Racincov, You are correct. One man's food is another man's poison. Far too often I have seen holiday destinations dreadfully blown out of the water by somebody with a chip on his/her shoulder. One bad experience gives these people the right to criticise what many would praise.

For example, if your apartment is not clean it will cloud your opinion of the entire resort. Instead of complaining to the Apartment/Hotel owners some choose to be miserable and inflict their thoughts on innocent observers.

My opinion (for what it is worth) is look carefully at what somebody says and make up your own mind on the information provided. If necessary, even contact the person by Private Message or e-mail.

These forums are powerful tools and are examined by people in the travel industry for feedback etc. But, no matter what you read from wherever, remember it is only one person's opinion, nothing else.

I always try and read between the lines with bad reviews unless they say anything obvious like the food was undercooked or there were dangerous broken areas everywhere. I like being able to see travellers photos as you can tell so much more from those than brochure photos although my bugbear is when people put photos on of themselves Im sure you had a good time but I want to see the hotel!!!

But you are never going to please everyone and I have read reviews of hotels we have been to which we thought did fantastic food only to see people slating it - I dont know what they expect or whether these people eat at claridges every night when they are at home! Also the amount of reviews I've read where people are writing a bad review because their flight was delayed or the weather was bad - How is that anything to do with the hotel!!!

When I write a review I stick to basics - what the food,rooms,staff and cleanliness were like and any hints or tips we found when staying there.

Oh and another thing that really annoys me is seeing reviews written in "text speak" although not on HT I will hasten to add!!

The good thing about reviews here on the HT site is that generally, there are quite a few on each Hotel..and are well written. There are some hotels that some people have been really positive about and others negative..but generally I think you tend to get unbiased reports on here.

I always try to give a fair report and try not to include such things as "the weather was cr@p" etc..as that has absolutely nowt to do with the quality of the hotel or the service provided or the facilities available in the resort.

When staying in a new place, I always check out the reports on this site..and only worry if every single one is pretty negative (as in a place we went to in Lanza a few years back....and it was all true!)

I also try to post other relevant things that other travellers to that resort/country/hotel may want to know..such as transport, trips,food establishments, etc. I have always found it very helpful in the past when other travellers have done reports and posted them.

I recently had this conversation with my husband. I read a review on another site that was really negative about apartments that we stayed in September last year (and have rebooked again for this year). The poster had stayed there at the same time as us, but you would have thought that they were talking about completely different apartments/resort the way they described it.

We had had a fab time staying here (and I posted a review to say the same) but they said it was boring. They complained about everything. The size of the rooms, the kettle, the toaster, the bar staff, the cleaning lady, the weather, the choice of music, too many kids, the surrounding area..... the list goes on. They even went on to say that "everyone" they spoke to felt the same and when they were leaving they celebrated. We never heard a bad word about the place and with a very socialable 3½ year old, we met a lot of other families.

I know everyone has their own feelings and choices, but I felt that this review was completely unhelpful. When you add into the mix that this review was surrounded by 15 or so other reviews that had nothing but praise for the apartments, you do wonder what they expected from that holiday, whether they had researched it properly before going and if they indeed had stayed somewhere completely different

You do need to take some reviews with a pinch of salt. Research is the key. Find all the reviews, good and bad. Mix the various points together and you get a pretty good idea of what somewhere is truely like and whether it would be suitable for you.

Sarah

What is a holiday review? Word pictures painted by someone of their holiday - just like art we all have our own likes and dislikes.

Like others I read the reviews and often wonder if we stayed at the same hotel, and sometimes if we were in the same country.

I try to be objective on what to me are the negative points. Is it me? Karaoke is not my scene and if I stayed at a hotel where it featured every night I would not be happy.

But if everyone else was enjoying it, then who am I to say it is wrong? Just not for me.

Some are just a rant because the holiday or hotel was not what they wanted or expected.

Perhaps if they had bothered to read the reviews and do a little research they would not have had a problem. People often look at the pictures but forget to read the words.

