That sounds like very sound advice to me. It's exactly what people who are fussy about their hols should do. No good booking and then complaining that it's not what they were expecting.

Good advice - Ive always said to check a lot of sites to make sure that you really have done your homework

However even in this day and age its important to remember that not everyone has computer or internet access so some people rely on what is told to them by the agent................and maybe its the first time they have even travelled abroad and are relying on an Agent to try and tailor a holiday to their needs?

And surely as an Agent there is a slight obligation to be up to date on what accommodation is like? I know you cant do it for every single thing you sell - but I would hope that a Travel Agent is not merely there to do "admin" work in the booking - I would have thought that advice (positive and negative) would come into it also?

Otherwise I sort of think whats the point going there - you might as well do it on the internet yourself.................

In the days before the internet I would have gone to an Agent and have NEVER been given negative feedback on accommodation - yet when we arrived it was patently unsuitable and not what we had asked for in the first place........and not even really as described in the brochure!

Can I just ask - is there not some sort of "gazetter" which Travel Agents use which has "truthful" points in it about accommodation and resorts? (stand corrected if not)................but in my experience I have never seen them look at this when giving folk advice - and while I am 100% sure that 99.999999% of Agents do a good job - I have had quite negative experiences when dealing with them, which is why I try to do DIY when possible - then I only have myself to blame if it goes wrong!

Hi Tootsie,

Understand where you are comming from and also the fact that some people don't have access to the internet. There is ( or was) a travel agents guide on hotels. Not sure if it still exists to be honest but the comments in there were sometimes just as negative. They described one hotel that it looked like a multi storey car park, well in spain, alot of apartment complexes may well look like it but to read that to a client hardly fiils them with confidence which is why i think we stopped using it.

Generally with the hotels sold through the bedbanks, you kind of get to know which is good and which isn't although saying that, there are some ghastly hotels on the Costa Brava yet people book them because it is cheap and when you get all inclusive for about £15pp a night, what more can you say.

If you are good at sales and can pick up on your clients needs easily then you will know what you can sell and what you wouldn't. There are some hotels that people ask for and i will be quite open and say, the hotel doesn't have that good a feedback, do you want me to search for something else.

If i know it is bad based on our own customer feedback then i will recommend something else otherwise if someone asks me about reviews i will say that we don't generally look at them as some hotels are quite often graded down due to the silliest of things, if they ask me to look at them then yes i will but it doesn't mean we will stop selling the hotel unless we get major complaints from it.

Thanks for your reply Leisurelad

I understand what you mean

I suppose there are two types of customer, which I what I was really getting at.

The ones you are complaining about are those who walk in and point out a holiday they want booked and you do it for them........then come back to change it. I can totally empathise with why that would be a total pain for you!

The other sort are the ones who I have a lot of sympathy for and they are people who have no experience of foreign travel and no access to reviews.........and are looking for a travel agent to help them and point them in the right direction.

There's loads of agents posting on here, and I would hope that most of them would give advice on where to avoid if they knew it was "awful".........if a customer trusts the agent they will come back again next year (or whenever!)..............

Im really curious though - you say some places are awful - would an agent not stop using accommodation if that was the case - what I suppose I mean is - how is a decision taken to "stop" using particular accommodation?

Well,

It is a tricky one when deciding when to stop selling. Generally we look at how it sold, what the complaints where and what the ratio of complaints versus the number of people booked and take it from there.
When you advertise through Teletext it is also very difficult for you to exclude that particular hotel every time you update, purely because of the way the system scans for the hotels within the database.

I'll give you an example of a bad hotel, The H-Top Gran Casino Royale on the costa brava (known as HM Prison in our our office). look at the reviews and the picutres, i wouldn't send my worst enemy there yet sold very well last year, purely based on the fact it was cheap and people only wanted to eat, sleep and drink.

Personally not my kind of holiday but for some it appeals so we offer it. Again, you can kind of tell on the phone what sort of client you have.

PS:

If i had my way, i would only sell Greece/Turkey/Egypt/Tunisia/Canada and select my own variety of hotels but then im being too restrictive although i doubt i would ever have any complaints and probably end up with a very loyal client base LOL.

