98% of our Tripadvisor reviews say we are worthy of Five Stars

I’m typing this a week before Christmas Eve 2022, and we now have 500 reviews on Tripadvisor!

Tripadvisor used to be a minefield. In the early days, I remember watching a documentary where scores of cottage and hotel owners complained that their competitors were giving them bad reviews. The flip side was they also said that their competitors had tons of great reviews. From their own friends! I simply decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.

Then Tripadvisor changed their system and gave property owners the opportunity to confirm whether or not the reviewer had actually stayed. So with massive trepidation I decided to put the Woodfarm head above the parapet of Tripadvisor and their review platform in 2014. Our first review came on 31st January 2014 and was Five Stars. I was relieved. Big time! Then so was the next one. And the next one, and the next one, and the next one…

Every single time I go and check our reviews, I hold my breath. You see, we do absolutely everything we can to ensure that your stay is the best we can possibly make it. The Woodfarm team works extremely hard to present and maintain your Barn or Barge to the best of our abilities, with a delicious Suffolk breakfast basket, and all the info you could possibly wish for, to maximise your precious memories. 

We have written somewhere in the region of 600 blog posts over the years, to give you tons and tons of information and ideas to get the most out of your stay. 

We do our level best to provide you with the best possible customer service, and you know what? It’s what we’ve become known for. In 2022 we won the prestigious Visit England ROSE AWARD for customer service excellence. This, on top of receiving their GOLD AWARDS every year (including just last week) for all ten of our properties ever since we joined the scheme some six years or so ago.

I remember when we were heading towards our 100th Five Star Tripadvisor review, I was so nervous, and determined to hit 100 with nothing but Five Stars. And we did it!

And then we hit 200 Five Star reviews with nothing less!

I’ll be honest, when we got our first review at sub Five Star, I was devastated. After some two years of being on there, and some 250 or so Five Star reviews, one couple just weren’t happy and gave us three stars. I remember them. I had the sense when I welcomed them, that all was not happy in their camp, but that’s by the by. I’m a firm believer in the old adage that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. But I always say that it will never stop me trying. And that’s what we do. All the time.

We had another three star review two years later in 2018. We’ve also had nine, four star reviews between 2016 and 2020. Four stars are interesting, as they are always extremely positive, just not quite Five Stars. This is a handful of quotes from those four star reviews;

“Cosy, dog friendly getaway”

“Lovely relaxing stay”

“Excellent host”

“Had everything one require for a relaxing break”

“Lovely & comfortable”

So as I type this, in the week before Christmas 2022, we have had nothing but Five Stars for over two years, and have hit our 500th Tripadvisor review. I’m chuffed with that. Chuffed to bits. I’m sure I’ve jinxed it now and I’m sure one day I will check and we will have a one star review. But you see, I’ve worked my socks off to get this right, including recruiting other human beings who also put their heart and soul into my business. I really am gutted that out of 500 reviews on this platform we have 11 that were less than Five Stars. But I’ll happily take the 489 that think we are perfect, and hope that 2023 brings us a whole load more.

Thank you to everybody that has taken the time and effort to write us a review, particularly the 98% of you who think we are worthy of your Five Star rating. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

In case you’re interested we also currently have 134 reviews on Google, of which 96% are Five Stars, and 4% are four stars. We also have 222 reviews on Facebook, which gives us a 4.7 total out of 5, which is 94% at Five Stars. There was a glitch many years on Facebook and we had some one and two star ratings from people who had never stayed. I even wrote to ask them why they did and some of them said they had no idea, they were just looking at our Facebook page!

So in summary, as well as absolutely thousands of people who write wonderful things in our guest books in our properties, we have 856 reviews on three extremely trusted platforms, of which a grand total of 96% are Five Stars.

Am I happy with the feedback from our guests as I take my little business into its 14th year? I’ll let you decide x