I’ve been a member of TripAdvisor for 7 years now, having joined back in July 2007 — not really knowing anything about the platform, and pretty unsure as to why I would have registered back then…

But over the last couple of years, I’ve taken it more seriously. I use it mainly to hunt out new restaurants to eat at wherever in the UK or world I’m heading to, and secondly to sense-check hotels I’m looking at. (And I pretty much review everywhere I stay/eat too.)

Word of mouth and personal recommendations are the easiest sales route into my wallet, and TA provides both by tapping into a global network, and also my personal one too, via Facebook.

I never considered my words to be powerful, but when out last week, someone had mentioned they’d booked a hotel based on my review on the website.

Further to this, I delved into my account settings and switched on email notifications to get a round-up of how my reviews were being perceived, and I was pretty amazed…

A positive review of an Egyptian hotel I stayed at last year has been read by nearly 4,000 individuals — and a negative review of a horrendously arrogant local restaurant has been viewed by a large number too, but has also received 6 ‘helpful’ votes from users too — all local individuals.

There’s clearly some decent reach and power within TripAdvisor as a recommendation and business development network for any business — be that a hotel or restaurant — so if you’re not already using the website to showcase your establishment or review destinations as a traveller, it’s time you went about it!