Thanks

Where I used to work if we had a few bad complaints about a property over a short period of time we would look at some of the review sites to see if the trend was downward. If it was we used to put it on stop sell, sometimes indefinately.

Whilst the internet and sites such as this make it easier, my personal experience is so often the reviews reflect the personal likes and dislikes of the poster. You only have to read the reviews posted on here to find much divergence in views. OK if a hotel gets constant negative reviews then most of us would try to avoid them, but again from personal experience I have often wondered if the hotel I have chosen is the same as reviewed. I do remember one where we allocation on arrival. One of the best holidays we have had and not one person there wanted to go home. The reviews were terrible when we checked them on our return. I wondered if they were deliberate so that it could be kept secret.

I do think that many people read the brochure and forget that it is an advert. By their nature they only tell you the positive things. We often get posts here on HT complaining that they only have 15kgs luggage allowance yet if you read the brochure or the website it does tell you. People just do not read it. I think many only look at the pictures and forget the words.

As official "wrinklies" we are not quite as adventurous as some, so we keep going back to the same places. We are also very boring as we explore and take notes of hotels and resorts so we can compile a list. When we get back we check out the reviews to help us decide where we want to go or stay next time.

fwh

"gazetter" which Travel Agents use which has "truthful" points in it about accommodation and resorts?

I remember looking at something like this years ago, before I'd ever heard of HT & it was particularly valuable at the time. Nowadays I spend hour upon hour pouring over both brochures & the internet, before deciding where to book. I do agree that reviews though are personal opinions, based on what that particular holidaymaker requires. For example my brother & sister in law spend thousands on holidays every year, & not once have they come back & said that everything was to their satisfaction eg no robes slippers etc. Now hubby & I - if we wanted robes & slippers we'd stay at home & watch tv in them Yes we like clean accomodation & good food, but we're only in the room to shower & sleep. IMO Reviews are a very personal thing

Hi all!

I am a travel agent and if a customer asks for our opinions or feedback on a particular resort or accomodation then we will always use the gazetteer. Its now online rather than the huge 'bible' it used to be!
Our customers always feel happier about making a decision about their holiday once they have read the reviews etc on gazetteers due to the honest impartial advice given by other travel agents.
I always make sure i put my own reviews on there whether they are good or bad.

If someone likes the look of a hotel in a brochure and decides to book on that alone, just for them to come back in a few days later and say they have read the reviews and they are no good, then i do sometimes feel like saying 'well, you did just plonk the brochure down in front of me and say book that one!'
It is frustrating but you just have to do what you can to rectify it and at least they should have learnt a lesson - to always do some research before booking.

My advice to customers is always do a bit of research on the properties they are looking at, have an open mind, some people moan for the sake of moaning, whilst some people have genuine reason to give bad reviews (you can normally distinguish between the 2) at the end of the day a holiday is what YOU make it!!!

Stacey

I am a travel agent and if a customer asks for our opinions or feedback on a particular resort or accomodation then we will always use the gazetteer. Its now online rather than the huge 'bible' it used to be!

I knew the word "gazetteer" was in there somewhere - glad Im not going senile just yet

The Gazeteer is only as good as the person writing it and with all reviews - one person's idea of hell, may not be another's.

As an example, we'd gone into a TA back in 2000 and booked 2 weeks at the Hotel Vulcano in Tenerife. I then heard about the Gazeteer (vaguely recall Virgin putting it on-line) and called into the TA and asked to see it which prompted surprise. Anyway, the 'review' wasn't what you would call good, the description of the hotel itself wasn't reassuring and it mentioned that it really wasn't suitable for young children! Great!

I then spent months worrying I was going to have a horrible hotel but we went and it was fantastic, children were made more than welcome and there was plenty of entertainment for them and the hotel was stunning and well run.

Personally I always do my homework and if there's one or two bad reviews in amongst a whole host of good ones then I take it that they're one-off's, obviously if they're all bad I wouldn't dream of booking.

I'm in the category of 'I choose the country, resort and accommodation that I believe will suit me so any problems are MY fault'.
I only book a holiday after doing extensive research. sure, it can be time-consuming but I can honestly say that I've never been disappointed in my choices.
It's called having accountability for your own actions.

