I'm planning a trip to the UK next year to hike the Cotswold Way with a few days in London beforehand. I've been looking at various websites to try to pick a hotel in London and I'm finding oddities in the different reviewing systems.
Websites such as venere or laterooms, where only people who have used that site can post a review, have much less unflattering reviews than tripadvisor.
For example, a hotel with a middling rating might get comments on venere such as "Small, even by London standards", "furnishings old, dingy and worn out", "bed too hard/too soft", "too noisy", "too hot/no AC". Not very appealing but the tripadvisor comments on the same place are positively scathing. They'll be along the lines of "the bathroom was so dirty and smelly that I refused to go in", "I took one look at the room and turned around and left to find another hotel", "the wallpaper was peeling off the walls", "the bedclothes were stained and torn", "there were huge patches of mold on the ceiling".
Small, rundown and dingy I can cope with, especially for only 50 GDB/night. Filthy and bug-ridden is entirely another matter.
I'm inclined to trust the venere/laterooms reviews more than the ones on tripadvisor. The tripadvisor comments seem so over the top. If these hotels are really so bad, why doesn't everyone loathe them?
If I remember correctly, Venere has limited space to write your review whereas tripadvisor,gives you much more room to be REALLY descriptive.
Regarding believing reviews..I look how current the reviews are...staff can change, remodeling can take place or be completed. I check to see the style of writing..if the person says they are from say the USA but gramatically speaking you can just tell that's not the case, then it could be a competitor posting. I check to how many reviews an individual has done and also look at their profile to see how well travelled they are.
If someone has never been to europe and complains about small rooms or small breakfasts, I don't take that review as seriously.
Hard beds and bugs are a deal breaker in reviews though...I have experienced both inadvertently...
note to anyone going to Venice..The Hotel Mercurio is in a GREAT location and if you can look past the dead mosquitos on the wall decor..you will love the quick walk to San Marco Square.
Hmmm....hotel reviews! I have recently discovered why some reviews for the same hotel can be all over the place.
We recently stayed at the Regency in London (S. Kensington area), not cheap, but not expensive L102/nt including breakfast..)with friends, who had stayed there before and loved it. Our room was terrific...standard size for London, super clean, great view etc. Our friends had an incredibly small room (ie no luggage rack or a place to put one)at the back of the hotel that looked right into the side of another building. Their room was just barely acceptably clean. We paid the same price. My review would be glowing, theirs would not. And for them, as repeat customers, it was really disappointing since they too had a great room the first time.
So read the reviews and never expect the hotel to be as good as the most glowing review, nor as bad as the worst....I hope for a room that at least falls somewhere in the middle. I would not likely stay somewhere that more than one person has suspected a theft, where more than half of the reviews have stated the rooms were not clean (sometimes a fine line between "old" and ones perception of "dirty" ie. old worn carpet vs carpet not vaccuumed). If the reviewer has provided pictures (Tripadvisor has this) that is also helpful.
I think, even with reviews, it's a bit of a crapshoot. But I will generally pick a hotel that has had many reviews rather than one that has only had a couple. It just gives a bit more to go on.
If you don't mind not staying right in London, you could try the Holiday Inn at Gatwick. It's a pretty standard "Holiday Inn" hotel, but at 52L a night (if that's still the rate) it was a great place to stay. London was 1/2 hour on the train (cheaper to buy an open return ticket) and Brighton a 1/2 hour the other way.
There is also a Holiday Inn Forum in S. Kensington (good area, Gloucester tube station, museums etc) for around 90L).
Good luck! London is a great city, but it's a pricey place to stay.
