Now that much of the Covid travel restrictions have been lifted, many of those who managed to get through the pandemic financially unscathed have started to plan their holidays. Hooray! Whether a local or an international trip, one of the most important considerations in my opinion is choosing the right hotel.
I have been a travel agent for 19 years and choosing the best hotel options for my clients regardless of their budget is something I will always invest a lot of time in. I have therefore gained experience in knowing what to look for and most importantly what to avoid.
There are two types of clients that I come across, they first see a hotel as “just a place to sleep”. I have often been told: “As long as there is a bed, a bathroom and it is clean, I will be happy because we will hardly be in the room.”
The second type of client views the hotel as an important part of the experience and perhaps even on the same importance level as the destination itself. They want to love every moment spent in the hotel and considerations such as room size, amenities, comfort and location are deciding factors.
I cannot go to every hotel in the world and therefore a big part of my research relies on looking through reviews. TripAdvisor is the biggest and most well-known of all hotel review sites. However, even this can make choosing a hotel more confusing if you don’t know how to discern them properly.
Here are some tips on how to read TripAdvisor reviews properly:
- TripAdvisor rates the hotel with an overall score out of 5. The star rating on TripAdvisor should match or preferably be higher than the hotel’s star grading bearing in mind you cannot rate a hotel less than 1 star.
- Try not to filter the reviews to view only the lower-rated ones. This will not give you a good reflection of what the hotel is like. Rather check the dates of the most recent reviews and stick to the first two pages. They will be relevant.
- The experience of the reviewer must be considered. The number of TripAdvisor contributions and the number of people who have found their comments helpful will show next to their names. This reflects how well travelled the person is and should carry more weight than someone with only 1 submission.
- Be open-minded to complaints that may reflect the destination rather than the hotel itself such as room size. Finding a large hotel room in Paris with an average budget will be like finding a hen’s tooth or travelling to a third world country but expecting first world service is perhaps unreasonable.
- Take note of the responsiveness of management. When a negative review appears, does the hotel attempt to apologize or explain what happened? How professional is their response?
- Think about what would make or break your holiday and look out for comments both negative and positive to ensure the hotel is well suited to your needs.
- Keep an eye out for trends, especially if there is more than one complaint about dirty rooms, cockroaches, bed bugs or bad smells.
Failing all that why don’t you contact a good travel agent for advice?
