How to Use Online Reviews to Find Senior Care

Last Updated: July 1, 2019

So you’ve decided it’s time to find senior care, either for yourself, a parent or a senior loved one – but how exactly does one get started? You can get a sense of what you’re looking for by reading the online reviews of communities in your area you plan to tour.

Read on as we explain how online review sites can help you figure out what it is you’re looking for and then how you can go about finding communities that meet that criteria:

1. How online review sites can help you find senior care.

Arguably, the most valuable part of senior living review sites is the feedback from families and residents. These people have gone through the same experience you are now undertaking and reading about their experiences with communities will help you determine a) what you are looking for and b) whether or not a particular community has it. Consider:

• Evaluation criteria: A third of the reviews on SeniorAdvisor.com are from families and residents, so you can get a real feel for what it’s like to live at a community or to have a loved one there. The other two-thirds of reviews tend to be from people who toured the community. These reviews can be immensely helpful as you’re beginning your search as tour reviews tend to mention what a family’s dealbreakers were. For example, if a community is great, but the family had to rule it out because it didn’t have a pool, you can still look into the community if having a pool is not important to you. Reading these reviews as you begin your search will also help you determine what your dealbreakers are.
• Hear from families you can trust: At SeniorAdvisor.com, we know that it is extremely important to people searching for senior care that the information they find is truthful and reliable. This is why we work to verify that the reviews on our site are the genuine, first-hand experiences of reviewers. Nearly 100% of the reviews on our site are currently verified by SeniorAdvisor.com or by the community as current, prospective or past community customers. To check whether or not a review you are reading is verified, look for the purple checkmark stamp by the reviewer’s display name.
• Stay informed during your search: As you begin to tour and eventually decide on a care provider, you’ll want to keep an eye on how things are going at the community. At SeniorAdvisor.com we provide an option to subscribe to reviews. Simply enter your email address and you will be instantly notified any time a new review for that community is posted. If you are a caregiver who has moved a loved one into a community, this feature provides you with another avenue to make sure your loved one is still in a good environment. If you are planning ahead for the future, this feature allows you to stay updated on the communities you initially considered to be potential fits for yourself or your loved one.

Have you already started touring communities? Pay it forward and share your experience with other families by writing a review of senior living communities you’ve visited.

Ready to get started? Read through step two below and learn how to find senior care options on SeniorAdvisor.com today.

2. Using online review sites to create a list of senior care options.

Online review sites like SeniorAdvisor.com are a great place to get started finding options for yourself, a parent or senior loved one. SeniorAdvisor.com allows you to search for a specific area, then narrow your options based on your care needs. For instance, after you visit SeniorAdvisor.com, you can enter your city and state in the search box and then press “Go!” and that’s it.

The next page will take you to a page that lists all the care options in that city. By default, the communities are sorted to be the most useful to searchers like you – the communities with higher ratings and more reviews show up first. On the left, you’ll see a pricing box that gives you an idea of how expensive senior care is in that city compared to other cities in the United States.

Now you’re all set to get started using online reviews to help you in your search for senior care.

Amelia Willson

Based in Austin, TX, Amelia is the former Content Marketing Manager for SeniorAdvisor.com. When she’s not writing about online reputation management, online reviews, and social media in the senior living space, she enjoys yoga and running with her dog Rockefeller. She graduated from Wellesley College cum laude with a dual degree in English and Medieval/Renaissance Studies.