become pretty sure there are bougth positive reviews. So why not in here I wondered.

[moniquet]

A quick google confirms that there are pay for posts jobs.

[Aquahound]

What would anyone have to gain by making a false negative review? I don't understand. A positive one yes as they could be getting paid by a cruise line.

 

A quick google confirms that there are pay for posts jobs.

 

That seems like a bit of a conspiracy theory. Cruise Critic has a lot of long-time members who frequent these boards. A cruise line paid poster would be made right away and wouldn't last a week on these boards.

 

Several years ago, one of the major lines awarded postive reviewers by allowing them aboard a pre-inaugural cruise on a brand new ship. Regardless of the fact the cruise was free for all persons who were on board, that did not stop people on these boards from losing their minds.

[Kris74]

I didnt think cruisers would get paid for positive reviews but instead that an employee of a line would register with fake information and just fabricate a review. It would be easy anyway.

[jewopaho]

The other thing is that you learn to ignore the reviews where the reviewer is complaining about minor trivial things - the cabin steward forgot my ice, the food was not hot enough one night, one of the shows was bad, etc. On any trip, a few bad things happen and you have to learn to ignore them.

Excellent point ... such nit-picking is cause to totally disregard the review and move on. We've cruised for eons (seems as if we first sailed with Columbus), and have yet to experience the perfect cruise ... but they're generally close enough for us to keep coming back. We've had a few issues over the years, but they were addressed expeditiously and professionally.

 

The problem with reviews on sites like CC and Trip Advisor is that there's "no accounting for taste."

You sure got that one right. It's amazing to read reviews of the same cruise from different folks ... hard to believe. "The ship is gorgeous."/"The ship is a monument to bad taste." "The food was a gourmet's delight."/"I wouldn't feed that garbage to my ex-wife." "The staff was wonderful to us."/"Worst crew I've ever encountered." "Entertainment was excellent."/"Shows were terrible, comedians weren't funny." "Best cruise ever."/"We'll never sail that cruise line again." You get the idea. I can usually decide whether to continue reading the review by the end of the first paragraph.

 

Al

[LHT28]

if you have not sailed a on the line you are reading reviews for look at several reviews for the same ship same area of the cruises

some will be glowing some will be a fair review

Ones that compare to another line with negative comments, nit picky

EG:crew were not as good as XYZ or XYZ does this & that better

I throw out of my mind

 

If you have sailed on the same ship or line before you know what it is like & while nothing is perfect some reviews are just too unbelievable ;)

[BillOh]

Just wondering should I believe all the reviews or not? Do you?

Im pretty sure there are fake reivews in amazon, so why not in cruisecritic? What to think?

 

While not definitive, if I have any doubts I look at the OP's post history. So as not to insult you, seeing your post count is low, I look at the posts, however many their are see if you can spot a trend.

 

 

I took an excursion in St Thomas in 2011 and I remembered one of the operators was named Sally. I saw some posts about that excursion from a person named Sally and saw from her history, all she was doing was going around and posting about their excursion, and passing her self off as a customer.

[cruiser64093]

With any population of answers, or reviews, use an imaginary bell curve. Discount everything on the far left or right, and use what you find in the middle. It will usually be the most factual and honest opinions.

 

Wild accusations, and posting while angry or upset will always tell out, and skew a review.

 

<sorry if you were told there would be no math> :D

[Julie MacCoy]

I remember just a few years ago, I was checking out the front page of this site for the Golden Princess, especially the Hawaiian cruises, for this reason. I was shocked to see a recently posted review for the Golden but for a Med cruise. The Golden hadn't been on this itinerary for many years but it seemed from the info, this person had a recent sailing date. So I emailed the customer service email for CC and said there was something wrong with this review. Soon after it disappeared-- at least for Golden. So maybe the reviewer was sent a request to fix the name of the ship.

I once stayed at a rotten hotel and posted a review of it on a website where they give advice about trips. Soon after that, I saw on that a glowing review of the hotel, but I believed the review to be fake, as the review said that the hotel had room service (it did not) and a pool (it did not) and a wonderful buffet breakfast (it did not). I discussed the matter with members of a travel discussion forum. Some of them said that they had stayed at the same hotel, and they agreed with my poor assessment. Someone suggested that the poster who raved about the hotel might have confused it with some other hotel in another state. Even though the website where they give advice about trips claims that all posts are double-checked for accuracy, that inaccurate review is still there.

 

I don't know if my review at that website about another hotel would be considered fake. I stayed at a hotel where my relatives planned to have a reception in the ballroom. They messed up my reservation and other people's reservations, several things went wrong at the reception that could have easily been prevented.

 

I wrote a very accurate review of the hotel, with the exception that I wrote it under a phony name with a phony state of residence. The reason that I didn't use my real name was that my cousin, who arranged the reception, is very touchy, and she would have gotten annoyed and defensive if she knew that I had posted a bad review. She would have known that it was me, because I happened to mention to her sister "Ann" that the "bartender" apparently spoke no English, because when I tried asking her for a cocktail, she just stared at me blankly. All she could do was pour red wine if you pointed to the bottle of red wine, and pour white wine if you pointed to the bottle of white wine, and she could give you a can of beer if you pointed to the beer. I said that another relative had been with me at the time and could back up my story that the "bartender" didn't speak English. Ann said that her sister had paid for a bartender who could prepare cocktails, and she would be upset. I'm certain that Ann told her sister what I said. (I didn't see anyone with a cocktail at the reception.)

 

Even though I'm certain that no one of the phony name that I used from the state that I used was staying at that hotel at that time, the website still printed my review. I have no idea how they double-checked it for accuracy.

 

But I still don't know if that counts as a phony review.