There are things you should keep in mind when visiting online hotel review sites.
You should base your decisions on more then just a single source. Don’t rely solely on the review section of the hotel’s own website. Of course you should visit that page, to get a feel for some of the positive features of the hotel, but you will never find any of the negatives (if there are any) about the hotel on their own site.
That’s why other online hotel review sites exist. Since they aren’t controlled by the hotel, you can get a better overview of how most guests feel about the hotel in question.
When you google the hotel’s name, you will probably be shown some review sites as well. The Google Places page should be easy to find in the results. You can identify that by the small pushpin icon next to it, and possibly some stars if it has been reviewed. It may also say the number of Google reviews the hotel has. More reviews means more reliability.
Click next to the stars, where it says “X number of Google reviews” and you will be taken directly to the hotel’s Google Places page, where you can read the reviews.
Google isn’t the only review site - here are some more. Make sure you check out a bunch of them use their search boxes to see if the hotel you are considering is listed with them.
- tripadvisor.com
- localdirectory.azcentral.com
- kayak.com/Hotels
- travel.yahoo.com
- lonelyplanet.com
- national.citysearch.com
- travelpod.com
It’s a good idea to check the hotel’s local Chamber of Commerce site for reviews.
For more accuracy, use quotation marks around the hotel’s name wen using the search boxes of a review site.
When checking out hotel review sites, you may want to keep this things in mind, as well:
If a hotel has many four and five-star reviews, and one one-star review, it may be because some goofball or disgruntled employee or competitor has a chip on their shoulder. It pays to be skeptical of lonely negative reviews mixed in with a lot of positive ones. (For your information - it is a violation of most site policies, as well as probably not legal, to trash an establishment on such sites if you are a competing establishment.)
If the majority or the review are negative, on the other hand, that should seriously raise a red flag with you.
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 you should check more then one source of reviews. 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 online hotel review sites, as well.
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 To get a feel for the hotel’s general attitude, see if the response is courteous, or if there is a confrontational style. If the response has a confrontational style, or on the other hand, a courteous and thoughtful style, that will give you a clue as to how the hotel handles things in general.
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.
If you would like, you can register with any of the above sites, for free. You can then log in and review any venue they have listed.
If you are looking for a superior Cooperstown vacation, visit August Lodge and Spa Cooperstown Hotel. While there, check out the August Lodge reviews page.