June 24, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, Boy69 said: TripAdvisor and Google Maps reviews can't be trust at all , Booking.com and Agoda are more reliable because it includes only reviews of guests actually stayed at the hotels and book through their platform. Around a decade ago, Business Traveller magazine had a two page feature on Tripadvisor and other 'review' sites which confirmed that Tripadvisor certainly manipulated reviews. I then wrote a post or two here on how it had manipulated the lousy standing of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. I was booked in there when speaking at a Conference. For a 5-star hotel, I thought it was dreadful. 20-minute queue to check-in, 30 minute-queue for breakfast, 30 minute-queue to check-out, 5 to 8-minute queue every time you wanted a lift and my non-smoking room had at least a dozen cigarette burns on furniture. It was then ranked as around #65 in Tripadvisor's hotel list - the worst of any 5-star hotel in the city state. But this was and is the Singaopore government's pride and joy. And when the SIngapore government is pissed off, it does something about it. So over the next 18 months the hotel moved up to around #32. But all the 5-star reviews it received were one- or two-liners of the "great hotel", "fabulous pool", "definitely will return" variety. Clearly 90%+ were fake. I then wrote to Tripavisor's head office pointing out 20 reviews of this an other establishments that were clearly fake. I never received a reply, but within weeks 14 of those reviews had disappeared!
June 24, 20233 yr Gentlemen - I think perhaps a glance at the Board Rules makes clear what is and what is not permissible in terms of names. These state - "Personal information that can be used to identify a member, a user, or a go-go boy or bar boy, whether or not a Gay Thailand member, shall not be permitted. No member shall publish or cause to be published such personal information. A violation of the Covenant shall be cause for immediate termination of Forum privileges." I have no idea how the rule operates but it is clearly there. I realise that names have been used in a considerable number of posts in more than a few threads and I do not know of any termination of Board privileges. But are you really prepared to test the waters?
June 24, 20233 yr 1 hour ago, PeterRS said: For a 5-star hotel, I thought it was dreadful. 20-minute queue to check-in, 30 minute-queue for breakfast, 30 minute-queue to check-out, 5 to 8-minute queue every time you wanted a lift and my non-smoking room had at least a dozen cigarette burns on furniture. you are posting on gay forum or writing horror novel ? Now I know why I like my Baan Silom , no waiting for check-in or -out, neither for elevator. And definitely no waiting for breakfast as none offered. Unesco Heritage is short walk from there though and no waiting there either. Long live cheap!
June 24, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, PeterRS said: Around a decade ago, Business Traveller magazine had a two page feature on Tripadvisor and other 'review' sites which confirmed that Tripadvisor certainly manipulated reviews. I then wrote a post or two here on how it had manipulated the lousy standing of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore. I was booked in there when speaking at a Conference. For a 5-star hotel, I thought it was dreadful. 20-minute queue to check-in, 30 minute-queue for breakfast, 30 minute-queue to check-out, 5 to 8-minute queue every time you wanted a lift and my non-smoking room had at least a dozen cigarette burns on furniture. It was then ranked as around #65 in Tripadvisor's hotel list - the worst of any 5-star hotel in the city state. But this was and is the Singaopore government's pride and joy. And when the SIngapore government is pissed off, it does something about it. So over the next 18 months the hotel moved up to around #32. But all the 5-star reviews it received were one- or two-liners of the "great hotel", "fabulous pool", "definitely will return" variety. Clearly 90%+ were fake. I then wrote to Tripavisor's head office pointing out 20 reviews of this an other establishments that were clearly fake. I never received a reply, but within weeks 14 of those reviews had disappeared! TripAdvisor pretending to be reliable tourists informative site but actually is not every time I checked reviews of specific hotels I immediately received commercial mails of promotion deals for the same hotels I was interested in their website.
June 24, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, Leroy82 said: It appears the boy doesn’t mind at all 🤣 I am sure that is correct. But whether it is permissible to mention a name and the bar/spa he might work for is an issue for the moderator. I know the Covenant that members have to agree to was written some years ago. It might be worth writing to the moderator to see if there is any update.
June 24, 20233 yr 51 minutes ago, Boy69 said: ... I immediately received commercial mails of promotion deals for the same hotels I was interested in their website. that may have it's benefits providing offers are competitive indeed. In preparation to Jan trip I received some offers from Expedia and price quoted was still higher than I was able to get by booking on Agoda, Talking about the same category of room in the same hotel.
