Do You Review?

     I’m one of those people who likes to give reviews.  Whether it’s good, bad or ugly I like to share what I thought of the food I’ve eaten, the places I’ve stayed in or the activities I’ve participated in.  Sometimes I question why on earth I’m spending my time writing about somewhere else when I have so much other writing I’d rather be doing but then I remember.

       I’m a business owner and I’m proud of the service we offer our guests.  I know we are honest, fair, have quality equipment, great staff and provide the best there is for a canoe outfitting experience in the Boundary Waters.  I feel bad when I email someone to find out how their trip plans are going and they say they have booked with another outfitter. I can’t guarantee they will have a good BWCA canoe trip if they aren’t outfitting with us.   I wonder what else I could have done to convince them to outfit with Voyageur.  Then I remember how powerful a review on a site like Trip Advisor can be.

     I often look at Trip Advisor to plan my vacations.  I want to make sure I choose the places with quality service where I know I’ll get good value for my money paid.  I don’t think it’s fair to give someone my money when their not doing a good job and there’s someone out there who is doing an awesome job.  Why leave my experience up to chance or someone else’s when you can help guarantee someone has a wonderful time?

     I know there are some reviews out there that don’t sound real.  There are some very harsh critics that bring scores down and some false high ones that bring scores up but overall I put my trust in sites like Trip Advisor and the comments people make.  There are always days when a business might have a bad day or a really good day but I think those tend to average out over enough reviews.  As a business owner you can always go on Trip Advisor and write to the people who are making the comments.  That’s a tell too because if a business is getting accused of bad service or terrible food and doesn’t respond then they probably do have bad service and terrible food.  That’s why it’s important to help give your favorite businesses a good review if they deserve it.  

     We know it takes time to give reviews and we really appreciate it when our guests do.  If someone doesn’t have a good time then we hope they have told us that in person so we can make it right if it was something we did wrong.  We are always striving to do better and are open to constructive criticism.  While we’d rather receive negative news via an email we’d still appreciate knowing your thoughts even if it was through a public review.  

     If you’re looking for something to do on the internet some time then why not take a minute to give Voyageur Canoe Outfitters a review?  We’d appreciate it and so would all of the other folks who depend upon reviews when making their vacation plans.