We get excellent reviews from travelers and destination experts on TripAdvisor… over 400 five star reviews in a row and counting…
“These folks are wonderful–exceptionally professional and knowledgeable. Everything I arranged through the agency (hotels, tours, transportation) went off without a hitch.I’m already planning a return trip to CR, and I will definitely be using this agency again.” — Rebecca_SD“The only hiccups in our trip were the 2 days on the front end which I attempted to book myself, the remaining 8 nights booked by Meghan at PTW were flawless. In addition, Meghan took the time to email me some suggestions for beaches and restaurants that thankfully were not in Fodor’s so we were able to get away from fellow tourists a couple of times.” — vrhodes
“Also can vouch for Toucan Maps Inc. [Costa Rica Guide] Have met the owners, lovely couple, very reliable.” — coopermays – Destination Expert
“Costa Rica Guide [Toucan Maps Inc.] is a good company, have used them in the past…you should have no problem…” — qwovadis – Destination Expert
Etc. etc. etc.
It’s ALL Good
We won’t complain about free publicity, especially since it’s all fantastic rave reviews, but in general TripAdvisor should be used cautiously (read more…).
Most people assume TripAdvisor is unbiased but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It is an advertising and marketing tool promoting Expedia.com. Anything that does not make money disappears from TripAdvisor very quickly.
Some of the reviews are honest, interesting, and useful. Some of the reviews are fabricated by professionals who are paid by hotels (or by marketing agencies hired by the hotels – the hotel owners don’t necessarily even know about it) to improve their rankings or drive down the competition.
If you want to find reviews for our company you have to look hard and often. Because we compete with Expedia, travel services like Toucan (mapcr.com and Costa-Rica-Guide.com) are not allowed listings in the directory. If a traveler does post a review in the travel forum they are generally deleted by the moderators.
We’re not complaining. They own the web site and have every right to delete the competition, and we’re not saying not to use TripAdvisor (especially since their users recommend us so highly), we’re just saying use it with caution.