Trip Advisor

Why a restroom photo? To start a discussion about Trip Advisor.

First, let me say in general, I like Trip Advisor. If you're not familiar with it, it is a site where "real people" can post "real opinions" about restaurants, hotels, attractions, just about anything travel related. The idea is travelers can read what other travelers say about a place before they go.

I honestly don't expect everybody to like us (although I secretly do expect everybody to like us). Some people aren't happy because we don't have rice-and-beans. Some aren't happy because there is nothing fried on our menu. Everybody has an opinion about food, good, bad or indifferent.

The opinions I don't mind. I do object to factual errors. Our first bad review complained about an "$8 banana." The same review stated we said desserts are our specialty. Neither of these statements is true. Why does it matter? Because other people read this stuff and believe it. We can - and do - write "management responses" to every review. It takes 3-5 days for management responses to be reviewed and posted. In that time some number of people have read the misinformation and don't know about the response. So that factually incorrect review is all they see.

Some reviews I just don't understand, like the person who said our menu was like "a high school or hospital cafeteria." Dude! What high school did you go to? Elaine spent six days in the hospital in May and the menu wasn't anything like ours.

Which brings be back to the restroom. The picture is our men's room (although it doesn't matter because the two are mirror images of each other). On reviewer described this as a "nasty skanky latrine." Say what? Other people have told us our restrooms are cleaner than those in the nearby big international chain hotel. But that comment didn't make it to Trip Advisor, just the "nasty skanky" comment.

Oh well, it's all part of the business. Gotta take the nuts-o with the good.