Do you go by reviews

[purpleme12]

Do you go by reviews for your holidays?

Searching for holidays
I don't normally look at reviews but mum pointed out the reviews are m aren't very good.
Well that's because the first few you come across aren't very good but the places still have about 3.5 or mostly 4 stars overall so mostly good reviews.
But on closer inspection all the ones you look at have some bad reviews but again mostly ok/good star reviews overall.
I'm wondering if people just love to complain

I do read them, as in I wont go anywhere with less than 4/5 but everywhere has some bad reviews and as I've realised over the years, people have very different opinions. So I tend to research a hotel quite thoroughly, not just look at the reviews.

Our last holiday, All Inclusive in Tenerife was 4.5/5 with loads of reviews. Lots of good ones but still quite a few bad ones, including about the food. We went and couldn't understand those reviews because we thought the food was really good. I did my own review and gave it 4/5 but my reasons for that score were different to a lot of others. So it's deff worth reading the reviews but don't always take them as facts. It's useful to find out some information about the hotel though, you may want to know though.

Where did you go?

Well I haven't seen any photos in any reviews
Huh! I assume you've never looked at Tripadvisor then??? Guests can add their own photos as can management. Every other site also has photos or the room/pool/restaurant etc.

Why do you ask OP whether people read reviews?

Erm yes I have seen TripAdvisor that's what I'm talking about. I know you can add them on if you want. I was saying I haven't seen any photos in these negative reviews that some people put on for the holidays I've looked at

Anyway that was only one that was 3.5 All the others are 4 stars on the reviews

If it's a budget holiday I wouldn't be too concerned at 3.5, but wouldn't touch an AI holiday with less than 4.5 star reviews on average, and would look at what the problems are for the outliers that are below 4 star. It's too important to get the hotel right for AI, less of an issue if it's a hotel that's just a base.

So can anyone find a holiday all inclusive
With enough water slides on site
Close to the beach
Preferably Spanish speaking country/island that has above 4 stars?
For August

I do but you have to read the comments as well as the star ratings e.g. i went somewhere where people had complained that the resort was hilly and their elderly parents struggled to get around and they'd given it a low rating because of that. Well it was clearly specified in the hotel description so that was their issue for not having read the details! But if people are consistently saying it's dirty, noisy, the food was awful etc then I wouldn't book.

Similar to other replies, I look at the most recent reviews, the ones that give it a high score and the ones that give low and try to use that to help decision, if somewhere has predominantly mid to poor reviews I’d avoid

a random search on dates and London airports (others are available), to the balerics, canaries or spain, for 2A & 2C in Aug and the top returns are all waterpark hotels with 4-4.5 stars on trip advisor!
Holidays | Jet2holidays

@purpleme12 easily, but what's your budget, the higher the budget, the higher the stars (usually!)

Although saying that you are leaving it quite late for a highly rated hotel in August, our favourite Greek AI which is one of the highest rated on TA will be booked up for August by now. We had to book 18 months out to get our room preference.

Well to be fair I've already said most of mine were 4 stars. Apart from one. On TripAdvisor.
I was asking if anyone knew any above 4.5 stars based on what multiple people have said on here.
I bet if you look closer though that not all the water parks are on site either and there might one or two water slides at the hotel
Maybe you get more choice if you fly from London I don't know

I find reviews particularly on Booking quite accurate to be fair and always read them. You can always tell when people are fault finding deliberately and being extremely picky. It's also why I take the time to write a review myself to help other travellers.

I'm only able to go on this holiday because my mum has sold a house she inherited from grandad so she's given us some money so unfortunately I couldn't do it far in advance although I don't think I'd want to spend much more than the ones I'm looking at to be honest already.
And we do want to go this August

I look at what the reviews say. If they say there was too much foreign food in a foreign country, that the staff didn't speak English well, or that the sunbeds were all booked, I know i don't need to worry about them.

@purpleme12 sorry I didn't mean to come across judgementally, we don't get to book far in advance usually (DH military so we never know where he'll be!) but the hotels that are super popular (the ones that often have Facebook fan pages and thus have 4.5 reviews) do tend to book up for peak times, but they do exist! They do tend to be the expensive ones though.

So if I were you, I would narrow down by 4* only (try 4.5 first), then look through the negative reviews of the highly rated ones and see what is bothering people. For me, my no gos are overcrowding and not being able to get a sun lounger, but I'm less fussy on food, some people are real foodies and have too high expectations on buffet food, so long as there is choice and it's clean I'm not after fine dining.

So work out what your gos and no gos are, then reviews can be helpful.

Some tour operators allow you to filter by review score. Although personally, I'm a resort first person. I prefer being able to walk into a local town in the evenings and choosing a harbour side restaurant for dinner. I'd hate a hotel that was miles from anywhere, however nice it was.

It depends what's most important to you. If good water slides are your priority, then you are looking a bigger family hotels and family food so bear this in mind when critiquing reviews.

Some people will be expecting higher quality food and will review accordingly.

@polkalfie it's ok

I'll bear this in mind

Exactly the same approach. I use tripadvisor and I always filter the one star reviews and read them (and normally laugh at some of the ridiculous things people complain about). I search key words as well so 'clean', 'cold food' etc to look for any reoccurring themes. It's a lot of money to spend and I'd rather stay at home than go somewhere rubbish

I don't consider anything lower than 4.5 average.
I do very detailed, factual reviews of hotels, sometimes on TA sometimes on google (who copy the TA ones anyway. I've travelled enough to know what I should expect for the price / area.
If the odd review is out of kilter with the rest I ignore it. If the reviewer doesn't have a good history of reviews I ignore them.

100% - Always a key factor in what I book, they usually give a lot of info away that is helpful in getting a feel for a place.

I take them all with a pinch of salt, but it's not difficult to spot the good reviews from the owner's Mum & the bad reviews from a rival.

A few years ago, we were on a package tour of China. I reviewed some hotels & I soon realised that one of the tour group was doing the same.

Our reviews were totally different. She was a different nationality, & she had lower standards than me. As an example, one place was described as spotless, but she had missedthe fag-ends in the corridors & the dog shit in the hotel gardens.

I always read reviews (we don't book whole holidays, we do DIY, but I read the reviews for hotels, cottages etc.). That said, I look at both the overall score and the negative comments. If the negative comments moaning about lots of stairs to the bedrooms, for instance, then I don't care. But if there are numerous comments about noise in the middle of the night, or dirty bathrooms, then I do care.

I do, and I leave honest reviews, too. You can normally spot the moaners for moaning sake a mile off, but often, you do pick up helpful tips. My reviews are actually all positive but I do include helpful tips.

For example I have booked a hotel for my parents recently. My Dad is disabled and someone mentioned in the review that the shower really needed another safety bar. So we were able to buy a suction one and they brought that with them. Likewise I stayed in a lovely hotel that advertised themselves as 100% wheelchair friendly but actually had lots of areas that had one or two steps to get into.