And then of course we have those who are writing their version of War & Peace. Every little item is scrutinised in badly written prose. Did they enjoy the holiday? Well as we gave up on chapter 3 so we will never know.

The reviews written by members of HT I have found are fairly accurate. They often qualify what they say by admitting their own prejudices, something I find lacking on other sites.

We all have our own likes and dislikes just as in art. Pictures I like others do not. Life would be so boring if we all agreed.

fwh

In the cases where there are wildly varying reviews it would be interesting to know how the holiday was booked.

When people say the hotel/ resort was not what they expected was it based on booking direct or have they taken a tour operator's description as accurate? Where a hotel is available from a variety of sources the guests will be going with a variety of expectations. Could part of the problem be inaccurate or dishonest marketing by some TOs?

As for the weather, simply saying it was rubbish is not a valid complaint. However, if the weather was rubbish compared to the "information" page in a brochure but the locals and expats say this is what they expected for the time of year a complaint would be in order - but not against the resort.

I always look to see if the person has travelled at the same time of year I will be travelling and if their 'travel group' is similar to mine, as I think these two factors are particularly relevant.

I have stayed at a the odd place that has had damming reviews. The Sonemar Bungalows in Gran Canaria spring to mind.

But it was an 'extra' holiday. I paid next to nothing for it, we were one of three SC groups there, everybody else was AI, (i'm not a great fan of 3* AI food). I suppose if they paid a lot I guess they have reason to complain, but from what folk were saying they didnt pay much more to be AI than we had SC.

I did what I thought was an accurate review, but basically we got what we paid for. It cost similar to what 4 flights to Gran Can would have cost. I've stayed in places 10 times better, but paid a lot more.

I've only cancelled one hotel because of bad reviews - this was London though and these were hundreds of reviews elsewhere - I usually just expect little to nothing but cleanliness when I get a cheap(ish) room in London for a couple of nights but there were so few reviews that painted this place in even a 'basic but you get what you pay for' light that I decided to go elsewhere.

So far as foreign holidays go - well some people are very, very fussy about things. I don't usually go to 4 or 5 star hotels and my expectations are not that high. I am usually very pleasantly surprised with how good the accommodation, staff and services are when I go to Turkey or Greece - I might have different ideas of some of the larger sort of hotels in other European countries. I don't expect gourmet food if you haven't paid a gourmet price for half/full board etc. I think sometimes people don't research properly. Food standards in Caribbean hotels for instance, tend to be much better than those in mid range European hotels. When you get 'I only paid x more to go to Dom Rep than I did to Spain and the food was dire in Spain' is really of no use to me as a review.....

I take bad reviews with a pinch of salt quite often as I know I am not a fussy person overly bothered about the odd cracked tile. I spent a lot of years in Greek no star accommodation where you were lucky if there was hot water at all for a fortnight (unless you were ready to shower for dinner at 4pm) and we spent two weeks with only a trickle of water, but c'est la vie - it was not very developed, you were warned that services weren't like they are here, power cuts and so on and the rooms have always been a place to sleep and shower and all the better if there's a nice balcony to have a drink on before venturing out.

Had I been more of a 4/5 star person maybe I would find things that I didn't find acceptable, but somehow I think not.

SandC wrote:

When you get 'I only paid x more to go to Dom Rep than I did to Spain and the food was dire in Spain' is really of no use to me as a review.....

I'm glad it's not just me Sandra. I really don't find those sort of comments helpful. I'm also not keen on things like "the staff didn't seem to smile very much" & as for the "it was a bit too hot" comment, normally made when someone has been to Egypt in July. Well you just give up reading at that point.

I always feel that when writing a review..you must write it from a neutral point of view and assume that the person who may read this has never set foot in the place (which can quite often be true).

It can be quite difficult not to make really personalised comments that are neither use nor ornament to anyone because, in essence you are writing a personal report/opinion of where you stayed/what you did etc. Such comments as "the weather was cr@p" really are neither use nor ornament to anyone because if you go in the middle of say December, the weather is bound to be different than in the middle of say July and should not necessarily reflect on the standard of the accomodation you stayed in for example.

