I've just read up some review on a hotel that I have booked and they are very bad. Should I cancel

[Amani]

We've booked our hotel for a trip to Morrocco without reading any travel review. Anyway - I've just googled some reviews and looked at Trip Advisor and they are all rubbish! Do you think I shoould cancel my booking based on the reviews or just go ahead with it. Anyone stayed at Kenzi Semeris (sp?) and had a good experience? It's supposed to be 5 but a lot of reviews say it is more like 2. Help, as I going with 2 young kids.

We have found some dreadful reviews about hotels we have stayed in and loved. Some people seem to expect a British experience in a distant country and are unhappy when it isn't like that.
Also I think how busy the hotel is when you stay can have a big effect - we have stayed in hotels at off-peak periods and found them spacious and the staff very willing, etc, rather than when they are crammed to the gills.

Just read my post and it sounds really incoherent - but I hope you get my drift. Lots of bad reviews on different websites and I am panicing now thinking I have booked myself into a hell hole.

How recent are the reviews?

Are they all saying basically the same thing?

What % of the reviews are really bad.

Are there really good ones too?

How fussy are you?

Often there will be a couple of really bad reviews and they turn out to be from someone who is just really sensitive. The kind of person who complains if the view is not to their liking or if the children in the next room played too loudly.

There are very recent bad reviews on trip advisor that I would find very off-putting and wouldn't be willing to take the risk that the standards might be better when I went.

If it was me I think I would try and cancel and find somewhere else.

All reviews relate to August and July 2009 and moan about bad A/C and food. I am not fussy as long as the room, bath room etc is clean and food is good. Yikes I have seen some awful pictures on trip advisor where the bathroom is falling apart and kitchen has pots and pans on dirty floors etc... (pictures from the same person), bad reviews from 5 different people.

That really does not sound good.

Did you book through a travel agent?

I would change to a different hotel, I think.

People most often post on trip advisor when they are seriously peed off. People rarely come home and think "hmm that was quite nice must write my review", have a bad experience and posting a bad review on trip advisor is the easiest way to get revenge.

Are you going as a package with an in resort travel rep? If so I would go but be prepared to get the rep to move you if it turns out to be unsatisfactory.

When are you going? If it is not high season then (i) you are less likely to get a bad room - hotels know which rooms are bad and only get used if the hotel if fully booked (ii) if you need to move it will be easier to move either within the hotel or to another hotel.