hotel reviews

[Pearl5]

Do you check reviews on hotels before booking them, i usually do but this time, i read them after we came back.......

Me, OH, MIL and SIL, went off for a few days down South to a family wedding, booked flights out so arrived at hotel, 11am, was advised booking in was at 2pm, i hadn't read that........so we had our MIL with us, who is quite frail, its obvious when you see her she is, she has curvature of the spine, and other problems, so I asked if we could have rooms earlier, was told yes but we would have to pay £10 each, MIL refused, so went off for a coffee at Costa, sat there doing nothing much except coffeeing... what we did not realise when booking was it was on the motorway at a service station, (this hotel had been suggested by a friend to my MIL to us to try, so we stupidly did) MIL now in pain so i nipped back to the hotel to see if we could have the rooms now it was 1.30 they were empty but still no had to pay the £10 each, so went back to Costa where we finished off our coffees and headed to hotel, sat in lobby and 2pm was giving our keys, when we got in the room, they were terrible, they stunk and were dirty, so now all fed up, decided to freshen up, and go to a restaurant for a meal, tried booking taxis, no one would come for us, so nearly tears, we ended up going to the garage and going along to SIL's room, pasties, crisps and wine so got us all out of our moods, booked a taxi on line to pick us up in the morning so we could go to the wedding, felt better everything sorted, wine had helped....

Next morning wake up to a text, taxi had been cancelled....... so after a few swear words, and going to the reception desk to see if they could help, we ended up having to ring family to come for us, we got to the wedding and had a fabulous time.....back to the hotel then train home...

One thing we have all said is we will never ever go anywhere again without reading reviews, learnt the hard way, but ended up having a great time at the wedding...

[ZIZI]

Pearl, our Tenerife holiday hotel a few weeks ago had great reviews but I would not return there and I will post on TA in the next week or so. I found it very divisive (all inclusive and non all inclusive), the staff were rude and the apartments frankly left a bit to be desired. The sun beds were scrunched together with a total four inches between them and woe betide you if you dared to move them to get the sun or get some privacy!

We are going to Cyprus on Wednesday next week for four nights. Because it is a late booking we have got bed and continental breakfast including flights for four nights for the grand old sum of £331 for both of us AND from Heathrow so just a short bus ride for us. The last holiday was seven nights and cost £1300 from Gatwick so had to pay hotel and parking as well. As far as we are concerned as long as the Cyprus hotel is clean and there is enough hot water for a shower/bath (didn't happen in Tenerife) we don't care. We have been to Cyprus before (about nine years ago) and remember the people mostly being nice and it is supposed to be fairly warm there at this time of year. Looking forward to it. Feel a bit traumatised by some things that have happened in the last few days. Tell you about it another day maybe.

[Oma]

We always check on TA Pearl but you can't always be sure as what some people find awful others think it's fine , I always put honest review on and if I can photos at least photos don't lie , glad it turned out ok in the end the wedding cheered you all up 😊

[Daisy]

Zizi - it sounds as thouse these few days in Cyprus have come at just the right time for you. xx

[Shemadee]

I check out the reviews but view them with caution! One guest slated her hotel and gave one star as she couldn't have boiled eggs for her breakfast! DD2 worked in the sainsbury cafe and said that they just don't have saucepans so possibly the same at this hotel.

We went to Cyprus early April nearly twenty years agoand it snowed! we were frozen so put in a few warm items just to be on the safe side! I wore OHs sweater and socks which was not a good look! Other smarter guests found hotels with indoor pools. They bought a meal and then used the facilities. A woman had packed proper shoes and a warm jacket for all of her family but her OH told her not to be ridiculous and threw them all out of the suitcases. He was not very popular for some reason! Hopefully you'll be luckier Tizzy and the sun will shine down for the whole holiday!

[Pearl5]

She, i do that too uaually...., read the reviews because some can really just be trivial things were there getting bad feedback.........mainly look at guests pictures, you never really know until you get there yourselves....

Zizi, have a lovely time in Cyrpus, sounds ideal, i like short breaks and at that price you cannot grumble, hope you get nice weather, we went away in August for a week and it rained 3 of those days, so you can't even predict what the weather might be now.....enjoy, sounds just the break you need x

[Glammanana]

I do tend to read the reviews but one persons positive comments could be another persons nightmare so I try and read between the lines if possible,we have not really had any bad hotels just odd ones which came across as a wee bit tired.
Enjoy Cyprus Zizi just what you need for a quick short break.

[Gemini]

Pearl, first and foremost review them on Trip Advisor! The more bad reviews a below standard hotel or restaurant gets the better.

I'm so sorry your family had this experience, what a pity.

Yes, I always read reviews before booking. Even that can let you down however. The second place we stayed in on our Cape Cod holiday last year was well below standard, but had really good reviews!

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I check the reviews for restaurants, pubs, everything I can. However, I do wonder about some of the comments. Yes Glam you have hit the nail on the head. One local restaurant had reviews saying it was fab, food great, staff lovely, very clean and then the next one down said it was the worst place they had ever been to, staff very unhelpful, food cold and greasy and tables dirty. I often end up totally confused. The one thing you can check with places to eat is the hygiene ratings. I think it is a star system so obviously avoid the ones with poor hygiene. DS2 (he and family go out to eat a lot) always checks these and warns us about the bad ones.

[Shemadee]

A seemingly respectable friend who organizes our lunch club, wrote a scathing review of a local pub. I was puzzled and asked if I had been away when they visited and she quite blythly admitted that she had never been there but was irritated that it was too expensive for our lunch club. There is often something not quite right about some reviews and you can be fairly sure it is a troll as they tend to go over the top.. A shame there isn't a way of putting some kind of code on the receipt so only genuine customers can comment.

[Bizzy Lizzy]

I did think the same thing Shem. There should be a way to check. Friends could do the positive ones and the disgruntled the negative. A special code is a good idea.

[Libra Gran]

I go on trip advisor but to be honest what is one mans meat is another ones poison. Read terrible reviews for our hotel in Malta,but we enjoyed every minute. Trouble is some people want to pay 3* but get 5* treatment.

[ZIZI]

I wrote three bad reviews about a hotel/restaurant at the end of our village last year (and they were honest). The manager wrote a very sarcastic peice in response to my last one and, as you do not have a right of reply, I decided to "unveil" myself in a letter. I went through each point I made, his responses and my responses to his responses and I gave my address, two email addresses, two telephone numbers and invited him to meet face to face to discuss the matter. What happened? Absolutely nothing.

[Daisy]

I've only ever given one poor review (and I did make some good points, which were also honest). I really wanted to email or snail mail them and make my points in private, but their website didn't have either an email address or a postal address. OK I could have got the postal address but I was really fed up with them by then so wrote my criticisms up on TA. I felt a bit mean doing it, but we'd asked nicely for some things to be put right (eg filthy dirty smelly bath robe in the bathroom, no tea, coffee sachets etc, jacuzzi bath not working) but Housekeeping didn't answer the phone, neither did Reception. And we couldn't find any one to talk to face to face. Of course they didn't respond on TA either!!!

[Shemadee]

Interesting? There were two reviews for the hotel we have booked our next holiday with both giving the same dates. One gave 4 stars and said it was very clean though a bit dated, the food was fine and overall good value for money. The other gave it 1 star and the worst holiday ever with disgusting food. Hope the 4 star one is the correct one!