Quick: You've just arrived in a new city, and you want to find a great restaurant for dinner. How do you choose?
In the age of Yelp and TripAdvisor, the answer is often online reviews that offer a crowd-sourced answer to any question a traveler could ask. The "wisdom of the crowd" can be unreliable, though, which is why the Ritz-Carlton believes its professional concierges can do one better with their curated tips.
"It is literally my job to be a local expert," said Jessica Gorman, a concierge at the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, in Georgia. "The biggest part of using a concierge at your hotel is the relationship. If I'm a traveler and I'm looking up online reviews, what is the reputation of the people giving reviews?"
On Wednesday, the hotel is releasing its 1,000th tip on Foursquare, where it has been providing expert travel guidance since 2011. The tips come from 89 different Ritz-Carlton properties around the world.
Gorman prides herself on being able to match the right activity -- whether it's a restaurant, a museum or an amusement park -- to the right guest.
"I am pretty much never home," she said, "because I always want to be ahead of the guest, and know exactly what is new and interesting and what will be best suited for them."
So how do these expert tips compare to crowd-sourced suggestions?
On TripAdvisor, reviews for Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul average 4.5 stars, and the destination has received a "Certificate of Excellence" from the website. The same goes for Padrão dos Descobrimentos, another of Ritz-Carlton's tips.
So it seems that often, the experts and the crowd agree. For travelers facing seemingly endless options, however, a knowledgeable source with tried and true highlights could be the answer to the question: What do I have to see while I'm here?
"[Concierges] feel it's important that we're all very well informed," said Susanne Carter, Chef Concierge at the Central Park Ritz-Carlton in Manhattan.
"This is the best job. You have to learn all the time," said Carter. "It's never the same."