7 Things To Know Before Reading A Review Online

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In the technology age of today's travel, online reviews are out there for all to see. The question is can we trust them? Maybe a general manager of a hotel has asked all of their employees, friends and family to post positive reviews about the property to increase their rank?

Maybe an ex-employee with a vendetta has had every one of their friends to post negative reviews? The truth is we don't know. However, with a little street smarts, simple research and common sense we can make magic of these reviews and in turn magic for our experience as well.

Avoid overly negative or positive reviews

No one wants to believe that a place is ever that bad or that good and you shouldn't, either. Here is an example of an extremely negative review:

I would disregard this review for a bunch of reasons but here is the top:

a. Reviewer admits HE didn't ask about smoking/non smoking. That is a guest oversight and not a property problem.

b. Room hadn't been cleaned in a while. Everyone has a different Idea of clean and he provided no specifics. (we'll get to that later in tip 2)

c. Front desk didn't provide an email address. If he really wanted to complain about this problem, he should have written corporate and worked toward a solution. Instead, he went to an online outlet to vent his frustrations.

d. You can't see this, but the reviewer only had one review and this is it. I would wonder if he truly had this experience or if he was a disgruntled employee / competitor with an axe to grind. (we'll talk more about this in tip 4)

This goes the same for someone who has an overly positive review. Typically when I am searching through reviews I am looking for someone who is in the middle somewhere. I read a lot of the two-, three- and four-star reviews.

Look for Specifics

Most of the time, reviews are incredibly vague because someone just wants to let everyone know that their experience was awful or great, but no one wants to say why. Check out this review:

I would disregard this review because it is doesn't tell me why it is a decent hotel. "Decent" is a very subjective term. Look for exact reasons that is was a positive or negative experience. There is also superfluous information. No one needs to know that he would stay here when traveling back from Ohio.

Review the Reviewer

It is super important to know who is reviewing the property where you are staying. If they have limited reviews, you may want to look towards someone with more experience. The important thing here is to find someone you can trust or even better yet: someone like you! Almost all of the reviewing sights have some sort of profile system like this:

Click on it and read a little bit about the person writing the review. Maybe you are a 55 year old, laid back, sit-at-the-pool type of person and the reviewer is a 21 year old, club goer. Not going to have a lot in common, are you? Find someone like you, and you are going to have better success with finding the right place to be.

Look For Consistency In Negatives Or Positives

Now that we have weeded out all of the bad reviews, let's find out how long these things have been happening. Sure, the ice machine was down, but was it down for months? If you notice there is a trend, good or bad, then you can probably count on it being real. If the first ten reviews talk about how good the snapper was, then you can probably figure it will be good.

Have Basic Hotel Operations Understanding

All men and women were not created equal. We are not all hoteliers. It is not hard however, to have a basic understanding of hotel policy. Here is an example. Did you know that if you guarantee a King Room at a strip hotel in Las Vegas that there is no guarantee that you will get a King? You are not even guaranteed to be put up at that hotel that night. The only thing that you are guaranteed is that you will have a place to stay that evening.

If you read the fine print, they are guaranteeing your reservation, but the hotel can switch the room type, and if they are sold out, can even put you up at the property across the street.

If you have this knowledge, you would be less likely to complain about the fact that you didn't get a King Bed and more likely to complain (rightly I might add) that the hotel overbooked that night and because you arrived late you drew the short straw. Hence, if you saw this complaint many times on a review site you might be more apt to pick a different location for your stay.

Know your Expectations

Are you headed to a quick-serve restaurant and expecting the Filet Mignon? Make sure you sit down with whoever you are traveling with and set clear expectations. You might be OK with a smoking room and your boyfriend isn't. Or the boys are cool with no lobby bar, but you love to have your night cap close to home. If comfort is important to you, look in the reviews for that specifically. Don't throw the $29 a night hotel under the bus for not having down feather pillow and memory foam mattresses.

Have Understanding That Everyone Has Bad Days

This is an important one. Every single restaurant and hotel has a blow up day. Some have blow up weeks. Just because someone had a completely horrible experience no way means that you are going to have the same. Everyone does deserve a second chance.

Armed with the advice above, you should be able to go in with fair warning, armed to the teeth with questions and a positive outlook, and help the property help you have a magical experience.

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