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Tags: Cheap Hotels / TripAdvisor / Budget Hotels / → All Tags
TripAdvisor Picks Ten Not-Too-Bad Hotels for Under $19
OK, this isn't The Mondrian South Beach but it is cheap.
You wouldn't expect to find too many hotels on a list of under $19 accommodation, but TripAdvisor has so many they've made a Top 10 list. And sure, we're not talking five-star luxury or anything, but if you're traveling on a budget it's good to know just how many super-cheap options there are out there.
But what do you get for under $19? For a start, not one of the hotels in the Top 10 has ever been featured here on HotelChatter, so we feel like we're treading a little into unknown territory. But it ain't all bad, we think. Take the #1 pick, the Hotel Lion d'Or in Buenos Aires, which starts at $14 a night, and rates well in the top half of the 340 hotels that TA monitors in the Argentinean capital.
Tags: Hotel Booking Tips / Bidding Sites / Hotwire / TripAdvisor / HOWTO / → All Tags
How To Determine Hotwire's Hidden Hotels Before You Book
Expedia Inc. has been on a bit of convergence spree recently. A few weeks ago our sister blog Jaunted reported on how the travel mega-company integrated Expedia and SeatGuru, and in the meantime they've also integrated TripAdvisor and Hotwire. That last part integration has the potential to be particuarly yummy, though not for the reasons Expedia intended (they thought customers would benefit from seeing TripAdvisor reviews on Hotwire - not so much).
Instead we're excited because the TripAdvisor/Hotwire integration may help Hotwire bidders crack the opaque site's hidden hotels. Hotwire has an interest in minimizing what a customer knows about the hotel being considered, lest they decide that they're not getting a deal and move on.
Customers have the opposite interest and try to figure out as much about the hotel as possible. The new TripAdvisor/Hotwire arrangement exposes so much data that many customers will be able to figure out exactly what hotel Hotwire is offering them, and will be able to accept or decline accordingly.
Tags: Refereeing Hotel Reviews / TripAdvisor / New Haven Hotels / → All Tags
The Study at Yale Passes With Flying Colors, So Says Recent Reviewers
Our inner geeks have been pretty excited about New Haven’s new-ish hotel, the Study at Yale, ever since the place opened last year. But until we pay the hotel a visit ourselves, we’ll have to rely on our steamy fantasy involving a rendezvous with a hunky Visiting Scholar. Er, also, the TripAdvisor reviews, which are impressively positive—13 “excellent” ratings and one “very good.” Apparently even the doormen are “dapper!”
A few highlights:
* “The only other choices near the university are a Courtyard by Marriott that in our experience could use a good cleaning, and the Omni, which is good but overpriced for what it is -- so The Study is a wonderful, welcome addition for visitors who are looking to stay near Yale,” writes TA user Oliver001.
Tags: Hotel Blog Watch / TripAdvisor / → All Tags
TripAdvisor's 'We Are Not Making This Up' Blog is Still Glorious
We spend a lot of time harping on things we don't like: fugly carpets, opening delays, crappy service and high room rates. But here is something we really, really do like (for a change): TripAdvisor's blog, "We Are Not Making This Up." We mentioned this a couple of years ago, but it's still up and running and turning out amusing nuggets of text and photos from real people that make you lose (or help restore!) a bit of faith in the world out there.
You know, every once in a while you come across a review on TripAdvisor that is somewhere along the lines of, "This hotel is horrible!!!11one!!1 Do NOT stay here!!!1!! NEVER AGAIN!!" and you're like, hmmm, this person is certainly quite distraught — but it's sort of funny, though. But have you ever wondered what happens to the reviews from people who are so distraught (or just so set on telling everyone in the world that the coffee maker was broken) that it was actually not publishable by TA? Enter the WANMTA blog.
Tags: Refereeing Hotel Reviews / Manhattan Hotels / TripAdvisor / → All Tags
What Makes This Hotel the 'Number One' Place to Stay in NYC?
Hey, ever heard of the Inn New York City? Neither had we, really. A quickie search through the HC archives (which go back — way, way back) was fruitless, and racking our brains turned up nothing. Why were we searching far and wide for info about this hotel, you ask? Because, according to TripAdvisor, Inn New York City is the very best hotel in all of the Big Apple. Hmm.
We know TripAdvisor is not always the undisputed bastion of accurate and consistent (or even sometimes real) reviews, and we also know that just because we haven't talked about it doesn't mean it's not good — but really, what makes this the supposed best hotel in all of NYC? Let's investigate.
Tags: Wii Hotels / Airport Hotels / Super 8 Hotels / TripAdvisor / Sweet Suites / → All Tags
The Superest Super 8 of Them All?
You don't want to know how we stumbled upon this TripAdvisor review for the Super 8 Airport South in Austin, Tex. but we sure are glad that our dubious internet skills took us here. That's because we might have found the superest Super 8 of them all.
The reviewer mentioned that the hotel's lobby had a Nintendo Wii for guests to use. Yes, a Wii which proves that Wiis are not just limited to Westins and boutique hotels.
But looking around some more, we saw that the hotel was ranked the #2 hotel in Austin by reviewers. So what gives? It can't be entirely due to the Wii, could it? Well we noticed that guests loved the amenities offered in-room such as lots of pillows on the bed and the flat-screen TVs (The suites have 52-inch flat screens too.) But also outside the rooms, guests were impressed by the food offerings and the free internet. We're also impressed by the fact that the entire hotel is non-smoking. A trucker stop, this is not.
