TripAdvisor, which is famous for among other things its Ten Best lists and its often-questionable reviews, has another angle for your attention: What gets the most reviews…and it’s often not what you’d think.
Some are not surprising; Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (above) is an understandable choice, with 30,000 reviews in 2017. London was the most-reviewed city, despite having fewer visitors than Bangkok. But the hotel with more reviews than any other in the world turns out to be the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana, DR (no word on how many of those were favorable, though).
The most-reviewed eatery on the site can be vouched for, however. It’s the well-known and delicious Pasteis de Belem in Lisbon, home of famous custard tarts. They’re clearly the most famous, but recent research by Gumbo members visiting Lisbon says they’re NOT the best!
TripAdvisor does booking these days, too—and the spot with the most bookings was the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building. Most booked hotel was the Park Plaza in Boston.
And who writes all the reviews (there are now half a billion of them)? Japanese members submit the most opinions, while Eritreans (where there are only nine people who have contributed reviews has the least. And Stephen Kelly, of the UK, has written nearly 2000 in 22 months, about three a day. He says: “I try to do three or four a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, one in the evening. I never get bored doing it.”
