When we’re planning to travel somewhere new or somewhere we have been to, we always look for people’s reviews or opinions about their experiences. And what sort of things that we should take note or consider, before booking our trip. Thus, getting honest feedback, reviews, or opinions; I think really matters or important especially for all of us that would really want to have an idea so to sort of getting prepared or aware.
And as a Google Local guides, I believe that being honest with your reviews and/or opinion can really make a big difference for other people’s expectations. Using google maps while traveling really helps a lot, not only it will give you a direction but it will also suggest the nearest transportations, attractions, food, and drinks that would be interesting to you. I remembered when I was in London with my hubby, I didn’t plan well on getting around London. So I used google maps most of my exploration, and I noticed that some of the attractions either mapped wrongly or there are plenty of names created in google maps that caused duplicates and making it more difficult to find the right reviews.
And I’ve learned that being a local guide - I can make some updates/edits for the direction or name, and that’s what I did. And because it’s very important to me that when I’m sharing some reviews to places I’ve been to, I do make sure that the map and the name actually matched with the actual place. This is to ensure that whoever going to the same place, would have the right information and not just able to provide or upload some photos and reviews.
I’ve learned that being an honest local guide, can help others to see what’s the reality vs. to what their expectations. One of the examples I have was again back in London, we tried ShakeShack in Covent Garden because we’re pretty curious about this food chain as we saw the long queue in Singapore and pretty much read great reviews. And we just have to try it, for us really; nothing so WOW about the burgers but that’s just our feedback perhaps for other people it’s really something extraordinary but at least we shared honest reviews.
When it comes to photography, honest images would be more reliable than fully edited. Because obviously that will shock you in an actual visit that it doesn’t look the same from the photos. And it goes back to expectations vs. reality, it’s just different coz either it’s fully edited or photoshopped. And as a local guide, I value honesty. Of course, it will be awesome to do some editing - that only if you’re promoting your blog, profession as a photographer, using it for competition or even to sell it, then by all means - do it and share it.
Last but not the least, sharing honest feedback, reviews, and/or opinions I believe can be more relatable to the rest. Because who doesn’t want honest information right? Especially in traveling. It’s more convincing to believe coming from regular people giving some feedback/reviews with their actual experiences in such places and majority it doesn’t to so polish information but just exactly how you feel about the place. And we’re happy with that…
Most of the posts in my blog are based on honest opinions and personal experiences…And I would like to continue doing the same here as a Local Guide.
I’d rather be honest than impressive…