Wasting hours on end on Trip Advisor

The other week I submitted my first ever review on Trip Advisor after a hotel totally messed up our booking and then blamed me.
Jane BinnionJane Binnion
Jane Binnion

This means I have found a totally new way to waste hours on end - reading people’s reviews of places I will probably never go to. Of course, because I had written a damming review I then felt the need to write a very nice review for somewhere else just to prove I’m not an incessant complainer.

But then that’s it, you’re hooked. Trip Adviser sent me an email thanking me for my review and told me another review will earn me another 100 points, well what else could I do, I reviewed the lovely place we did stay at and then the pub we ate in. I earned myself 400 points. Yeah!

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It was only then I thought to check what these points were actually for. So I spent another 30 minutes reading the Q&A section and other people’s comments before realising the points are - nothing at all! They simply let people know you spend far too much time on Trip Advisor. If I’ve got that wrong and they in fact win me a holiday, please will someone let me know.

So, it’s the end of the long school holidays and a new term begins here, which means that by the time you read this we will be already be fed up with the 6.30am alarm call. The exciting news this term brings is that, following the work I’ve been doing with teens, parents and schools, the Lancashire Police Commissioner is funding a project for me to go into up to 20 schools and community centres in the Lancaster District to run free sessions for parents, carers, grandparents, aunts and uncles on understanding social media, so they can have conversations with their youngsters about keeping safe, managing their reputation and letting them know there is someone they can talk to if they are at all concerned about what they are seeing online.

So many parents I meet do not understand social media as they didn’t grow up with it, but that means their youngsters may not be getting the guidance they need to use these tools safely and understand the long term consequences.

Schools do a great job of course, but skilling up and supporting parents and carers is also much needed. If you would like to host, or attend, a session then please email me.

Have a great week and stay safe online.