The truth and validation of online reviews for hotels and overnight accomodation - and some suggestions

 

Online reviews of hotels, as found on a variety of travel and aggregator websites, are chancy at best and outright shaky at worst. By the way, this is global, so not India specific. 

So what do you do if you are travelling on a budget and leaving hotel bookings for the end, like we often do, or have opted to travel suddenly?

1) Book a room for only one night. Extend if you like the place, otherwise go walkabout in the same town, and choose something else. We also very often sit in the lobby whilst one of us goes and checks the rooms on offer. Select what you like, not what they offer.

2) Call up the property before making a booking. Very often, the response and quality of answers, will tell you a lot more than the reviews put up online. And in this context, owner operated properties are often a better bet.

3) Use a credit card to make a booking. Specifically credit cards can give you the rights to ask for a reversal of charges towards delinquency in services rendered. Many hotels have a pay only on arrival policy. Look at the option. You can always file for a reversal post-facto after departure.

4) Look up the property using online maps. In terrain or satellite view. A prominent 4-star hotel in a town I do not want to name was right next to a crematorium and graveyard. Seaview and beachfront is easily re-verified. Some hotels turn out to be floors in commercial buildings or industrial areas.

5) In remote areas, especially if you are elderly but still adventure oriented, it makes a lot of sense to drop by the local police station and make polite conversation. I have found police stations in remote areas of India to be very helpful - and very happy to talk about anything and everything. Word spreads fast, but nobody else knows why you went there, so it just works.

6) Home-stays are a great option in many parts of India now. There are also a lot of them all over the place now and pricing is often very arbitary.  What is described as boutique and charming by them may just be old and not really maintained to the customer. We are lucky, we have friends all over India, so word of mouth is our modus operandi. I would think a better method for a long booking at a home-stay would be to spend one night at a "normal" hotel in the vicinity and then go check out the long-stay home-stay after checking in. We have had good luck at home-stays, mostly, by calling up in advance.

7) And finally, if in doubt - switch. Politely.  We have never had to switch -- mainly because we do our own research variously. Not just the online reviews.

This post shall probably have a lot of edits going forward.