I was born with advanced taste buds which made me struggle to cope with the junk offered during my childhood and teenage years (sorry Mum; it’s not you, it’s me!).
Out of necessity, adulthood was about trying many restaurants looking for a decent meal and started to review the places I tried to share my experience. Whilst I can’t remember the first review I’ve written, I can vividly remember when it first hit me: the first 1000 readers on TripAdvisor; an achievement I couldn’t believe at the time. Few years and lots of ups and downs later, with nearly 40,000 readers and countless helpful votes, the dearest milestone to me is the day I woke up to TripAdvisor “Top Contributor” badge in my inbox.
Over the years I have travelled three continents and reviewed dozens of hotels and restaurants. One common denominator across my reviews: positivity. I have always pushed myself to emphasize on the positive aspects of the place I’m reviewing and touch upon the bad things with an area-of-development approach highlighting specific changes that can be implemented to make the customer experience better and alleviate the bad points.
My Instagram account started as a personal account like everybody else until I started to cross reference my TripAdvisor reviews through Instagram feed and stories. This move not only pulled some reviews readers into my Insta world but also helped attracting some of the followers of the places I reviewed to my Instagram account.
I never thought my Instagram account would reach 15 thousand followers and never have I imagined myself engaging with people I have never met and probably never will.
As there’s no fit-for-all destination, hotel or restaurant, the most important thing is to think of this one image you will post and keep on your social accounts at the end of the day. This one image will not only define the nature of the trip, be it urban, romantic hideaway, food tasting or adventurous, but will also help allocating the budget for what matters the most in your trip.
With the growing number of active people online sharing comments, feedback and reviews it is vital to learn how to distance oneself from the junk out online and make the best out of the review reading time. To do so, one needs to to know that the reviews come in two main categories: the personal and the experiential. The personal review can be misleading as it is likely to depict one particular occurrence which may or may not be relevant to the review reader and may or may not have a recurring potential. The experiential on the other hand, come in a comprehensive format, narrate the holistic customer experience and portray the specificities of the place being reviewed. Between the two categories I definitely prefer the latter.
Whilst going through online reviews of any place I tend to read them in the following ratio: 10% of the excellent ones, 20% of the bad ones and 70% the ones in between. Why? Simply because the excellent ones and the bad ones are likely to be biased and personal whereas the ones in between tend to provide a better picture of what that place is about. Irrespective, scroll away from the reviews made of a few words or just a couple of sentences; these are the most deluding.
As we bid farewell to 2018, my Instagram account has been revamped to feature my travel destinations posts and best bites stories whilst I prepare to launch shortly a full fledge food blog and Instagram account fully dedicated to sharing the delicious bites I taste around the world in addition to my appreciation to the art of food styling.
My 2019 social media resolution has to be the wish to have the ability and time to manage two accounts with the same dedication and commitment I had to the the first one.
Finally, as I write my last review of the year 2018, I wish I could positively contribute to the hospitality industry and food and beverage scene and give back to a community that I cherish through shedding light on the best destinations in addition to hidden eat-in gems and most importantly on the men and women working hard behind the scenes to present the delicious bites we all crave and long for; and above all give my review readers the full picture they need to have before visiting a place.
Top 10 DONTs to get the best out of reading reviews:
It was great to collaborate with
JMG Lifestyle Magazine
and contribute to
2019 New Year’s Issue
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