The Associated Press recently ran an article about false reviews in Trip Advisor. This has been known for quite a while, which is why you take the reviews with a grain of salt. Here is an link to that article: http://www.newsobserver.com/2188/story/1608899.html
This issue was also discussed a couple of years ago in the London Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article634136.ece
These reviews are a great resource, but keep in mind that they are just one source of information, and may be biased. Even if they are not falsified, the reviewer's standards may not be the same as yours.
