Choosing a Hotel - How To Do It Using Online Hotel Reviews   by Eve Elderman

in Travel    (submitted 2012-02-01)

There are things you should keep in mind when visiting online hotel review sites.

You really must visit more than on source. Although you should view the review section of a hotel's website, that is never enough. Of course you should visit the hotel's testimonial page, because you can get a feel for any positive features listed, but if there are any negatives about the hotel, you will never find them on the hotel's own site.

That's why there are online hotel review sites. The hotels have no control over them, so you can get a better overview of the guest's opinions of them.

The way to find review sites is to google the hotel's name - review sites will probably appear on the first page of the search results. The Google Places site will probably be the most obvious result. That should be near the top of the Google results page, with a small "pushpin" icon and some stars next to it. There may also be a number next to that, which tells how many Google reviews it has. If there are a lot of reviews, you can generally get a better impression of hotel.

You can find the Google reviews by clicking next to the stars, on the number of reviews - that will take you right to the Google Places page of the hotel.

Google isn't the only review site - here are some more. To check if the hotel you are looking for is listed with them, use the search boxes on their pages.

tripadvisor.com
localdirectory.azcentral.com
kayak.com/Hotels
travel.yahoo.com
lonelyplanet.com
national.citysearch.com
travelpod.com

Checking the Chamber of Commerce site for the city the hotel is in is another good idea.

When using the search boxes of a site, a good tip is to use quotation marks around the hotel's name, for more accuracy.

Here are some other things to think about when checking out online review:

If some competitor wants to sabotage the hotel, or some disgruntled employee or crank has chip on his or her shoulder, you may find a solitary one-star review among many other higher reviews. Be very leary of a solitary bad review. (By the way, be aware that it is probably illegal, and certainly a violation of internet policies, for a competitor to trash an establishment just because they are competing for business.)

Conversely, if a majority or the review are negative, that is a serious red flag.

Just as it is illegitimate to write a fake negative review, it is also illegitimate for a company to write fake positive reviews, or fake reviews for them by someone else. Although occasionally done, this kind of action is entirely unacceptable That is why it is imperative that you use more than one source for reviewing. Relying solely on Google reviews would be a mistake. Use them, but make sure they're not your only resource.Make sure you check out other review sites, for your peace of mind.

In the case that you do find bad reviews, look to see if some representative of the hotel in question has made the effort to respond to them. That shows that they at least care. If the owner of the hotel has an account with the site, s/he can respond to reviews See if the response is thoughtful and courteous. This may give you a feel for how the hotel does business. If they are brusque, and simply deny the accusations without acknowledging that they may have actually ever make mistakes - watch out!

Although the number of reviews can be a good indication the quality of the hotel, keep in mind that a small lodge or inn gets fewer guests then a gigantic hotel chain, and therefore will logically get fewer reviews.

You can register a free account with any of the sites listed above, as well as lots of other sites. Then you can log in and leave your own review.

About the Author

Eve Elderman reviews hotels and other lodging venues. She lives and writes near Cooperstown, NY.
If you are looking for a superior Cooperstown vacation, visit August Lodge and Spa. While there, check out the August Lodge Baseball page.