I’ll admit it, I’m a reviews fiend.

What that means is I take reviews SERIOUSLY. In fact, I’m sure one hates to see me coming because it won’t take me long to be all up in its business.

Before purchasing on Amazon, I’ll scroll through the reviews.

Before booking a hotel or booking on AirBnB, I’ll scroll through reviews carefully.

Even before an Instagram purchase or going for dinner somewhere – you guessed it – I’ll scroll through the comments analysing reviews.

I fall headfirst into detective mode. I’m looking for trends, looking for photos and looking to ultimately answer the question ‘should I buy/book this?’.

My go-to places are typically Google and Tripadvisor. The ratings and reviews often align on these sites, but if they didn’t, I may do a Reddit thread deep dive or look on Booking.com and Expedia. Trustpilot has also become part of my arsenal, saving me from many dodgy shopping sites. Literally THE other day, I was on it searching the brand behind an IG product I keep getting pushed my way. It’s a cleaning product I think would be really useful but I was too suspicious about the flood of positive comments under the ad. When I read through the Trustpilot comments, a poster commented, ‘I wish I had read the comments on here before purchasing.’ Such sentiments are exactly why I do it; better to be safe than sorry. For context, the company’s Trustpilot rating was pretty low and included a lot of complaints around delivery returns and general dissatisfaction with customer service.

And yes, for the sake of critical thinking, I will say that, of course, reviews are not gospel. There may be a slight bias in who is likely to leave a review. For example, disgruntled customers will do so more because they have a lot to get off their chest. I suspect it’s why I’ve observed a significant effort from many restaurants to incentivise happy customers to leave positive reviews. Similarly, fake reviews and deleted reviews (especially on socials, since companies are free to do this) massively skew ratings and can leave the wrong impression about a product or service you want to try.

I generally tend to trust reviews, though, because it’s very likely experiences will repeat themselves at an establishment. For example, if the issue is long waits for food and rude waiters, this won’t magically change overnight. Same with products; if battery life is poor and the product often stops working after 30 days of use, this is likely an inescapable issue that will affect you too. However, it’s possible a company may go under new management or redesign its product (this often happens with apps, for example). This is why I’ll always prioritise the recent reviews first. The tea they give you is going to be most relevant and up to date.

Lastly, I would like to take this moment in my blog post to thank the avid reviewers whose honest reviews single-handedly hold the review universe together. There are generally two types of consumers on the internet: passive ones and active ones who post reviews a lot. I’m in the former camp, but am super thankful for those in the latter category who even make my consumption possible. If you’re not aware of the great service these individuals do for us daily, all you have to do is head to Tripadvisor and search for a random hotel to see the level of detail that these reviewers will go into (with photo receipts!).

In a nutshell, reviews are an underrated goldmine on the internet. It doesn’t mean you’ll always be happy with everything you buy or book online, but they’re great if you’re aiming to save yourself money, time and regret.

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What are your thoughts on reviews? Do you leave them often?