I’m looking for a hotel for a week to visit family in a typical midwestern city.
All I need is a place to sleep ( because there’s no room in the family home. )
I don’t need any amenities
For about $120 per night, motel chains like Red Roof Inn, Comfort Inn, Best Western, La Quinta, Wyndam, etc show up
For $200 you get Holiday Inn, HomeSuites by Hilton, etc. Nicer places, but I don’t need a pool, or any of the extras, So I’d rather not spend an extra 600 bucks for the week.
The reviews on the $200 hotels are almost all good.
The reviews on the cheaper ones are…well, … all over the place. From “very nice and clean” to “run away!–there are bloodstains on the sheets and cockroaches”.
There are often equal numbers of both --about 30 people say it’s very nice-give it a rating of 4 stars, 30 say it’s dangerous and disgusting–rates one star or less, and 40 or 50 in the middle , with 2-3 stars
So what gives with the rating reviews on tripadvisor.?
On other sites, I usually ignore ratings. (such as products I buy on Amazon), because I assume they’re written by paid stooges. Some probably paid by the product’s manufacturer to praise it, others paid by competitors to criticize the same product)
But on tripadvisor, the more expensive hotels are pretty uniformly reviewed positively. And the criticisms seem reasonable, with people giving just a slightly lower rating. They usually are not total opposites of the positive reviews. .
The lower priced hotels have wild extremes. What’s up?
I think the extremes are due to expectations. Some people go to an inexpensive hotel, knowing that they won’t be getting a deluxe experience and commenting on that. Others expect the same service and amenities as a five-star hotel and comment on that basis.
I would say first it’s the comfort level of the guest and how squeamish they are. Stained carpet and sticky floors may not be noticed by some as long as the mini fridge keeps the beer cold and the tv works.
And some areas of the hotel may be in need of delayed upgrades and maintenance yet they keep renting them out to squeamish people.
For some just getting in the AC and off the road may be all they need and care not about noisy guests, broken ice machines and surly staff.
I am definitely influenced by reviews and try to read between the lines and plan accordingly.
Having worked 25 years as a stat guy in market research…this is a very astute observation. We even had a name for this, but I forget in my old age
The same-ish thing also can hit on products that are new/unusual. Picking a RL example I worked with…robotic lawnmowers. Some people expect what the product essentially gives and are happy. Some expect a Jetson’s like fantasy robot lawnmower and are disappointed.
I also think some of the “disgusting” reviews are posted in revenge for some perceived but possibly imaginary issue. Someone on staff wasn’t properly respectful (i.e. not enough fawning and butt-kissing) or they weren’t given a discount because they found dust under the bed, so the dust under the bed become cockroaches and blood-stained sheets. There’s usually a giveaway for these reviews when they include complaints about staff.
By the way, I don’t consider myself squeamish but I too would object strongly to sticky floors. A cheap hotel or motel should still be clean.
My personal experience over the last couple of years - you definitely get what you pay for. We stayed at a Quality Inn that got decent if not glowing reviews. I spilled some water on the floor, and wiped it up with a hand towel. The towel came up almost black! There’s no excuse for that lack of cleanliness. We stayed at another QI that also got decent reviews and was $30/night cheaper than Holiday Inn Express - lumpy bed, strange smell in the room (cleaning products, I hope) and a very noisy air conditioner.
No more booking by price. It’s worth a few extra bucks for a comfortable, clean night.
The realistic photos of rooms posted by reviewers are genuine, and I find them helpful. The professional touched-up photos provided by the hotel can obviously completely misrepresent reality.
Several factors are involved, including differing expectations and probably review hacking to boost ratings of dodgy places. Trip Advisor is somewhat more prone to inaccurately inflated reviews than Yelp, though Yelp is far from immune.
I just stayed at a mid to slightly upscale chain motel where the bed was comfortable and the room was quiet and clean. On the downside there was no shower stall, just a floor drain by the shower head and a curtain to keep (most) of the water from sloshing over the bathroom floor, and a worn couch that should have been retired during Bill Clinton’s first term in office. Still debating whether that room gets 2 or 3 stars.
More than a few recent gripes on ratings sites about lack of cleanliness and malfunctioning utilities and I will go elsewhere.
I agree that some people have higher standards than others, which can make for inconsistent reviews for the lower-end places. Last fall I stayed in a mom and pop motel, a typical small mid-century single level place. The room seemed rather dated, like it had last been updated maybe 20 years ago (although it did have a modern flat panel TV and free wifi), the carpet was very worn, and one of the lampshades was torn. Those didn’t really bother me, although I understand others might feel differently. The room still seemed very clean, the bed was comfy, the bathroom looked like it had been redone more recently, the shower worked well. So I was perfectly happy staying there.
