Heather, good article, but I would suggest you narrow it down to a set of bullet points on how to travel efficiently. Trip Advisor has simply developed a winning web application which fills a hitherto unknown need. They hit the jackpot and are now horizontally integrating, which is the standard and text-book business model for growth. There is no way they could hire a sufficient number of auditors to cover the ten’s of thousands of businesses reviewed on their site, which are constantly changing in terms of numbers and quality of services.

Teach your customers and friends to simply use these services smarter. It does not take long to work through all the available information.

Go to Trip Advisor to identify the lodging, tour or restaurants in the area.

Take three pages of reviews and toss out the bottom 10%, the top 10%, those who obviously do not know what they are talking about, and the manufactured reviews. Add Yelp where possible.

Give a plus to any service provider who responds to their customer reviews on the site, especially the bad ones. Shows that they care and are paying attention.

Double check. Some will show up on Lonely Planet.

Do price comparisons through Agoda, or the other booking sites that actually list all prices together on one page. Remember, Booking.com does allow cancellations and in my experience will follow up on problem reservations..

Google for contact information.

Call the proprietor directly. You will find that availability, prices, and even their continued existence may be different than advertised on the site. Much better than wandering around a village outside of Hoi An in the dark (no streetlights) in the middle of the night, to find that the restaurant, with glowing reviews, had closed a month before the last review had been posted.

Trip Advisor has been successful, but their success will generate other software applications over the next decade that will service the traveler much better. They are pocketing their profits as opposed to upgrading their model, which is always the kiss of death.

One other comment. The “old model” of the popular travel guides is not doing much better. Most of us seeking independent travel want small inns where we can integrate into the local culture and communicate with the employees and owners of the establishment. The recommendations we get in published travel guides are for mass tourist concrete edifices, fifty or 100 rooms, which amazingly, no matter what part of the world we are in, rent for $50-$100 per night. You could pick one up in Krabi, Thailand, and put in down in Dar al Salam, Saudi Arabia, without changing the character or staff. Then, they all have at least one recommendation for “taking a fling” in some ridiculously fancy and exclusive resort at $1000 per night which has better concrete, a better view, a golf course and a high end restaurant which together completely divorce one from the culture you traveled 7,000 miles to see.