There are so many factors that can influence whether people have had a good holiday or not, I agree with FWH sentiments there.

The name of this site is Holiday TRUTHS and therefore, when publishing anything, I am as honest as I possibly can be about somewhere,praising the good points whilst being subjective about the not so good points (IMO).

I always start my reviews by pointing out the official rating [not the TO rating] i try to be brief but accurate,

a typical retort from me would be say... " i found the food disappointing, very little local dishes, caters mainly for the typical English visitor"

ie.. I would have preferred local dishes I'm not keen on fry up and chips with everything, but this is what they expect the English to eat..

Yes, I agree Justval, but I do think personal likes and opinions come into it - from the point of view of if I was reading a holiday review I would like to know if the place has lots of children/families or if there were big groups of younger holidaymakers partying. Likewise if in their opinion the staff were surly - yes that's an opinion but if it's mentioned in one then at least other reviews can bring it up if they have found differently. Sometimes the brochure/website description can only give you so much info on the ambience of the place if you like - reviews help me suss out, as Chris said, whether it's my type of place or not.

You know it's important to some people if the breakfast is plentiful and varied - to others that aspect doesn't matter at all.

So long as they are objective a bit of personal like/dislike info is useful to me but no good comparing a hotel to one in another country or even comparing one country to another in a review.

SandC, I agree with you. The whole point of bringing your opinion into a review posting is to be subjective. (have is ued the right term there..i know I don't mean objective!). For instance when describing childrens activity clubs i might say: "Although we didn't use the childrens entertainment facilities, from what we could see, there were plenty of activities for the children to do. Every day, there was an activity board listing the events and the planned time schedule. The children all appeared to be enjoying the activities and were well supervised."

To me, that is subjective and whilst not relevant to me, it might be relevant to someone else.

Simply putting " the kids activities were not as good as in Tenerife and this was supposed to be a 4*" is totally baffling and irrelevant...but you do see things like that posted all the time!!!

Totally agree with all you have said

I take with a pinch of salt the reviews that say the staff were not very friendly But you have to wonder how the reviewer treated them...I know that it is possible to get rude/surly staff but I've always found that abit of politeness and trying to say hello,please and thankyou in their language works wonders.

Also I suppose it depends how much you paid for your holiday and whether you feel you paid over the odds for something that had been "talked up" by a travel agent and not what you expected from the brochure I suppose that may not help.

I also have little time for the kind of reviews that go something like.... room horrible, food **** and staff terrible. well WHY was it so awful?? saying things like that without an explanation does not really help anyone

Thanks for the replies guys I'm glad it isn't just me who hates to read the 'don't go its rubbish' reviews.

Some of us have to save hard for most of the year just to get away for a week or two so making the right choice is important when getting a general idea of the place. I am not too hard to please, I go where I can afford to so I really don't mind if the walls are a bit dirty or you can hear people talking in the next room, as long as my bed is clean and more importantly the toilet is too, the sun is shining and the kids are happy then I am happy.

I too enjoy looking at real peoples holiday photos rather than the brochures which will only show the views from the best rooms looking out to the pool/sea and I have yet to see a picture in the brochures around the pool with all the inflatables tied to the 'Brits' sunbeds

We very nearly changed our holiday last year becaues the reviews were so mixed, but decided to go with an open mind and we had a great time.

I've decided that in all reviews you need to read between the lines eg 'menu doesn't cater for the english' is a plus, I want to sample the local dishes, likewise a place that is slated for being 'too quiet' is also a bonus, with children we don't want to be kept awake by blaring music long after they have gone to bed. However issues of cleanliness and safety would be a major problem.

As has been said we all want something different from a holiday and a 'bad' review might actually point you in the direction of your perfect break, simply because everything that the reviewer disliked would appeal to you. We would no doubt not post favourably about a hotel that was lively 24/7 and served nothing but English food with a continental twist- our holiday hell, another's heaven!!

