TRIPADVISOR TRAVELERS'CHOICE: WATER AT YOUR OWN MILL...

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Photo Source: Gaetano Sciacca

This morning, while I was hanging out on the camping site to check that the booking system was working by heart, I absentmindedly noticed that the logo of the certificate of excellence of Trip Advisor is still in 2018 ... Not that there ever is very important, however, as they say in our latitudes, it is a recognition that nevertheless rinses .

And what has happened since 2019?

Apart from a slight increase in reviews on Google (where the review system is perhaps perceived as leaner and faster) compared to Trip Advisor, the quality and quantity of reviews has remained more or less constant. So what? Isn't it by chance that the recent skirmishes to withdraw from the Business Advantage contract (question resolved after months of emails, certified e-mails and phone calls by a kind Customer Success Executive) have influenced?
At this point curiosity creeps into my synaptic connections…

Looking on the internet , I first discover that a lot of things have changed since 2019. For example the Certificate of Excellence scope has been replaced by Tripadvisor Travelers'Choice .
Trip is keen to reiterate that "all prizes will be based on the traveller's choices". Very well, nothing changes then…

To the eventual Travelers' Choice winner , Trip gives a series of memorabilia: "a Travelers' Choice badge on his winning ads", "a promotional kit to help him advertise his results", "a Travelers' Choice 'Choice widget that highlights this recognition on its website ”(obviously linked to TripAdvisor…),“ access to the Travelers' Choice merchandise store where you can purchase special items ”. Honestly, I don't know how much this winner can give a damn about such virtual gadgets, rather to the simple (always as they say in our latitudes) break it with the recognition logo highlighted on the site or appizzato < / em> on the reception door…

On closer inspection, however, a little something seems to actually change…

Tripadvisor Rentals would award The Travelers' Choice award to those with “good reviews” (cheers…), to those who respond to reviews as quickly as possible, “to those who provide travel experiences positive "(that is ?!)

Let's deepen. The Travelers' Choice awards are based on the "overall return of the reference period" (the calendar year), in relation to the following criteria:

- response rate of 95% or higher (I recommend, 95% ... not one percentage point less);

- approval rate of 90% or higher (er… nice reviews?);

- at least 3 complete stays from the beginning of the activity (ah ... I understand ...);

- having received at least 3 bookings (ah! I understand even better…);

- no cancellations of reservations by the owner (oh well ... now it's clear where they want to go);

- having received at least 3 reviews with an average rating of 4 or higher (objectively, for those who work well enough, it's a bit of a bullshit ...)

I have a slight suspicion that, with these new criteria, Trip would like to incentivize the signing of business contracts at gogo…

But we need a confession:

"The algorithm takes into account [...] the presence of the business".

Now it is very clear: obviously the “three complete stays”, the “three bookings” and “no cancellation by the owner”, are possibilities relating to “business” contracts (of which we have already spoken extensively). Basically, ~~if you pay~~ if you enter into a business contract, you have the opportunity to be awarded The Travelers' Choice award . This is the difference with the old Certificate of Excellence .

As long as we are able to work, we will continue to gladly give it up.

Text Source: Antonino Rampulla

ARCHIVE NEWS

CART RUTS MODELED ON SOFT ROCK?
Read also RACK OR HOUSING FOR CLOGS? Some cart ruts from the Targia district, in Syracuse, and most of the cart ruts from Granatari Vecchi, in Rosolini, give the impression of having been impressed, modelled, on a rock that was originally viscous, not entirely solid. As absurd as this hypothesis may seem, especially in Granatari Vecchi, the softness of the shapes and the at least anomalous uniformity of the rock bank, as if it were a concrete casting, which hosts the cart ruts, is unicum compared to the lithic context in the area. In Targia this phenomenon is less impressive but if we consider the cart ruts essentially cart tracks, therefore furrowed roads indirectly resulting from the repeated passage of carts along the same route, we do not understand why such uniformity and smoothness is present, in the majority of cases, also on the parts not affected by the passage of the...

RACK OR HOUSING FOR CLOGS?
Read also CART RUTS CUT FROM QUARRIES In the presence of slopes, even slight ones, in some cart ruts in the Targia district, in Syracuse, central holes are found with a diameter of between 30 and 50 centimeters and a depth of 15-20 centimeters, spaced about 50 centimeters apart. Neither the position (they are not exactly in the center of the cart ruts and perfectly aligned with each other), nor the shape appear perfectly regular: either the passage of time and any wear have profoundly modified their original shape or, simply, they have never had a systematic regularity. However, the offset in position between one hole and another is never completely “off-axis”: there is always a portion about twenty centimeters wide that coincides with the same portion of the previous and subsequent hole. The best preserved and most defined holes are found in the cart ruts usually called Scala...

