It happens all too often. This time to a coworker who had booked a 40-person family reunion in Hawaii. After hours of research they chose the Hilton Waikoloa hotel and requested rooms in the deluxe Lagoon Tower.
Except that a few weeks before the trip, the head of the family read a review talking about the birds that live in the trees near the tower. Apparently the birds, being birds, sing at daybreak and at sunset. And, naturally, you can hear them with the windows open.
So now, the clients want to switch all their rooms to another part of the hotel, called the Ocean Tower. Whether or not the birds can be heard from there, and whether or not, say, the players on the nearby mini-golf course talk loudly, well, that’s another question. Plus, there’s a nearby pool with a waterslide and guessing where the noisiest children will be at any time, well, that’s probably unanswerable.
Certainly, it helps to have some information on a hotel beyond the website and a glossy brochure. But with the ubiquity of online review sites, and the ability of anyone to post, it’s not hard to get into overload mode.
On the subject of birds, I had another client all set to book a room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai, one of the most popular and luxurious hotels in the islands, until he read a review complaining about chicken noise with the windows open at daybreak.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your tolerance for chickens, they are wild and a protected species on Kauai. So you either close your windows or deal with their sunrise greetings. (After my explanation and a lot more research the client in question finally decided to stay with his first choice, and had a nice stay. He reported later taht he didn’t notice the chickens after the first day.)
I’ve also had similar hotel issues, for examples, where travelers read about geckos getting into the room, noisy children in a city park across the street and street noise in Manhattan.
Sometimes, for example, if there’s major construction nearby, or a loud nightclub, or another serious nearby nuisance, it’s very useful to be warned in advance. But, the above examples are unavoidable. Geckos (tiny lizards) are everywhere in Hawaii, and pretty harmless. The park in question is normally a quiet neighborhood park. And it’s just about impossible to stay in Manhattan at a hotel where you don’t near SOME traffic noise, even 40 floors up.
To exacerbate the situation, while some travelers cheerfully review any hotel they stay at, the natural tendency is only to write when something is really good or really bad. And of course, some people (no one reading this blog of course) will complain about anything.
In addition, not all reviews are dated, so an issue from several months or even years ago, may not exist by the time of your planned stay.
What to do? There’s no hard and fast solution. I do try to caution clients to take their online research with a grain of salt. If one person mentions a problem, it may or may not be a real issue. If a dozen people mention the same problem, then there is probably something to it.
Another caution, at some point — I suggest people set a limit on research time if they don’t want to go insane. If you spend hours of a weekend online reading, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll find a bad review or two of any hotel. This is particularly true with highly rated expensive hotels, which can suffer from unrealistic expectations.
On the other hand, a traveler who has spent weeks backpacking, or a student who’s never stayed in a room with a private bath before, may rave about a modest place simply because it was a nice change, or because they got a great deal with free internet. Or even because the hotel bartender was adorable.
If nothing else, limiting online research will allow you to travel with at least some sense of surprise and wonder. Isn’t that what travel is supposed to be about?
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
