Helpful Votes

Just a quick comment on the voting as to whether a review is helpful or not. I have posted 4 reviews about the time we recently spent in Malaysia --- why is it, that when you post a review giving somewhere 5 stars, everyone thinks it is helpful, but when you post a review saying somewhere is not so great, everyone votes to say it is unhelpful? With my reviews, the number of helpful votes is in direct proportion to the number of stars I gave! Surely helpful means %26#39;relevant%26#39; or %26#39;useful%26#39; information --- a review is not necessariy unhelpful because it gives less stars. I have seen this with loads of other reviews aswell. Thoughts .. ?

Helpful Votes

Surely helpful means %26#39;relevant%26#39; or %26#39;useful%26#39; information --- a review is not necessariy unhelpful because it gives less stars.

I agree. However I went and read all your reviews after I saw this post and I can see several reasons why TA users would find some of your poorer reviews to be unhelpful.

In one case where you gave 1* you didn%26#39;t even stay at the hotel.

You also blamed the hotel for things that are beyond their control such as taxi costs.

I think you also need to condier what you are paying as a room rate before you consider a place should be all inclusive. All inclusive would mean increased room rates which may penalise other guests who do not want to use the same facilities..

I also note that at the Rasa Ria you said you were hit with the hard sell on arrival. I have stayed their 4 times and I have never had this occur. I think many others would have had the same experience as me.

A thing like an unrequested alarm call is a minor issue and not worth a mention. Just go back to sleep.

It also seems to me that Management adressed your issues in several cases.

I think some TA members might see your reviews as being too heavilly influnenced by minor issues and unreasonable expectations.

PS I have not voted on any of your reviews.

Helpful Votes

Hiya ... true, with the Andaman, we did not stay there (although I still felt that their behaviour should be made public to Trip Advisor users - I thought that it was useful for people who might want to use their beach, as well as people who were thinking about staying there, to note staff attitude.)

I guess taxi costs at the Shangri La in KL were not directly the hotel%26#39;s fault, but the desk was associated with the hotel (it was on their private forecourt), and it was used by their congiere. Certainly when we spoke to the Manager he confirmed that he was able to speak to the desk and that it was not good for this to happen in terms of the hotel%26#39;s reputation.

Rasa Ria was very expensive, especially for Malaysia! They must have been making a HUGE profit!!

My comments on the hard sell were my experience. I%26#39;m pleased that you haven%26#39;t had the same experience there, but the point of Trip Advisor is that everyone has their own opinions and can post their own personal experience of any particular hotel or resort.

With the unrequested alarm call - I don%26#39;t think it is really your perogative to tell me whether it is worth mentioning or not! Or, to tell me to just go back to sleep! It was our last night in KL, we had been running around for a few days beforehand and were really looking forward to a lie-in. I don%26#39;t think it is unreasonable to ask not to be woken up at 5am by an unrequested alarm call, when you are paying so much to stay there?! My partner does not sleep very well and of course could not get back to sleep. It seems a very basic thing to me for a hotel such as a Shangri La to be able to get alarm calls correct. And of course it meant that someone else didn%26#39;t get their alarm call, and may well have missed a flight or meeting etc. I wonder if that person would have thought it was not a big deal!

Management did address my issues in a number of cases, and I believe I was fair by stating this in my reviews. The customer service across Malaysia was unbelievable in fact.

I appreciate your response to the post. Personally I don%26#39;t feel like any issue is too minor to mention, people seem to mention all sorts on Trip Advisor (I have used this website for years) ... I think it is helpful to post all of your own personal thoughts and experiences. I believe I am fair in my reviews, I do not normally complain about minor issues, but I think in both cases at the Shangri Las the issues added up enough to be worth mentioning. However they by no means ruined our time there. I just gave a 3 star rather than 5 stars as I have travelled a lot and I can only compare my experiences with what I know.

I thought your review on the Andaman was very unhelpful so I said so.

If I was planning to visit the Andaman for a day at the beach whilst staying somewhere else then your review would have been helpful. Im trying to decide on whether or not to stay there for 2 weeks. There was nothing in your review relevent to me staying at the Andaman so I rated it as unhelpful - to me.

I have rated many %26#39;bad %26#39;reviews as helpful

I personally wouldn%26#39;t stay somewhere where I knew staff :

-lied

-were only interested in customers/guests spending money

-thought it okay to physically throw a couple out of their hotel

-did not adhere to a business arrangement with another hotel (ie staff were not trustworthy and/or not properly briefed)

But clearly it%26#39;s up to you where you stay. If you are not bothered by any of the above factors in the hotel where you will be staying then I agree my review was unhelpful. But personally staff attitude makes a huge difference to me enjoying my stay at any particular hotel.

