To be worried about our holiday after reading reviews?

[Summerevenings13]

We are going away in a few weeks, me, dh and the dc.

I spent a lot of time looking at different hotels and reading reviews and eventually found somewhere that seemed to tick all of the boxes.

However over the last few weeks loads of bad reviews have started popping up. Stuff like the rooms being dirty, the food being terrible, smelly rooms overlooking bins and so on.

It’s an all inclusive and it’s quite remote so probably won’t be much option to go off elsewhere if it’s grim.

Where are you going? Someone here will have been there and can give you honest feedback.

Disgruntled people are more likely to leave a review than people who were happy.
I often re-read reviews after I've been on a holiday and it makes you realise how some people have too much time on their hands and complain about the most ridiculous things (e.g one cracked tile on the shower wall!).
Just enjoy your holiday!

It’s the Princess Andriana in Kiotari.

When I was looking it seemed to have mostly good reviews but quite a few bad ones seem to be popping up recently.

You should start a thread with that as a title,so people can see it immediately and reply

It’s had significantly more good reviews than bad ones

People will just find things to pick on about anywhere. Maybe they are having teething problems the first couple of busy weeks of the season but be fine when you visit.
We looked at this hotel but ended up booking the Gennadi Grand Resort (highly recommend) but this looked on a similar 5star level isn’t it?

It’s got a really high average on review sites and people are way more likely to review if they have a bad experience - most people who enjoy it won’t bother! Relax and enjoy, it sounds lovely.

Some people are just really picky. The place we just went on holiday (which was lovely) had a one-star review because someone had ‘stolen’ his towel. The whole holiday written off because of a towel! You just need to read between the lines with these things.

Very bad = business rival.
Very good = family member.

Not always, & check how many previous reviews the reviewer has made.

Hope for the best but plan for the worst. Be prepared to complain loudly and immediately (don't unpack) if the room is dirty. Even if it looks clean, take Dettol wipes or similar and give the door-handles, light switches, TV remote and all the bathroom a once-over.

It’s got well over 3000 reviews on Google and the vast majority are 5*, that’d be one big family and a lot to check through.

Read Trivago reviews as they are true apparently. Anyone can write bad reviews without even being to the hotels (rivals etc). With Trivago, only people that have booked through them can write reviews

I took DD on a really cheap AI break recently and some of the reviews were dire. It was absolutely fine and great for what we paid

Someone where I stayed recently knocked two stars off the review because you had to use a pool card token to get a towel by the pool. It's a great system as it means you hand the towel back when you've finished and get the card back for next time. It means towels aren't strewn all over loungers and more loungers are freed up. Maybe he lost his towel or card and had to pay £5 🙄

I went 5* last year - hotel incredibly dull not much around nothing to wonder round etc but had rave reviews - then we got the coach load of kids pile in on the last day - atmosphere changed totally! No where to lay by the pool etc - so not all reviews will be the same experience

People also have varying, sometimes unrealistic, expectations of a 5* abroad, which influences their reviews. I had a UK break recently, similar in that recent reviews weren’t great at all and I was worried. The accommodation was perfect, with none of the issues raised in the reviews. I use them as a guide rather than gospel.

Sometimes a rush of lots of bad reviews can be all from one party with a gripe (justified or not) against somewhere. I have seen this with restaurants before.

The last hotel I stayed in I loved and gave 5 stars but the reviews before me were all very low. They were upset about things looking tired and worn- exactly as the pictures really- but it didn't bother me as it was all clean, the staff were lovely and attentive and the value, breakfast and location were excellent. But for some people looking like their aunties spare room decor wise was the worse thing in the world.

Food being terrible sounds very subjective (some hate only having local options for instance), dirty might mean dated rather than actual dirt, smelly bins might be very localised to just one area/ one day. I'd try not to worry too much!

Okay so I’ve not been there but I sat on a flight from Rhodes next to a woman who had just stayed there. Honestly she hadn’t enjoyed it but they went as a couple and I think it’s pretty child focused. She said she had complained in the Facebook group and they’d kicked her out. SO, if I were you I’d join that FB group and get live reviews. This was a couple of years ago now but I’m sure the group will still be there.

I hope you have a lovely holiday.

I would take the reviews with a pinch of salt. Unless they are all bad I guess. I’ve been apprehensive staying at places because of it, got there, and couldn’t understand what people were complaining about. Some people are never happy though.
The only thing that would bother me is safety concerns.

It seems like we have a similar approach to these things and I can get a bit obsessive over reading reviews and worrying about making the perfect choice.

At some point you’ve got to make a decision, which you’ve done, and try not to think about it again and focus on enjoying the trip!

Despite looking at reviews I know there is a massive amount of fake ones as businesses realise their importance, that’s a whole other discussion for assessing whether to believe them or not.