PLEASE NOTE: Not a single one of the featured negative review screenshots is a review written by myself nor reflective of my opinions of any establishment. They’re just there for the sake of including a few illustrations in this piece and possibly giving you something to laugh at.
The sad awful truth is that the vast majority of expat websites only tend to function as listings pages for events, bars and clubs. Little original content is usually created because that may require time and money; not to mention that many a country has its own state run media operates to deliver news about locals events translated into English. It may even have a monopoly on the media, so to speak.
This decline could simply be blamed upon the relentless growth of TripAdvisor. Originally intended for travellers, it is often noticed that it a useful app for that want to review local restaurants or indeed read reviews about them. That is not to say that I’m a huge fan of the service; many reviews are fake and when they aren’t, you don’t half tend to get to get pathetic tourists complaining about the most pointless shit imaginable. However, it is a reliable, all-in-one, universal platform, wherever you go in the world there will always be somebody that has covered it on TripAdvisor, or a similar, more localised app.
Rather than mourn this awful reality, I prefer to accept it and find the positives. There’s no point writing reviews on restaurants on your site anymore; that’s more time available for creating something that is truly unique. Rather than have a site revolve around the hedonistic pursuit of partying, one can delve into other issues and write something genuinely interesting about their lives overseas.
Some blogs or social media channels will never have to make such an effort. If you’re a pretty chick in her early 20’s with a YouTube channel and a Patreon account, it would come as no surprise if your travels were being funded by the donations of thirsty guys who love a cute smile, a low cut top and some random rambling about finding yourself. Rather than write such women off as whores however, I’ll admit that they’re actually creating something of value for somebody out there.
For the rest of us; we can have our fun reviewing hotels, restaurants and bars on TripAdvisor; we might not make money for reviewing a place, we won’t trust most of the excessively professional positive reviews and we’ll secretly feel amused when reading the negative reviews as half of those are also either fake written to destroy a venue’s reputation in order to promote a competitor or just too negative to even be taken seriously.
Examples may include complaints about people not flushing toilet paper in Southeast Asia or a lack of vegetarian options at a barbecue. If those screenshots are representative of something, it’s some of the scum that you occasionally find on TripAdvisor.
Regardless, we all know that TripAdvisor isn’t perfect but it fills a void left behind by the decline of traditional expat websites. We will probably learn to love it eventually.
Then we’ll get back to creating something really new…
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