TripAdvisor: We Are Not Making This Up.

Welcome to our blog!

We have prolific reviewers, sure. We have wonderful Local Experts who can answer the most obscure questions about their hometown. We have reviews full of exquisite prose-- not to mention perfect grammar. And we are, of course, immensely proud of it all.

But what do we really talk about over lunch at TripAdvisor? The stuff we can’t publish. Whether it’s funny, rude, bizarre, potentially libelous, incomprehensible, or all of the above, we love it, and we think you will too.

The Snarky Owl has a brand-new nest...

We've moved our blog to http://tripadvisor.wordpress.com.

When you visit us there, you'll notice we're posting about much more than the crazy reviews, e-mails and forum posts you've seen here. We hope you enjoy it!

Never fear, though-- nothing has happened to the Snarky Owl. He'll be posting on Fridays with just as much attitude as ever.

Thanks for reading our blog... we hope you'll continue to follow us on our new site. Now we have to go to the Owl's blogwarming party and pretend we like field mouse martinis. Ew.

Actually, that doesn't sound cute at all

From a review:

Snakes in my room, baboon pooping and peeing my room and in the showers multiple times a day (sounds cute when you write it, but I assure you it is not).

We can't imagine why...

From a review:

There are two employees that dress up like flinstones and smash clubs off the ground next to sleeping guests as a joke. People were getting quite upset with this.

Who has the "superiority complex" again?

An e-mail to our support team:

TripAdvisor,

who the hell do you think you are...? I just wrote a review on a marvellous (note the double "ll"...) P--- hotel and what was your reply...? Your review will be published if it meets with our "criteria"... I'm a journalist. And a damn good one. I've been in this business for over forty years. I've been writing on: international affairs, sports, history, literature, cinema, music. In other words, you are not by any means entitled to judge what I write, how I write. I guess TripAdvisor is an American 'agency'. That doesn't surprise me at all... Gosh, there are no limits to your "superiority complex"...

Get lost.

If this leaves you completely confused, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

A fax sent to our office:

Hello!

I love TripAdvisor and use your site frequently.

Unfortunately, it appears that you are not immune to such tomfoolery that it one of the main factors driving healthcare costs and that will hinder any attempts at reform.

It's a shame you have been forced to add such a disclaimer:

"This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC."

I'm sure there's at least one demoralizing story that led to this addition.

Keep up the good work.

Where would YOU rather be?

A message to our support team:

Hello, We are shown on the google map on the other side of Cockermouth town, not where we really are, in Papcastle. I have tried to move the star indicator but can't. Can this be corrected please?

Details, details...

An e-mail to our support team:

Could you please correct the spelling of my restaurant in your listing?
The correct name is La Plage (not La Plague...)

Breaking news: People hate middle seats. Also, the sky is still blue.

On our Facebook page, we asked whether travelers prefer an aisle, middle or window seat (and if they'd pay $10 more to get it on a crowded flight). Shockingly, no one professed a preference for the middle! And so far, it's a dead heat between aisle folks and window folks.

Some of our favorite comments:

• Sound like they should all be long thin planes - four seats with an aisle between!!
• Aisle or my evil twin emerges. Yes, I would pay extra!
• Do not put ideas into the airlines head!!! They have enough things going on to make us fight for a seat! bad girl/boy!!! Bad!!!!

We ask a lot of questions like this over on FB, so stop by our page and leave your own comments. Snarkiness is always welcomed.

If you'd like an owl to wink at you...

just walk behind the dude on the right!

It seems some intrepid soul has invented "Winkers," pants that wink as you walk. How, you ask, do they wink? They have giant eyes painted on where the fabric folds between your, ehrm, glutes and your leg. For real. When we saw you could get an owl, we just had to post it. Looks an awful lot like someone we know.

[via Metro Magazine]

Say this five times fast: mouse mousse mousse mouse

A review:

F----- does everything deliciously well. Their desserts, such as their chocolate mouse mousse is fun and wonderful; their french toast la torta sandwich is a favorite.

Funny typo of our own (at least we hope it's a typo)

A restaurant in Summerfield, NC:

Puking Wok

Oh HotelChatter, you flatter us...

But we are totally using your headline as an excuse to act like a diva for the rest of the day.

TripAdvisor's 'We Are Not Making This Up' Blog is Still Glorious

The Owl loves hotels with a sense of humor

EdinburghNomad spotted this at Cook's Lookout Motel:

Bike + blender = smoothies for a good cause!

Andrew from our Sales team came up with a unique way of raising money for cancer research... he's blending smoothies on his bike. You can pay what you like for your smoothie-- TripAdvisor will match it. (If you can't make it to B Good in Harvard Square before 1 pm today, Andrew's also riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge, and you can sponsor him online here.)

P.S. The Owl wants a field mouse-blueberry-banana smoothie. But he will bring his own blender.

"We were picked up from the airport on a unicorn"-- TA stand up comedy!

The bit about TripAdvisor starts around the 2:38 mark.