DiverPam's Secrets for Writing Travel Reviews
Jun 18 '02
The Bottom Line Be passionate about your destination; make me yearn to visit! If it was horrible, then give me all the gory details so I'll know if I want to visit.
So, you’re interested in writing travel reviews? Maybe you're new, or just interested in a change of pace. Here are my suggestions for writing travel reviews, as well as some hints of things that I look for in a good review. I hope to see your reviews popping up in Travel soon!
What to Write About
Start with a place with which you’re very familiar and have strong feelings about – good or bad. Make sure you clearly identify the location, especially when reviewing a hotel or tourist attraction.
Unless it's a topic you're really passionate about, you might want to stay away from those that already have 80-100 reviews. You'll probably get lost in the pack and may not get read much.
Look for categories that don’t already have tons of reviews. It’s really great to be the first person to christen a category. That’s one of my favorite things to do!
What to Say
Everyone brings something different to a review. Bring your own perspective about your trip. Don’t just give us the boring old facts. We can find those on the hotel’s website or in a travel brochure.
Was there something that was very unusual about the location, hotel or airline? What made this trip stand out in your mind? What will you still remember 10 years from now when you talk to your children about this trip?
What is there to do for entertainment? Lie on the beach? Dive? Snow ski? Play golf? Shop? Go white-water rafting? Tell us what you did, and mention some other available activities. Made recommendations on things you really enjoyed.
Bring Your Story to Life
Share some of your personal anecdotes. These really help your review come to life. Get me caught up in your story and make me feel like I’m there walking on the beach with you, holding on for dear life in a careening bus on the side of a mountain, or having a wonderful massage at a spa.
Let me see the destination through your eyes. Paint a vivid picture. Many people simply draw an outline in black and white. Take it the next step. Bring out your watercolors (memories from your trip) and start to color in the picture. Make it vivid, exciting and lifelike. Make me want to buy a ticket to Tanzania, hop on the next cruise to Cozumel, or save my grocery money for a month just to spend one night in that luxurious hotel you are describing.
Don’t Forget the Details
Tell us when and why you visited and include plenty of details. Everyone has their own hot buttons that make the difference in how they judge a place. Since we all have different preferences, it is good to cover a broad spectrum. I’ll use hotels as an example.
Okay, I have two really picky things by which I judge a hotel:
1)the softness of their toilet paper
2)the fluffiness of their towels
Go ahead and laugh, my husband does!
A hotel can be beautifully decorated, have wonderful service, and be perfectly located, but if they have cheap toilet paper and thin scratchy towels, they go way down in my esteem. (Tell me about the TP and the towels for bonus points when I’m reading your review.)
Other people care more about service than anything else, so it’s important to give examples of really good or really bad service (you always remember those). If the service was okay, but not really memorable, then mention that.
Maybe the room was huge and beautiful and had great décor. If that is the case tell us about it – in detail. How huge? How was it decorated? Describe it in detail. Let me feel like I am standing in the doorway looking around the room.
Don’t forget the bathroom. Did it have polished marble and gleaming fixtures? Or was it dank and dingy and had hairs on the floor. Give us the good, the bad, and the really ugly!
Don’t forget the pool, the restaurants, amenities, beaches, and activities.
Maybe You Just Want to Rant
What if you had a horrible experience with customer service. Then tell us exactly the problem, what they did or didn’t do, and if you ever got resolution. Also tell us some general information about the place. Maybe you had a bad clerk or flight attendant. Was it just one person or everyone you encountered? Have you had experiences there before?
Try to give us both sides of the picture and let us decide for ourselves if it is worth it for us to go there.
Read, Read, Read
If travel is your main interest, then you should read a lot of travel reviews, see how they are written, what ratings they get, and what kind of comments they generate. That will help give you a feel for what people like and don’t like.
Read the comments people leave on your reviews. (There is a "comments" link on each of your reviews if you haven't noticed it yet.)
Don’t get your feelings hurt if everyone doesn’t rate your reviews very helpful and leave glowing comments on all your reviews. I’ve been writing travel reviews a long time and still get helpful comments that I try to incorporate into my reviews.
Be open to suggestions and always keep your eyes open for good ideas. Use the "Update" feature to modify your review and incorporate good suggestions or include additional information. I have already updated this review to include some great ideas suggested by fellow travel writers.
How to Update: Look for the "Update" link on your review. When you click "Update" your review goes into a draft mode, lets you edit and preview your changes. You can edit more or re-publish.
Don’t be Afraid to Tattle on Yourself
Adding your personal experiences is usually the best way to bring your reviews to life, make them memorable and generate great comments. Don't be afraid to "tattle" on yourself. Some of my most highly received reviews are those in which I admit to being a total idiot while traveling. I often provide examples of what not to do, such as “The Bumpkin's Guide to New York City” – fortunately for me, I always have plenty of travel horror stories to share.
What About Rating?
Okay, here are DiverPam’s secrets...
• Don’t write a review from a website or a travel guide. If you don’t include personal experience, I will think you never visited there. I don’t want to read a school report on a country.
If you write a generic review with little or no personal experience or detail I will probably rate it as Helpful or Somewhat Helpful.
• Stay on topic. Look closely at the category. Be sure you understand exactly what is expected. If your review is off-topic, then I will rate it accordingly. If you choose to write off-topic, then please don’t be offended when people rate it off-topic and give you suggestions of places to relocate the review.
• If you are writing about a hotel or city, check to see if it is listed in the database. If it is NOT listed, then you can place your review in a broader category, such as state or country without too much danger of being rated off-topic. (Let me know of categories you want added and I’ll try to get them listed for you.)
• Try to tell me something different, interesting, unusual, scary, gross, or disgusting. Make it interesting!
• Write with enthusiasm and write about what you enjoy!
Good luck to you in writing travel reviews. Please let me know if I can help!
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Epinions.com ID:
diverpam
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Member: Pam
Location: Collierville, TN
Reviews written: 263
Trusted by: 351 members
About Me:
~~~~So many oceans...so little time!~~~~
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