ADD AN "EXTERNAL REVIEW"

Right, you've added a number of your own reviews and perhaps you've moved a couple of steps up the promotion ladder. You probably feel ready to tackle one of trivago's other activities.

It has to be said that these reviews can be the most difficult, most misunderstood and cause more angst to members than anything else in trivago. The site does however consider these reviews to be particularly important as they generate the overall ratings about the item under consideration. This is reflected in the KRB value which can be awarded, which is higher than for one of your own.

An external review can come from any number of sources (both online and offline) and the essential ingredient is that the author has offered an opinion or rating about the item. Your job is to identify the source, extract the ratings from it and then provide a summary of the review.

Your summary should be a summary in your own words but illustrated by quotes taken from the article that confirm the singular ratings you have carried across. (Please don't fall into the all too common trap of merely juggling the words of the original around a bit; and also make sure it is a summary - I have seen comments that have been longer than the original!!)The point here is that you are giving the reader a flavour of what the review is about and potentially encouraging them to go and read it for themselves.

A WORKED EXAMPLE

(Note: this exercise is similar for both attractions and hotels. Attractions have far less ratings to consider and you may want to try a few of these before you attempt a hotel review)

I am using here a review of King's College Chapel, Cambridge which appeared in an on-line tourist information site.

You can see the original page at:

http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/cambridgeshire/az/cambridge/kings-college-chapel.htm

The first thing to note is that we are summarising the author's review NOT making a comment on the website or anything else on the web page.

From a practical point of view the easier option is to identify the ratings made in the review and then compose your summary/comment offline and fill in the form last.

So: Go to the attraction's home page

Click the third option "Add External Review" on the top yellow menu bar.

This brings up the "Add External Review" form.
You should consider all of these fields to be mandatory ones.

Firstly, before you do anything else look at the "The following sources have already been added" list to confirm that you are not adding a duplicate.

Choose the language of the article
Choose the offline / online flag
Choose the type of source providing the review
(this will indicate the maximum KRB value for the review)
Enter the name of the author
(If no author is named then add the name of the source again)
Enter the link to the source
(this is the web address entered without the initial http://)
Enter the Travel Date Month and Year
(this may be stated somewhere on the page. If there is no date add the current month and year)
Enter the descriptive headline
(this should usually be the title of the external review)

Click Individual Reviews
(There is only a single group for attractions; there are four groups for hotels)

This lists the possible individual ratings that trivago is interested in.
Only enter those items which are explicitly rated in the review and make an assessment of the strength of that rating. Don't guess or be inventive.
As an example, for a hotel the non-specific expression "close to local amenities" does not mean you check all of "shopping", "cultural opportunities", "nightlife" etc

One final point: if you have summarised an offline source, you should add a proper reference at the end of the review which includes author's name; name of publication; published by; page numbers.

Add your comment/summary in the box.

Lastly add an overall ratings
(Use the author's if given; otherwise it should be an average of the individual ratings)


HERE IS WHAT WAS ADDED FOR KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL:

Language: English
Source: Online
Type of review: Online tourist information
Name of author: Britain Express (no individual author named)
Link to source: www.britainexpress.com/counties/cambridgeshire/az/cambridge/kings-college-chapel.htm
Travel date: Nov 2006 (no date specified)
Descriptive headline: Kings College Chapel, Cambridge
Individual ratings: "Must see", "Ambiance", "Architecture" (other ratings are not mentioned in the original)
Overall rating: 10/10

The summary:
The author admits the same deficiency as the guidebooks in finding enough "superlatives" to describe the "sumptuous flowing lines" of this "most magnificent example" of late medieval architecture in England. He gives a succinct history of the founding of King's College Chapel by King Henry VI in 1441 and its subsequent completion some 70 years later during the reign of Henry VIII. He highlights the "magnificent intricately decorated and carved" fan vaulting, "the largest in the world", which took only three years to install. He is also surprised by the lack of damage by Cromwell's troops during the Civil War and also the removal of the stained glass windows to prevent damage during World War II. He found the antescreen to be "superb" and declared the organ "a work of art". He highlights the "truly remarkable experience" of the services which are open to the public and the world famous Christmas Eve Carol Service.

A NOTE ABOUT WORD

Microsoft Word uses a number of "typographical characters" (quotation marks, apostrophes) which trivago does not recognise. If you have used these may be stripped out and you may get an error message asking you to replace them. Using Notepad should prevent this problem but then be careful about spelling errors and typos.

Newfloridian wrote:

Using Notepad should prevent this problem but then be careful about spelling errors and typos.

You can use Firefox 2.0 with its built-in spellchecker for form data :-)