Outdoorshopping Blog

Before embarking on your vacation, hunting trip, or other outdoor excursion, you’ll likely take to the internet to see what others have to say about your planned destination. Online reviews have been heralded as a trustworthy source for gauging whether or not a destination is worth your time. But as review sites like Yelp, Google, and others grew in popularity, so did the likelihood of dishonesty. Here are three big reasons why you shouldn’t always trust online reviews when planning your trip.

1. Opinions are Subjective. We all have probably heard some tongue-in-cheek phrase about opinions and how everyone has one. The feelings that fuel those phrases are what makes opinions both valuable and yet unreliable. Opinions are subjective and are based on an individual’s experiences, preferences, and situation. When you’re looking at destinations and reviews, your best bet is to find objective information about the location first, and then glance over reviews to see if there are any glaring discrepancies. Objective information can be far more valuable, as your experience may differ from someone else who may have taken the same course and with the same destination in mind due to your individual differences in taste, preference, and emotion.

2. Everybody Has Their Own Standards. Why doesn’t everyone like the same movies? Why don’t people all enjoy the same sports? Everyone has their own preferences and their own standards for what makes something ‘good’. You risk passing up a great vacation due to someone else’s negative review - even if you may have enjoyed the trip had you taken the risk and gone anyway.

3. Companies Purchase Reviews. As reviews became more and more impactful on companies, these companies responded by purchasing reviews. These reviews can skew honest reviews and make the company appear more liked by people when in fact, those positive reviews were bought in order to offset the honest and negative ones. It’s hard to sift through to find which ones are from ‘real people’ and which ones are purchased, as there’s no real indication to differentiate the two on many occasions.

While these three points can hinder the effectiveness of the original goals of review sites, remember that reviews started as a way for people to share their stories and their experiences. Take reviews as recommendations, and you can even pick out gems of information from reviews as well if you can’t find the information in the objective information listed on any given website. Review sites like TripAdvisor also allow for users to post images of their experience, giving you a more tangible insight into your planned destination. While you shouldn’t base your trip solely off of reviews, they can be helpful to an extent. Keep in mind that companies with mostly negative reviews are likely worth taking a second look at.

*Photos source Pinterest