I would go for the Bon Ton if you are looking to stay somewhere a bit special. I will never forget staying in those antique Malay houses. If you do want more of a resort-type feel, rather than something smaller and more personal, the Tahjung Rhu was stunning (and the staff were really sweet, we ended up having a great evening there with one of the barmaids, drinking delicious cocktails overlooking the beach at sunset.)

I take some of your points but as you say it is up to me where I stay and what I regard as helpful. I read your other reviews before I rated your Andaman review. I always do this as it gives me a feel as to whether or not we%26#39;re %26#39;on the same page%26#39;. There isnt much point in me taking much notice of a review if the reviewer sees things completely differently from me. That doesnt make me right and you wrong or vice versa - everything is subjective. I stayed at the Rasa Ria last december, my experience was very different from yours. This suggests to me that we see things differently. I am always wary of reviews which compare hotel prices (especially 4/5 star hotel prices) with small local establishments.

My local hotel ( in Ireland ) charges aprrox £3 for a bottle of Carlsberg. I can buy the same bottle in Tescos for 47p..... what is the point of this comparison?

Well you did ask for thoughts! As I said everything is subjective, not just reviews but whether or not a review is perceived as helpful or not....Im sure some people rate a review as unhelpful simply because its not what they want to hear but thats not always the case.

There is always the possibility that if I was staying at the Andaman I would be quite glad that the hotel tried to keep non-residents out - so maybe your review was more helpful than I first thought !!

Please dont hate me, Im not as horrible as I sound!! Im off work sick and Im bored and I might be just be teasing a bit!

Ha! Well I%26#39;m in work and just as bored as you :-)

I understand and agree with what you%26#39;re saying - user reviews are subjective. I think my feelings may have been affected by the fact that we had the most amazing holiday of our life last year, at the Bahia Principe in Mexico. I was crying when I had to go home, and a couple behind us on our bus were saying it was better than their honeymoon. There were so many little touches, and this is what endeared us to that hotel so much. It was all-inclusive, but I wouldn%26#39;t have minded if it wasn%26#39;t, because of all the extra little things they did for you. It just felt like a different level of %26#39;kindness%26#39; or %26#39;thoughtfulness%26#39; was aimed at their guests eg towel sculptures and flowers in the rooms every day, different ‘tasting tables’ at the restaurants every night (all the different flavoured tequilas we got to try were my favourite!), their own ‘Bahia Principe’ song (which I still remember) and loads of other stuff which most all-inclusives wouldn%26#39;t or needn%26#39;t have provided (free slush puppy machine on the beach, really high-quality and professional hotel productions such as %26#39;Cats%26#39;, and all the food and drink was amazing, with proper English spirits and wine) – plus their staff would happily give advice and recommend things to do outside of the resort. The list goes on and it could not have been more perfect!

With the Rasa Ria, I think I would have given it a higher rating if for example, if the snacks that they brought to the pool were not aimed at getting you to join a cookery class - or if the shuttle bus or internet was free -or if they weren%26#39;t asking you to rent the dvd player for your room. Another small example is when my boyfriend and I had breakfast at different times one morning - I sat down with him at the second sitting and asked for a coke for myself. I thought they might (just might) have been kind enough to include it in his breakfast but of course ';you know you%26#39;ll have to pay for that madam'; ... at the Bahia Principe you could get free champagne at every meal if you wanted. Another small example was the notice about not returning your pool towels – that if you didn’t they “would be considered souvenirs.” Of course this is fine, if you steal or forget to return a towel you will be charged for it, but do they really have to make that statement in black and white to their guests who have already paid lots of money to stay there and more money to have meals and drinks there? I know it is a minor point again, but in my mind it sort of highlighted the fact the hotel was concerned about its costs/profits whereas if I am going to the pool I just want to think about my sun tan! I just didn’t feel it was very classy to be so brasen (it much the same way it is not considered polite to discuss money or how much things cost.)

I didn%26#39;t compare the price of the Shangri La hotels to smaller resorts, the Bon Ton wasn%26#39;t cheap. What I was saying was that food, drink etc was just UNREASONABLY expensive. Wouldn%26#39;t you get pi*sed off if your local pub started charging £10 for a Carlsberg? Of course the big hotels have running costs, but that%26#39;s why you pay so much to stay there. When you know how cheap it is to buy food in Malaysia and to hire staff, you (or should I say %26#39;one%26#39;!) can end up feeling a little resentful at getting charged over £50 for a buffet meal, when you haven%26#39;t even had a glass of wine with it. I turned into one of those people I hate by the end of it – trying to get costs down in whatever way I could – “one glass of coke NO ICE please” so I’d get more coke for my £3 or however much it cost!!

Having said of all this, I do not want to come across as negative or as someone who complains about small matters - just clarifying my ratings! I actually really enjoyed my time in Malaysia.

PS I still think you should go to the Bon Ton :-)