I stay in hotels all the time and I always felt (though inflation is pushing this up) any hotel you can get for $100 a night or less (besides using rewards points) is always going to be straight garbage. It’s okay for a night if you just need to sleep but I wouldn’t stay in it longer than that. Also the cheaper the hotel the more likely an escort will be working out of one of the rooms and you’ll need to deal with people shuffling in at all hours of the night. $125 to $150 is the minimum I expect per night for a hotel that’s going to have at minimum clean beds and a clean shower. (Of course depending on location and time of year)
I work in a hotel and reviews, unless they’re 95% bad, are just too random. We’ve been dinged for things we don’t have! Like, one person complained our Lobby TV played porn overnight. We don’t have a Lobby TV. If we ever did it was over 20 years ago. Others blast us because we won’t comp their stay. Like, you’re not getting a free night because we don’t have 24-hour room service and have never had it.
People do also complain about things we have no control over. I can’t make the coyotes stop howling. Monsoon brings out tarantulas. We can’t stop them from crawling on sidewalks.
Sometimes, sure, they’ll ding us for actual things. And sometimes people do have a great time and gush.
We stayed at a Super 8 in Flagstaff in 2016. The reviews were mostly “a bit noisy but for a Super 8 it’s clean and fine”, so we booked it. Except one person blasted them for not having a more substantial continental breakfast. It’s a Super 8 - cereal, pastries and something to drink are what you’re going to get. So I stressed that it was basic but fine and standard in my review.
For cheaper hotels, check the dates of the reviews and also read the content.
More than once, I’ve seen reviews that were fine up to a certain point and then started a steep decline. (And occasionally the opposite) A change of management can have huge changes.
Also, look at what the complaints are and whether they’re qualities of the room/location or actions by the hotel management and staff. If the complaints are “the rooms are so small!” “outside traffic is too loud!” “there’s no elevator!” then the question is whether you can live with those conditions and whether they’ll lessen your stay. OTOH, if the complaints are about filth, that’s a different thing.
If the complaints are about age-it’s somewhere in the middle. There’s only so much that can be done with an older, low price hotel.
The hotel and restaurant reviews on Tripadvisor are, in my opinion, absolutely invaluable. Before the pandemic, our family traveled a lot internationally, and I always did extensive research beforehand on Tripadvisor. It’s virtually eliminated bad hotel and restaurant experiences for us. I try not to be swayed by any one particular review but to take the reviews in aggregate. And, as @amarinth says above, it’s important to consider what the recurring complaints are for a given establishment.
I usually check out Trip advisor reviews when planning a trip. Was a frequent contributor and still occasionally write a review.
I eliminate the most of the 5 dot and 1 dot reviews. Especially when the are over the top with compliments-"OMG!!! They had the BEST!! cheese doodles set out for breakfast and Avair at the front desk went above and beyond when I found I had 2 bottles of conditioner!! instead of 1 shampoo and 1 conditioner!! Or complaints, “I would rater have slept at the sewage treatment plant” where there are few (or none) other reviews to support their claim.
I will write about an issue if I come across one, the last one I wrote mentioned the out of order drinking fountain in the pool area were absolutely disgusting. Just because they are not usable doesn’t mean they don’t need to clean them. And the proliferation of cigarette butts outside the entrances. On one hand lack of help maybe a contributing factor but wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me if the room was clean. Somebody else may have more of an issue with this than I and not stay there after reading my review.
Recent reviews and management responses can give you a good idea of what to expect.
I guess it depends what part of the U.S. you are in. I have recently had nice, clean rooms with a good breakfast for less than $60. And no criminal activity or rowdy drunks. But be careful, you can also get total crap for the same amount of money near by. Where, you might ask. Generally along the old Route 66. The best deals are on the old highway and not next to the interstate.
We have and do travel quite a bit and I find TA essential reading. As in the above comment, I tend to ignore the 5* and 1* reviews. (same goes for Amazon btw). Photographs are very useful too, as are replies from management.
I try to get a flavour, and impression of a hotel from the reviews. Key words might be surly/helpful when applied to staff, and when I see that someone complained and the problem was rectified I give that a plus.
I give no credence to complaints about things that should have been obvious. Noisy - it’s in the middle of the entertainment district… Lacking amenities - what did you expect for £50 a night? I could go on.
I think that there is a skill in separating the meaningful from the nonsense when reading reviews about anything.
Looking over your hotel choices, you are looking at the basic ‘good’ level of stays and then next level up. Generally those basic/good ones are more then enough for a decent nights stay, some are rather nice and can fall into the next category up. Others really should fall to the next lower category. And while there are some patterns I’ve noticed, it’s far from hard and fast rules. Reviews can be insightful if there are common themes or the ‘hook’ (lots of 1 star reviews). But what I think happens is these places get a mix of those who stay at this tier regularly which give normal good reviews, and those who stay at the next tier up and are reviewing these hotels compared to the next tier that they are used to, thus more variability.
