How reliable are hotels' information on their websites?

score:8

Accepted answer

I would not give to much about the official information on those sites, since it's mostly marketing and/or eventually a few years old and the owner never updated it on mayor booking sites.

Fun fact: there is a marketing language in the travel industry; for example "central location" for a hotel could mean that it gets a lot of traffic or street noise all day long, and you might have trouble sleeping, while "quiet area" can mean that you won't have any public transport or other facilities nearby.

Upvote:1

I'm not sure how trustworthy the information on their websites is.

First, you should combine information from multiple sources and see whether it matches. Specifically, consider the following sources:

  1. The online site where you make the booking
  2. The hotel's own website, including room photos
  3. Sites with hotel reviews: tripadvisor.com, and maybe booking.com, hotels.com or others (I can't say for sure which are the best sites to check)
  4. The hotel's official rating (the link is for Germany and most European countries; there isn't a single universal rating) - and what each rating level means.

There's also the way they phrase things; so that they might be telling the truth technically but you should still not believe the typical implication of what they're saying:

  • "100% sound-proof rooms, as quiet as the grave" - concrete and strong claim, more believable (but nobody will tell you that")
  • "Quiet room" - kind of subjective; what's quiet to you might not be quiet to me.
  • "In a quiet area" - well, the area might be quiet generally, but it might just be there's a construction site across from the hotel which makes noises like the mouths of hell.

Upvote:5

I usually book hotels via booking sites (most often booking.com). They usually have at least as good prices as the official sites and have visitor reviews. As an extra step I usually go to the hotel's own website (after I've chosen a couple of candidates) to see additional photos, actual information, etc. I once almost booked a hotel, but then went to the official site and saw a notice that pool area is closed for reconstruction. That wasn't an issue in my case, but could've been a dealbreaker for others.

The bottom line is: I would use non-official respectable sites for initial selection, but check the official hotel's site for more details and last minute information.

Upvote:9

More than the information listed on a hotel's website, I would trust peer reviews from tripadvisor. Not only is the site worthwhile to check hotel reviews, but more often than not, you can also get information about the location where it is based, things to do in the vicinity (and traps to avoid), etc.

The hotel websites are mostly filled with marketing information intended to draw in clients.

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