Every often when I go travelling with my friends I would end up planning part of the trip and booking the accommodations as well. Sometimes they may be pleasantly surprised at my choices and ask how I know about this particular hotel. My answer is usually the same: check out the accommodation reviews on Tripadvisor.
Credit: CIA World Factbook
Let me outline my process which I usually use to book accommodations online:
1. Search for the accommodation listings on Tripadvisor for a particular location.
2. Starting from the top rated, go down the list and take note of the average prices. Determine if they fit your budget. Sometimes the prices may be listed per person and sometimes per room but there is no way to find it out on Tripadvisor. This is one area of improvement Tripadvisor could use. Prices may fluctuate a lot depending on the season or events occurring in the location. Find out the exact prices from the respective accommodation websites or from other online travel agencies and confirm the availability of your desired rooms.
3. Shortlist a few prospective accommodations.
4. Check out the reviews on Tripadvisor.
5. Determine if the exact location of the accommodation fits your mode of transport. For example if you are using public transport, you will probably want to book one which is near to the train or bus station.
6. Narrow down to the hotel which you one to book. If booking for a long duration, Google for further possible discounts. Sometimes loyalty rewards scheme or cashback schemes may exist. For example in the United Kingdom, using a cashback operator called Quidco allows up to 12% cashback on hotel bookings from Expedia.
Since you are looking at the top rated accommodations, they will have a lot of excellent reviews. However the bad reviews are more important than the good ones. This applies especially if you value service highly. Let me elaborate. Any establishment can treat a customer perfectly. The staff on that day may be in a good mood or the staff may even be well acquainted with a regular customer. However, a truly outstanding establishment will have a minimum standard of service for all customers, be it a first time visitor or a grumpy customer who has had a bad day.
Here are some pointers when checking out the reviews and finally booking your hotel.
1. When reading up on the bad reviews, remember that since it happen to somebody else, it may also happen to you. Decide if a similar bad experience will bother you. Also determine if there are other cultural factors which may result in bad experiences. For example in many Asian countries, many people working in the tourism industries may treat certain people better under the impression that they are wealthier.
2. Look at the total number of reviews. The more reviews posted, the more accurate the representation. If there is a large number of reviews, look at the ratio of bad reviews to good reviews and that will be the probability of you getting a bad experience.
3. Look for any management response to bad reviews. If there are any, it probably shows the management care about returning customers and is willing to improve.
4. If contacting a hotel, take note on how responsive is the customer service. If they take days, it may be a sign of an ineffective system with more problems down the road such as overbooking.
5. Always remember that giving a review is a subjective and judgmental process with every reviewer having different perspectives and expectations. If you pay more, you will expect more and hence reviewers receiving special offers are more likely to give better reviews than customers paying full price but receiving the same standard of service.
6. Always align your expectations with the price you pay in the context of the country or the location. If you are booking a room in Tokyo you will be expected to pay more as compared to booking a similar room in say, Bangkok.
It may be a lot of work but if you use a similar process, you will most likely enjoy a pleasant trip with fewer surprises.
2 Comments
Nice tip. I always like to search around Trip Advisor and other independent travel sites for accommodation reviews, that's how I booked my guesthouse in New York. It's also worth noting that the more specific a review, the better. Seeing a bunch 'this place sucks' is never really helpful. But if there's specific comments to the problems or upsides of the accommodation, I'll take note.
I totally agree with you, short one liner reviews never did help anyone. Those are usually customers venting their frustration. Many a times satisfaction comes from balancing your expectations with the price paid so it can become very subjective.