January is, traditionally, the month when people start planning, booking, or at least thinking about, summer vacations. It used to be the time to ring up the travel agent and to start looking through glossy brochures. But, for more and more would be vacationers, the Internet has become the place to research and reserve vacations - especially hotel rooms.
But how do you choose a hotel based on what you can find on the Internet? Hotel web sites, after all, are hotel promotions of themselves. You could, of course, read what other people have to say about the hotels on review sites like TripAdvisor. But lack of control means that competitors, family members and others who are not entirely objective can skew the results.
Two of About.com's guides have put together their own advice about how to choose a hotel - anywhere. Their ideas are so sensible and knowledgeable, I think they're worth sharing with you.
- Betsy Malloy, About.com's guide to California, explains how she chooses hotels when planning her own trips and vacations. The tips and pointers in Choosing a California Hotel are just as useful for choosing a hotel in the UK or anywhere in the world.
- Susan Breslow Sardone, About.com's Honeymoons and Romance guide, decodes hotel web sites in How to Judge a Hotel By Its Web Site
I didn’t know you had to watch out for so many things while choosing the right hotel. But now everything should go fine for my next holidays.