TRIP-ADVISOR; REID'S PALACE

Reid's Palace, Luxury Hotel in Madeira, Portugal

On 1 February 2012, the UK's Telegraph has an article entitled:

"The TripAdvisor hotels with a five-star critic in every room".

According to the Telegraph:

1. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that because 'non-genuine content' can appear on the TripAdvisor site undetected, the slogan 'Reviews you can trust' is inappropriate.

2. Adam Raphael, the editor of The Good Hotel Guide, has claimed that as many as half of the reviews could be 'collusive'.

3. One hotel has confessed to writing 'probably 80 per cent' of its own TripAdvisor reviews.

4. Some hotels reportedly bribe guests to give good reports.

5. Some hotels reportedly libel their rivals with stories of food poisoning, bedbugs or credit card fraud.

6. Reportedly some customers threatening to criticise a hotel unless they get a discount on the bill.

Reid's Palace Hotel in Madeira. Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. owns Hotel Cipriani in Venice, Italy, Reid's Palace in Madeira, Portugal, Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 21 Club in New York City, in the United States.

Members of Aangirfan's family made a brief trip to the five-star Reid's Palace hotel in Madeira.

Reportedly, the staff varied in quality!

TripAdvisor rates Reid's Palace hotel in Madeira as one of the top 25 in the world.

Here are some of the reviews:

1. "Our 10 and 12 year old boys were made extremely welcome as are all well-behaved children... but the unbelieveably badly behaved, noisy trio of American families who descended on the pool area for 3 days were made to feel extremely uncomfortable by both staff and guests. This is a peaceful place.There is a "teenage room" complete with a variety of X-Box, Wii, Internet and comfortable sofas."

2. "Whilst our room was a little on the small side, the view over the gardens across to the sea was lovely. We stayed before Christmas, so the hotel was only half full, so it was pretty quiet, but we'd love to go back for the festive celebrations in the future. The hotel is in a lovely setting, and is a 20 minute walk into town, which suited us well. Only downside was the pool exercise class, really could have done without 80s dance music blaring out whilst the instructor called out over the top."

3. "We had a couple of completely comical (but somewhat irritating when you're on the receiving end) 'Fawlty Towers' type breakfasts with missing orders, mixed up orders, and finally restaurant staff starting to argue amongst themselves about what had been ordered by who. An hour and a half, and then the eggs were over-cooked and inedible. I gave up and used the buffet that day! A few nights later one of the same waiters tried to get us to sign for our food at the Cipriani when we are booked for half board. Oh, and the hotel forgot to invite us to the weekly cocktail party."

Reid's Palace Hotel. In 1894, Empress Elizabeth of Austria stayed there after the death of her son, Crown Prince Rudolf. Winston Churchill stayed there. He wrote his memoirs and painted at the nearby village of Camara de Lobos. John Huston and Gregory Peck stayed there. The Aga Khan met Rita Hayworth at Reid's.

4. "I had expected something awesome, but it wasn't , so I was disappointed.

"Very average hotel and rather dated & stuffy & not the sumptuous palace I had expected.

"The cruise ships were in and coach parties arrived in crocodile for afternoon tea..."

5. "Just returned from 4 overpriced, underwhelming sleepless nights at Reid's Palace.

"There was nothing palatial about our poorly maintained room with it's stopped-up tub, broken a/c, shorted-out television, warm mini-bar, and back-breaking mattress.

"Nor was there anything royal about the brusque service and snubbish, unconcerned attitude of the poorly trained front-end staff..."

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"The police discovered that Norbert DR was not only a collector of child pornography but had also made several short porn films with underage boys on the Portuguese island of Madeira in 1991.

"Vervloesem made a link between the Madeira films and the 'Temse network' which reportedly sent underage boys to Holland." (aangirfan: WARWICK SPINKS AND MARCEL VERVLOESEM)

Churchill liked Madeira.

Paedophile groups reportedly used to travel to Madeira to seek out young children. (Guardian Unlimited The Guardian Portugal's elite linked to ...)