MSNBC, 10/25/2010 - On the home page for a travel outfit called Cooking Vacations, tourists are beckoned by the image of fun tools they can wield on their Euro excursions: two forks, a spoon and a knife. But company owner Lauren Birmingham Piscitelli uses another implement to describe her experience with TripAdvisor.com, which reviews Cooking Vacations and thousands of other vacation businesses on its website. “It’s a double-edged sword,” she says. (...)

“Take a look at a hotel located in Chennai, India” for “suspicious,” positive comments, suggested Marie L. Chandra, owner of a hotel consultancy for women business travelers, Via-Her.com. Among that specific hotel’s 32 TripAdvisor reviews, 30 are scored as “excellent” or “very good.” Read article.