Use These Hotel Review Sites for Genuine Guidance

If Google had become our right hand, then, the hotel review sites are our left hand-don’t you agree with me?

We don’t spend a single day without using Google’s search engine at least once. However, we use hotel review sites as and when we need them or our friends who are not internet savvy need our help to search for the cheap and best hotels.

Though there are in-depth travel bloggers who mention wonderful hotels they come across when they travel, their mere mention or recommendations of hotels and resorts are not taken seriously by us. After all, it is a one man opinion. We need more people to concur on a hotel’s positive and negative reviews so that we can make up our mind before finalizing on the choice of hotel to stay.

Though we don’t pour over the reviews thoroughly, we still go by the overall rating given by actual users of hotels. Such reviews, ratings, criticisms are available in hotel review sites only.

In addition, reviews of hotels offered by the Hotel Review Sites sometimes mention the food the hotels’ restaurants serve. They are a great help to us.

I have curated several Hotel Review Sites that are exclusively dedicated to publishing reviews of:

• hotels
• resorts
• vacation rentals
• boat-houses
• tree-houses
• floating villas
• Airbnb
• Oyo rooms
• home-stays
• youth hostels

etc.

1. TripAdvisor

It is no wonder that you find TripAdvisor at the top of the list of Hotel Review Sites.  When they started, even they would not have imagined having become an essential tool for travelers.

The main reason for their stupendous growth is they genuinely want to help the readers to find the best hotels to stay. We all can afford to travel by flights and stay in star hotels but we need someone to pinpoint the best places to stay. In that angle, Trip Advisor is encouraging us to give our feedback on hotels we stayed.

Once you write your real review, Trip Advisor will email often to let you know your published review helped so many numbers of users. This would encourage you and me to write better reviews. I can vouch for this with my experience.

You may say all the reviews that Trip Advisor published are not verified. Yes, I agree but what can be the percentage of unverified reviews? Surely, negligible-right?

Trip Advisor is big and certainly helps us to decide our choice of accommodation.

2. Hotel Review Sites: Booking dot com (5%)

I have used Booking.com several times to book a hotel from the list of hotels they showed based on my data fed into their search box. The booking process was certainly hassle-free and was not denied by the hotel reception desk.

However, the users’ reviews are not in-depth when compared to Trip Advisor. Mostly, they would thank Booking.com for making the booking easy and smooth. Once in a way, the feedback will mention the satisfactory rate per night by the recommended hotel.

Why the reviews of hotels published at booking dot com are rarely read?

It is because you have to scroll down almost to the end of the web page to read the reviews. In addition, the reviews of hotels won’t attract you because there is no ‘headline’ or ‘subject line’ preceding the review.

3. Hotel Review Sites: Oyster (less than 1%)

I like this Hotel Review Sites. The accompanying photographs of hotels and views are excellent. Reading the reviews is easy as the pros and cons of a hotel are neatly listed out one by one. However, I wonder whether it is the view of the Oyster or by the actual users who have stayed in the hotel.

Oyster.com also lists the prices of a hotel that you are looking for. The price against other booking sites that include expdia, booking, Amoma etc helps you to choose the hotel booking site that offers the least rate.

4. Hotel Review Sites- Expedia

It’s also good as it clearly shows on its site that the reviews are verified. The review may be anything pertaining to hotels, restaurants, flights, car rental, etc.

Regarding the number of reviews of a hotel, I think Expedia scores well above other hotel review sites. For example, hotel Caribe Royale in Orlando, Florida has received over 1000 reviews in expedia That’s a big number when it comes to reviews of a hotel-eh?

If they are aggressive in self-promotion, we may see more of expedia in the hotel booking and review industry. It’s a comprehensive website.

5. Google

“Google hotel reviews are slowly catching up with Trip Advisor and Booking”-reports third-party reviews such as Forbes. Do you agree with that? I don’t because I never used Google to find reviews of hotels. Of course, Google obediently serves you with a big list of accommodations when you search for them in a city of your choice. I used to find Booking.com at the top of search results that are rarely followed by Yatra.com or expedia.com.

Other hotel review websites that are also in the industry but have much less patronage:

• • Yelp
  • Hotels
  • Trivago
  • Foursquare

-I have a feeling the reviews are genuine.

To conclude, Trip Advisor is the site to depend on to find the Hotel Review Sites and restaurants though, the reviews are too short at times to make a decision.

I would use expedia for my next trip and foursquare for my upcoming eat out.