June 24, 20233 yr 1 hour ago, vinapu said: you are posting on gay forum or writing horror novel ? No doubt some member may wish to stay at that hotel. It certainly looks iconic and you'd assume it was true 5-star quality. I spent two nights paid for by the Conference and then moved to a hotel I know to be vastly nicer, more comfortable and far less expensive. I see the Marina Bay Sands has dropped back to #54. The most recent review from a few days ago states ". . . it felt like everything is disorganized, maybe it was because the hotel looked like full capacity, breakfast we had to wait 40min in-line, the sky view pool was packed . . ." Clearly nothing has changed! And at 22,100 baht per night on agoda for one of its 2,500 rooms, it is a total rip-off. But that is not the worst horror I have had on my many travels!
June 24, 20233 yr Author 33 minutes ago, PeterRS said: I am sure that is correct. But whether it is permissible to mention a name and the bar/spa he might work for is an issue for the moderator. I know the Covenant that members have to agree to was written some years ago. It might be worth writing to the moderator to see if there is any update. Please direct these concerns to forum member “gayinpattaya” who first mentioned the names in this thread… I’m loving the morality of some people here, thou shall not mention names/work places but thou will go to Thailand and pay a young man to sleep with me…..
June 24, 20233 yr 3 hours ago, Leroy82 said: Please direct these concerns to forum member “gayinpattaya” who first mentioned the names in this thread… I’m loving the morality of some people here, thou shall not mention names/work places but thou will go to Thailand and pay a young man to sleep with me….. I think the main issue is normally when people are posting photos and personal sexual information about people. Saying I met a boy called BEER in whatever bar is not the same. It's not their real name anyway. Just an alias many change every few months.
June 24, 20233 yr 3 hours ago, gayinpattaya said: I think the main issue is normally when people are posting photos and personal sexual information about people. Saying I met a boy called BEER in whatever bar is not the same. It's not their real name anyway. Just an alias many change every few months. Last time I used the word "boy" I got a few emails from one member saying that "service provider" is more appropriate as others may be offended how the forum's have become "woke" nowadays ... Political correctness gone mad 🤣
June 24, 20233 yr 35 minutes ago, Olddaddy said: Last time I used the word "boy" I got a few emails from one member saying that "service provider" is more appropriate as others may be offended how the forum's have become "woke" nowadays ... Political correctness gone mad 🤣 I am sick of all of the politically correct trend it's obvious that using the word 'boy' refers to a guy over 18 y.o. and not to underage boy.
June 24, 20233 yr 1 hour ago, Olddaddy said: Last time I used the word "boy" I got a few emails from one member saying that "service provider" is more appropriate as others may be offended how the forum's have become "woke" nowadays ... Political correctness gone mad 🤣 Not to worry. Most plumbers over 18.
June 25, 20233 yr 12 hours ago, vinapu said: you are posting on gay forum or writing horror novel ? Now I know why I like my Baan Silom , no waiting for check-in or -out, neither for elevator. And definitely no waiting for breakfast as none offered. Unesco Heritage is short walk from there though and no waiting there either. Long live cheap! Waiting for water though 😉
June 25, 20233 yr Popular Post 3 hours ago, Olddaddy said: Last time I used the word "boy" I got a few emails from one member saying that "service provider" is more appropriate as others may be offended how the forum's have become "woke" nowadays ... Political correctness gone mad 🤣 Yet every boy will tell you they are a "money boy". Still waiting to hear "I money man"... Woke idiots needs to get over themselves. Thailand isn't the west, and the wording is ingrained in the language/culture here. Admittedly, it doesn't translate so well to English. But why should Thai translate to English? Their language was created for them. The LGBTAWGTQR++-34.2 people do my head in. What a load of woke nonsense.
June 25, 20233 yr Popular Post Those of us who were visiting during the early 2000s when certain activities in Sunee were being publicised in the UK press, became a little touchy over the use of the word "boy". And not just us....Boyz Boyz Boyz changed its spelling, just as Boyztown itself did. I think Michael Burchill touched on this in his history of Boyztown. I may be wrong about this but the use of the word "boyz" to describe gay young men also became widespread, at least in the gay press. It is true that Thais themselves still use the word "boy" in a commercial sex context but I wouldn't in my interactions with straight society. Not that there are many of those nowadays!
June 25, 20233 yr 20 hours ago, Leroy82 said: Please direct these concerns to forum member “gayinpattaya” who first mentioned the names in this thread… Did I refer to you or any other specific poster when I made my comment? No! And I will not do so. Your comment is somewhat irrelevant.
June 25, 20233 yr Author 20 minutes ago, PeterRS said: Did I refer to you or any other specific poster when I made my comment? No! And I will not do so. Your comment is somewhat irrelevant. You were literally replying to my post….🤦🏼♂️
June 26, 20233 yr 15 hours ago, Leroy82 said: You were literally replying to my post….🤦🏼♂️ I was replying - literally or not - to no specific poster's post, and I made sure that was perfectly clear.
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