Use reviews as a guide not gospel.

Pam

Reviews from this site (and others) have proved invaluable down the years. I generally go with the rule that if theres just one bad bad report I'll ignore it but if theres 3 or 4 all saying the same negative thing then I'll look elsewhere. That rule has not let me down. Yet...!

Like other posters have said, for me its all about reading between the lines and picking out the bits relevant to yourself. Give me the facts that will apply to all holidaymakers - 5 minute walk to the nearest bars and restaurants, bus stop close to hotel, nice sandy beach in resort, situated on a main road therefore traffic noise can be heard etc - and I'm happy. Its the reviews that tell me about how sexy/funny/cute (delete as appropriate) Giorgios behind the bar at The Red Lion was or how long the flight was delayed for that drive me crazy! Having said that even these reviews usually have at least one bit of info that helps your decision.

I am reluctant to do reviews for a couple of reasons. One being it is time consuming to get right and you have to submit a hotel review at the same time to do a resort review. Basically translated means that I don't have enough dedicated time to ensure I get it right and I wouldn't want to put a half written one which gives the wrong impression.
Most importantly, any review I do reflects as I find it. I will offer advice or tell a tale, but things change on a daily and personal basis so I would again hate to give the wrong impression.
As an example: I found this site originally because my first holiday abroad was booked to a Turkish Hotel which was cited everywhere as the original Holiday from Hell, but we only found out after booking and then trawling the web.
I think it was the "Brenda" who fought for traveller's rights who emailed me and tried to convince us that there were so many damning reports we should cancel the holiday and lose just the deposits whilst we still could.
We decided to go (party of 27) and made contact with people visiting just before us. They reported that they had a great time, but told us not to automatically join the queue for food as everyone else did but to peruse and choose, then get what you want. Advice we took. We had a fantastic holiday, the food was very good and there were 27 different tastes to cater for. We made great friends with the entertainments crew, they even arranged for us to watch the England Germany game in a town hotel. About 50 of us went and it was 5-1!
Our first week was high season but the second was the start of the cheaper holidays and it showed in the holidaymakers. I think that affected the staff. I read reports that many of the people who stayed the following 2 weeks ended up in hospital on drips, yet I could only give a fantastic review.
I decided than that I couldn't face people ending up in hospital or worse just because they took my advice.

Sometimes the weather statements can be useful to people if the time of stay is around the time you are looking to go and, like it or not, for beach holidays fine weather is a very important factor.
The hotel/resort may cater for wet weather very well, but when it comes down to it, I can sit at home and watch tv when it is raining outside and don't have to pay.
I recently checked official weather records for my stays in the DR, Cuba and Mexico and found that it rained or stormed nearly everyday. I missed that. I remember it as it rained occasionally but mostly only for short periods, cooled us down nicely, and then dried up. Further along the roads where they keep the records, it obviously was worse! It did rain for a whole day in Mexico, but we were out Deep Sea Reeling that day and had buckets of sea water poured on us to thaw us out every now and again.

So although official information is available it may not be accurate or relevant, however if all the reviews from people staying at the time of year I am contemplating all state that the weather is bad, I will factor this useful info into the holiday choice.

Reading between the lines is a must in my opinion , it's all about opinions .When booking lots of things need to be taken into account, families who have previously holidayed off peak can be shocked at how different a place can be in the peak summer time (and the cost too)
For myself I have found the reviews invaluable when booking for a family of 4 , it's helpfull to know how far it is to the beach , to a shop etc etc and over the years it has helped me to discount anywhere where I would have to get up at the crack of dawn just to get a bed by the pool
I think you just have to read all you can and compare what they said to your party , time of holiday and factor in what you want from your holiday before making your decision.
Probably the holiday I have least enjoyed had nothing wrong with the place we stayed in , we just picked the wrong resort for us , coupled with the fact that our teenagers moaned the whole time and it cost us an arm and a leg to be there
We remedied that last year by going away without them to a place that got (and deserved) wonderfull reviews and I was happy to add my own to that list.