Introduction: What Makes a Good Hotel Review and How It Can Help Other Travelers
So you’ve been asked by booking.com or Agoda to review your experience of your stay at a recent hotel. You want to share your honest thoughts and opinions of your stay but are unsure of what to write. This post will help you construct a hotel review that is fair, honest and useful.
Writing a good hotel review isn’t difficult – you simply need to share your honest opinion. There are, however, things you can include that will make your review helpful to potential guests.
Follow this guide and you can ensure that your hotel review will be appreciated by many potential hotel guests for years to come.
Tips for Writing Quality Hotel Reviews
Here is a suggested breakdown of how to write your review.
Start your review with when you stayed and how many people were travelling, the room type you booked, how many nights and how much you paid.
This is very useful to other people, as the quality of your experience is highly impacted by what you booked and how much you paid. If you managed to grab a bargain or a free room upgrade, you will likely be easier to please compared to someone paying full price.
An example of this is “we were 2 adults travelling in March for 7 nights and paid £500 for a superior room on bed & breakfast”
Follow this by your first impressions of the hotel. Your first impression is generally a good guide to your overall booking experience.
For example “ on arriving at the hotel we found it to be impressive, the staff on check-in were amazing and gave lots of useful information”
It’s then a good idea to talk about the room. Did it match what you were expecting compared to the online photos? Were there any bonus facilities that you wasn’t expecting? Are the hotel beds comfortable? Did you get a peaceful nights sleep, or was there some noise disturbance?
You could write “The rooms looked exactly like the photos and I was pleased there was also an iron and ironing board. I slept like a baby!”
Then move onto food, if you were staying bed & breakfast, half board or all inclusive. The food review is usually the most important aspect potential guests are hoping to know about. It can literally make or break a holiday. When reviewing the food, remember that it is very much an objective opinion, and the food may be great but just not to your taste.
A good hotel food review would read something like – “the breakfast and dinner was a buffet restaurant, there was so much choice and the food was varied every evening. I am a fussy eater but there was always something I could put together to enjoy a delicious meal”
You then want to comment on the hotel facilities. You obviously don’t want to write about every single feature of the hotel, so focus on 3 facilities that were important to you.
Such as “The pool was so inviting and there were always plenty of sunbeds no matter what time you arrived at the pool. The gym was small but functional and I managed to keep up with my exercise routine whilst away. There was a spa but the treatments were quite expensive, I treated to myself to a massage for 60 euros and it was absolute bliss!”
Finally you need to conclude your hotel review. This is just a quick summary of your overall experience. You should mention if you found the hotel to be value for money, and if you would stay there again. If your experience was negative – explain why not. Explain if you would do anything different if you were to book this same hotel again.
A typical hotel review conclusion would read, “overall I had an amazing holiday and can’t wait to return. Next time I would request a superior room, away from the pool, as it could sometimes get quite noisy in the afternoon”
Using Photos & Videos in Your Review To Showcase Your Experience
It’s really useful for other people if you can take some photos of your hotel or resort to upload with your review. The hotel will have used professional photography to upload on the booking site – perhaps even edited. So your raw and untouched photos will give a much better impression of what the hotel is realistically like.
A great tip is to take your “hotel room” photos as soon as you arrive before you unpack. This allows you to have nice photos of the accommodation without you revealing your belongings etc.
It is best to upload 4 photos to your hotel review. One of each of the following
– Room
– Pool
– Restaurant
– Reception
Tips on Writing Negative Hotel Reviews
If you’ve had a bad experience, you may wish to warn other people about it to avoid making the same mistake. Reviews should always be honest, so if you have had a negative experience then there is no harm in sharing the details.
You must remember though that negative reviews can seriously effect a hotel in terms of future bookings – so keep to the facts and try not to get too personal.
Before writing a negative review – ask yourself whether other people staying at the hotel are likely to experience the same problem. If the negative experience was exclusive to you, then it is unfair to put other people off staying at the hotel.
Also, do not include in your hotel review negative things that aren’t the hotels responsibility. Often people comment on things such as not liking the area or a bad hotel transfer experience in their hotel review. This is unfair as it will impact the hotel and they are not responsible for it!
