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Trip Advisor – Advise Me, Advise Me Not

By Darrell Bushnell

People wonder how they survived before the Internet with the world of knowledge at their fingertips. Perhaps but the knowledge is buried under a mountain of opinions, bad information and people that just want to muddy the waters. As everyone knows, you can buy a thousand LIKES for your FaceBook page for a small payment.

Trip Advisor is the same way and it is hard to get an unbiased review because we are only human with our own little quirks. We used Trip Advisor for restaurants and hotels on Corn Island prior to our trip and the amount of bad information was amazing resulting in our making a lot of bad decisions. Several times I had to wonder if we were in the same place as the reviewer.

Recently our friends at Hostal El Momento and Treehouse Poste Rojo published the reviews they had received. The results are humorous.

From Hostal El Momento

Being in the industry for many years I have learned that we can try our very best to give good service and offer good quality for the price but we will never satisfy all of the guests even if the hostel was free. The contrasting reviews and comments below we have received  will  give you an indication of what we have to offer and whether Hostal El Momento and/or Granada is for you.

Angry because the washing machine was not free to use     
” The hostel offers the best rates I have seen for washing in Central America”
 
“None of the other guests were approachable and kept to themselves”  
“A group of us who met at the hostel had a great time in Granada”
 
“The hostel is noisy & many more youngsters than I was expecting”  
“I did not enjoy my stay as there were too many older guests,not the hostals fault”
 
“The food was ok but very expensive”    
“I cannot believe how good the food is at the hostel and at better rates than all the restaurants”
 
“The staff did not talk with me”
“The staff were very helpful and called me by my name”   <<a common positive review we receive
 
“The dorm had too many beds”  
“The dorm is very large with great mattresses and high ceiling”
 
“There was no AC which we expected and Granada is too hot”  
“The fans were sufficient and a very good price for what you get”
 
Angry because drinking water and breakfast not included
“They have water topped up for a very small fee and breakfasts were a great price”
 
“The hostel should take out the tv’s in all the rooms”  
“So glad to relax with flat screen tv’s in the room”
 
” The hostel should not offer free wifi as the guests are on their devices”  
 “So glad I had the opportunity to work and relax with good wifi”
 
“Did not enjoy Granada at all, too much traffic and over inflated prices’
“We found so much to do in Granada and did not want to leave”
 
All of the reviews are subjective and will depend on the guests personalty, previous experiences, their mood at the time and what or where  they  are comparing these reviews with. As an owner I would suggest to do a little research on the accommodation and location before going and not to listen too much with other travellers as we are all different. Also expect nothing and you will receive so much more, you make your own mind up once you are there, if you expect too much you will be surely be very disappointed.

From Treehouse Poste Rojo

I own Treehouse Poste Rojo. Believe me, we get the same contradictory type reviews. Some good one’s are:

The place is too hard to find (10k from Granada)

There are too many stairs to climb (we are a treehouse)

Monkeys woke me up too early(monkeys don’t know your sleep schedule)

There was a bat in my room (bats live in the jungle. You were in his room)

I couldn’t sleep because a Nicaraguan man vomited outside the dorm (I have no response to that except, Really?).

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