I think it's important to realise that the 'star' rating system is different in different countries.
A 3* hotel in Thailand will probably be much better than a 3* in Goa.

It's also important when writing reviews to keep in mind what your accommodation promised you.
I've given a 2* hotel in Goa 4 'suns' on here - not because I think it should have a 4* - to me, it means that it scores highly within its category.

As fwh points out, reviews are subjective rather than objective and what one person views as acceptable another may find unaccceptable.
Therefore it's important to read reviews in full rather than just looking at the review marks.
I was considering one hotel in Goa and although most of the reviews were good, one chap had given it 2/10.
On reading the full (long) review all he had to say about the hotel was 'it was basic but clean and the staff were pleasant'.
The remainder was a tirade against the resort, the country and many of the local people. Basically, he just didn't like Goa.

We've travelled quite a lot to Goa and can do basic as long as the accommodation is clean and is kept clean.
Sure, the sheets may not be pristine white but as long as they are CLEAN, we're happy.

I've read so many posts on lots of websites from people who book a holiday then read the reviews.
Horse before the cart.
I can understand the frustration of TAs when this happens.

However, I've also read about some people being advised by TAs that a resort or hotel was suitable when they were sending older people to say, Kavos.

Well what about the time I went last minute to Portugal and told the agent I didn't want any building work and when we got yhere there were no paths and a digger outside our balcony.
Yet,
Agent: Theres absolutely no building work going on and you're right on the beach
Me: Actually there's loads of building work and YES we are right on the beach but only if we fancy a 50 foot jump off a cliff, otherwise we can take the ten minute walk around like everyone else

or

Agent: Tossa De Mar, Cashmier sands
Tossa de mar: OWWWWWWW stones everywhere and a five foot drop to the sea so if your kids are at the edge you can't even see their heads!

lol

So you have the agent (and the skytours book up until this seasons) saying lovely soft sand and then you have the reviews saying 'Very pebbly, big drop'

Obviously you get some people just moaning about everything, 'too hot', towels didn't look like swans, No English tv channels etc. I ignore those types.

Yet I think if the majority of reviews are saying, plug sockets hanging off walls, food very cold, we were so ill, then I think you should have the right to question going there! You know? If the last ten reviews all say we were very ill then I'm sorry but I don't want to go there!!! Because I know it and you know it, the agents won't tell you a damn thing about people being ill!!!

Yet I think if the majority of reviews are saying, plug sockets hanging off walls, food very cold, we were so ill, then I think you should have the right to question going there! You know? If the last ten reviews all say we were very ill then I'm sorry but I don't want to go there!!! Because I know it and you know it, the agents won't tell you a damn thing about people being ill!!!

Not sure why you were shouting at the end there.

"Have the right to question not going there?'

To be honest, anywhere that had reviews like that would not even enter into the conversation I was having with the TA (assuming that I was even having a conversation with a TA rather than booking it myself on-line).

I just can't understand why anyone who has access to the internet wouldn't do their homework before booking.

I didn't mean to shout, thought I was highlighting it!
When we went to Portugal we didn't have access to the internet! We relied on the agent telling us the truth!!!

I must admit once I find a resort and hotel that I like I do my own research first, and check out the hotel's own website and then other t/o websites to start with. I do look at the reviews but mainly to look at the pictures of the hotel/resort. I do take into consideration the reviews i.e. if it's 100% negative on every review then I would not consider, but if it's someones personal gripes, I largely ignore these, some people are at their happiest when moaning.

yeah, the one I hate most is Blackpool in the sun!!!

When we went to Portugal we didn't have access to the internet! We relied on the agent telling us the truth!!!

Well, that's a different kettle of fish altogether - falls into my category:

However, I've also read about some people being advised by TAs that a resort or hotel was suitable when they were sending older people to say, Kavos.

Did the agent KNOW that there was building work at your hotel (and therefore deliberately misled you) or could it have been that the information they had was the most up-to-date and they weren't aware of the building work?

If it was the former, I think this is totally unacceptable.

Did you complain when you got home?