By IANS,
New Delhi : Planning a holiday and scouting for information? Give those vague word-of-mouth reviews a break and instead log on to www.tripadvisor.in which has a large database of travellers’ reviews, blogs, videos and photographs to help you plan a perfect vacation anywhere in the world.
Launched in India this month, tripadvisor provides information on different travel destinations in as many as 140 countries. They also have reviews of hotels for different budgets, complete with videos that take you through the place you would like to visit.
Sharat Dhall, managing director of Tripadvisor India, said that after making their presence felt in eight countries, which includes the US, Britain, France, Italy and Spain, they decided to come to India given the interest generated here.
“We noticed that tripadvisor was being increasingly sought after by Indian travellers planning their holidays anywhere across the world. We have about 100,000 members from India alone,” Dhall told IANS.
“With us launching the site here, people can access the information provided in the local language,” he said.
Although they don’t do bookings directly, be it travel or accommodation, the site has partner sites like www.cleartrip.com, through which one can book travel tickets, sight seeing tours and hotels.
“The USP of tripadvisor are the travel reviews and articles by fellow travellers who have been to a place and stayed in a particular place. Small recommendations like a boat cruise in Chunnambar in Pondicherry or staying at the Quais de Seine in France go a long way in making a trip comfortable and rejuvenating,” Dhall said.
Of course, the reviews and the information given by users are cross-checked before making them available on the website.
“We get about three reviews of a place or hotel every minute. Therefore, we have an internal system by which all these reviews are moderated and checked to ensure they are not fake. And then we also have feedback.
“Also, if anyone has a question, two-thirds of them gets answered within 24 hours. The portal that way is very interactive and helpful,” he added.