Host: Should I consult an online hotel rating site?

Melinda Webb: Online hotel rating sites are a mixed bag. They are great in that they provide very useful information and traveler photos of hotels and amazing destinations so information is more readily available and more candid too as opposed to just a stock image is. In saying that, you have to remember that everybody travels differently, everybody has different tastes and also that geographically people coming from certain areas will tend to have more of an opinion about certain things for example, you will find that people traveling from large cities that are used to four and five star hotels, going to a little boutique hotel in the Caribbean that might not be fit for them. So, it does not necessarily imply that the hotel itself is bad. It is just not a good fit for that particular client. So, you have to read out what is just personality versus truth and that can be a little tough. I have had fantastic hotels that I have stayed at, that I have put clients at that I have never had any complaints about and when I look at the ratings I am wondering what these people are talking about. At the same time when you look at other hotels and you are consistently seeing the same complaint over and over again or the same complaints about a particular staff person over and over again then you start to listen a little bit on that. You just have to take care on it that is all .