Hotel Review Sites: Useful or Misleading?

Thoughts about hired reporters vs. "volunteers" who post about travel

A few months ago, I needed a last-minute hotel/motel room in Santa Monica. I foolishly booked online without doing due diligence and found myself trapped in the Pacific Sands Motel, which I have described to friends as the "worst motel in the country." I blogged about here. Had I read the traveler-generated reviews on, say, TripAdvisor.com before booking, I might have suspected that it is a pit. But then again, when I looked later, I saw some positive write-ups that might not have deterred me. I've always suspected that some of the good reviews of bad places (and defensive comments to negative reviews) were plants.

Pauline Frommer, whose budget travel genes are as pure as Prince Charles's to the English throne, recently addressed that very topic, "Some marketing folks spend their time posting bogus reviews for the hotels that hire them. The practice of 'buzz marketing' has now become so widespread that TripAdvisor has recently started posting warnings on reviews it thinks may be fake. (I doubt very much they’ll be able to catch more than a small fraction of the fake reviews.)"

She went on to describe Oyster.com, which focuses only on hotels and, more significantly, "sends out a small army of young journalists (right) to write reviews....[who] post numerous pictures, crawl around on the floor looking for scuff marks and cigarette burns (or at least they say they do in their posts) and most importantly, compare and contrast the properties in an informed way."

Frommer praises their energy and accepts their objectivity, but she cautions that prices and price categories are the new site's major weakness. For instance, in examining the listings and reviews in New York, with which she is up-to-date familiar, she finds several properties misplaced, pricewise, and also believes that the averages were calculated in January and February, "the two cheapest months of the year." She added, "The reviewers also seem to be so focused on what’s going on in the hotel that they tend to ignore a key factor in picking where to stay: location. The amenities and charms of particular neighborhoods over others are glossed over lightly on the site." That is directly to contrary to the dreadful Pacific Sands Motel across from the Santa Monica pier, whose location for many people trumps its abundant flaws.

From where I sit in a fly-over state, a glaring flaw that still currently exists is its extreme geographic limitation: currently Aruba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Las Vegas ("coming soon"), Miami and New York. Three Caribbean destinations and three mainland cities. That's it.

My travel plans include none of the above, and when I go to New York, my favorite and most economical accommodation is the Hotel Fold-Out Couch at a friend's place. Still, Pauline Frommer's recommendation, even with caveats, carries considerable weight, so I share it here.