Hi ckole,
You can see some more detailed comments about some of these “review” sites in post #1 here in the simplified choice mattress topic.
Recommending or rating a mattress for someone else based on one person’s individual subjective preferences is probably the most misleading information of all on most of these sites.
While other people’s comments or reviews about the knowledge, service, and guidance of a particular business can certainly be helpful … I would generally avoid using other people’s experiences or reviews on a mattress (either positive or negative) or review sites in general as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you and in many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (see post #13 here).
The fact is that the only thing a mattress review will usually tell you is how one person likes a particular mattress which is usually based only on initial or early impressions that are very subjective and little else. In some cases they are also driven by the income they earn for referrals much more than more “objective” considerations. I would be very skeptical of anyone who claims that they have some kind of crystal ball that can predict which specific mattress you will sleep best on with any certainty. It just doesn’t exist (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here)
There are also no “standard” definitions or consensus of opinions for firmness ratings and different manufacturers can rate their mattresses very differently than others so a mattress that one manufacturer rates as being a specific firmness could be rated very differently by another manufacturer. Different people can also have very different perceptions of firmness and softness compared to others as well and a mattress that feels firm for one person can feel like “medium” for someone else or even “soft” for someone else (or vice versa) depending on their body type, sleeping style, physiology, their frame of reference based on what they are used to, and their individual sensitivity and perceptions. There are also different types of firmness and softness that different people may be sensitive to that can affect how they “rate” a mattress as well (see post #15 here) so different people can also have very different opinions on how two mattresses compare in terms of firmness as well and some people may rate one mattress as being firmer than another and someone else may rate them the other way around. This is all relative and very subjective and is as much an art as a science.
They also don’t usually provide any meaningful information about the quality and durability of the materials in each of the mattresses they are reviewing which “by omission” implies that they don’t really matter and that any of the mattresses they review would make a good choice … and outside of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) the quality and durability of the materials in a mattress and the mattress “as a whole” are among the most important parts of the “value” of any mattress purchase.
There are often also factual errors on these types of sites because they tend to repeat the information they are given and may not have the knowledge to realize that some of this information may not be correct or accurate but these are probably less important than the bigger issues that I mentioned.
Phoenix