CART RUTS CUT FROM QUARRIES
Back to CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS I will skip any preamble, referring to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily. The easy academic tendency has been, in most cases concerning cart ruts, to consider them in terms of the latomie, or quarries, with which very often (for example in the cases of the Targia or Pizzuta districts) they share the same territory. According to this theory, the carraie would have been indirectly created due to the wear of the rock at each passage of carts or sleds loaded with extracted stone blocks. I will not repeat the arguments presented so far in order to demonstrate that this is a theory that has little solid foundations on an in-depth analysis of the cart ruts. However, I will add a piece by demonstrating the implausibility of a connection between them in both chronological and functional...

CART RUTS AND A FEW TOO MANY PROJECTIONS
Read also THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.Considering the possibility that the cart ruts were gradually dug by the passage of carts pulled by pack animals, for example pairs of oxen, observing certain sections of the cart ruts present in the Granatari Vecchi district, in Rosolini, and in the Pizzuta district, close to the Vendicari Reserve, two questions arise: 1. Why force the animals to pass over rough surfaces and protrusions high, compared to the base of the furrows, even 60-70 centimeters? 2. Why, in the presence of such obstacles, not opt for a detour? For Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer such protrusions appeared later, since at the time of the passage of the wagons, a layer of earth covered the rocky bank, thus not making the obstacle...

THE POLISHING OF THE CART RUTS
Read also THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily. To proceed with this comparison I have chosen a probable capital and the corner of a recess present in a block of the northern walls of Eloro that would seem to resemble a pinax, that is, a niche that would have housed a fresco of the heroa, but which a more careful observation refers to a system functional to the grip of the block through a pincer winch. Both elements, like the curt ruts, have remained at the mercy of the elements for millennia, and are therefore subject to comparable wear and tear due to the passage of time. The finishing of the capital should be of a high standard, since it is an architectural element that also has an aesthetic function. The recess, on the other hand, should have...

THE PROBLEMATIC EDGES OF THE CART RUTS
I will skip any preamble, referring to to what has already been written regarding the presence of cart ruts in south-eastern Sicily.As can be seen in other sites around the world, in some cart ruts I visited, in particular in the Cugni district in Pachino, in the Granati Vecchi district in Rosolini and in the Targia district in Syracuse, a clear border can be seen, a sort of frame, next to the grooves, more marked externally, barely noticeable internally. The borders I measured have a width of 14-20 centimeters and a height of 8-10 centimeters. Not all cart ruts have such frames present or particularly evident, regardless of the degree of wear or degradation. They are found above all in cart ruts with less deep grooves. As already described in detail, given the presence of furrows with a depth of even 65-70 centimeters, the wheels of a possible vehicle would have had to have a...

THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART FOUR)
Click here to return to third part Clapham Junction As in the Maltese site Misrah Ghar Il-Kbir, also in the Targia and Granatari Vecchi districts the cart ruts intersect and cross each other in a similar way to the track switches in a railway station. The nickname Clapham Junction that was given by David H. Trump to the Maltese site, derives precisely from the similarity with the famous English railway station. For Sagona these are agricultural furrows and water channels, for Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer these are abandoned paths due to obstacles and wear. Obviously we do not know what the morphology of the Syracuse and Rosolini territory was at times when the cart ruts were traced, but considering the current context, there certainly would have been no agricultural reason to build them, given the presence of fertile land, springs and fresh water courses just a few kilometers...

THE PROBLEM OF CART RUTS IN SOUTH-EASTERN SICILY (PART THREE)
Click here to return to SECOND PART Considerations on the theses of Mottershead, Pearson and Schaefer I find this study extremely interesting, even if I am perplexed by this emphasis on the loss of hardness of the wet rock given that Malta is among the European territories at greatest risk of desertification (as is unfortunately also the south-eastern area of Sicily). We don't know exactly what the climate was like in Malta when the cart ruts were made, as we don't even know for sure how old they were made. However, it might be understandable to take the humidity factor as a starting point. n strong consideration, in relation to a territory constantly subject to rainfall, but why would the ancient Maltese have had to intensely travel with loaded carts right after a downpour, with all the inconveniences that for example the mud would have entailed? The Maltese territory is...