Tags: Hotel Renovations / Sedona Hotels / TripAdvisor / → All Tags
Sedona's Orchards Inn Gets Seemingly Long-Overdue Renovation
Sedona, Arizona, has recently seen a swirl of activity — and for once it’s not related to vortexes or even the New Agey doings of the hippy-trippy guests the town attracts. Hilltop hotel Orchards Inn got a facelift! And from the sounds of more than a few painful-to-read TA reviews, it sounds like the update might have been long overdue.
The official word from Orchards Inn is that the hotel has been “updated inside and out to truly give this classic property an upscale contemporary feel.” The one aspect that even the mean TA reviewers admit is pretty amazing — Red Rock views — got centerpiece treatment, with new oversized framed mirrors placed just so to reflect the ahh-inducing views.
But, you know, new mirrors do not a renovation make. Guestrooms have also been “fully upgraded, from the custom designed dark oak furniture and beds with leather upholstered headboards to new carpeting and bathroom fixtures.” Also new: flat-screen TVs, nicer bedding, new lounge chairs on the sundeck, and individual climate controls in each room (hmm, OK, we’re not sure we’d be bragging that one as a “perk;” seems pretty standard).
Overall, the renovation doesn’t exactly sound earth-shattering (leave that to the vortexes!) but hopefully it means the place is less, uh, "disgusting.”
Tags: Hotel Renovations / TripAdvisor / W Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
Is W Chicago City Center's New Look Too Ikea-ish?
Ch-ch-check it out, Chi-town: W Chicago City Center just underwent a major, major reno (the first since its 2001 opening, obviously) that includes a redesign of the hotel's 235 guestrooms and suites, the W Living Room (goofy W lingo for "lobby," for those of you just tuning in), and a new brand new look for the meeting and event spaces throughout the hotel.
Warning: going over to TripAdvisor to check out reviews of this hotel may be a wee bit risky, as the reviews are about as all-over-the-place as they get. Here's one guest's take on the newly renovated rooms:
The renovated rooms look like a page out of an Ikea catalog. White, cheap furniture. I was reminded of the super-small rooms you get in European hotels where all the furniture is attached to the walls.
Whoops. Management responded to that comment, though, with this:
We ensure you that our furniture was created exclusively by the W Hotels Design team for the comfort of our guests. In implementing our recent 35 million dollar renovation our design team carefully thought of the guest experience – installing sound proof windows and creating more space by making it brighter and recessing furniture.
Probably a good thing that they're trying to make the rooms seem bigger and brighter, at least, since a couple other reviewers on TA complained of the small room size.
Rates here start around $199.
Tags: TripAdvisor / Refereeing Hotel Reviews / Hotel News / Christopher Elliott / → All Tags
Is TripAdvisor Removing Some of Those Fraud Warnings?
Last week, we were pretty excited when it was brought to our attention that TripAdvisor was stepping in to referee certain hotel reviews submitted to the site that appear fraudulent or, you know, like good ol' PR copy posted by folks affiliated with the property to manipulate rankings.
But now maybe TA is stepping back — Christopher Elliott asks on Twitter:
Tipster says @TripAdvisor has quietly been removing "attempted to manipulate" warnings from selected reviews. Anyone else seen this?
Hmm — could TA be backing down on this? We did mention we thought it was possible that these big ol' red warnings splashed across the top of hotels' pages may serve more to remind visitors about the way the site can be easily manipulated; maybe they agree?
Anyone seen this? Let us know.
Tags: TripAdvisor / Refereeing Hotel Reviews / Hotel News / → All Tags
TripAdvisor Keeps It Real by Calling Out Potentially-Fake Reviews
You know what's the worst? Cruising over to TripAdvisor to check out some unbiased, honest guests reviews — but stumbling upon a collection of reviews that look like they were written by a PR person or an on-property marketing department. We've gotten pretty good at spotting those and calling them out (see our Refereeing Hotel Reviews series for a couple examples of sneaky PR folks at work), but TripAdvisor has started to take notice too. And they're taking action.
Jeff over at Beat of Hawaii recently blogged about a warning he'd come across on the TA page for Hotel Renew in Hawaii; a big red box chillin' on the page that reads:
TripAdvisor has reasonable cause to believe that either this property or individuals associated with the property may have attempted to manipulate our popularity index by interfering with the unbiased nature of our reviews. Please take this into consideration when researching your travel plans.
That's right. Called out.
Tags: TripAdvisor / Refereeing Hotel Reviews / Hotel News / Business Hotels / → All Tags
TripAdvisor Launches Business Travel Center
We love us some TripAdvisor over 'round these parts. When a new hotel opens and we want to get a good look at what guests are saying about the place — or we want to compare our opinions against the thoughts of the general public — we head on over to trusty TA to check out what people are saying about the amenities, the romance factor, the service, etc.
But when we're traveling on business and we need to know specifics, like how close a hotel is to our meeting location and whether or not the business center provides free copies, we don't really dig having to wade through the dozens of reviews that describe how the hotel's concierge was instrumental in orchestrating a marriage proposal or how the restaurant had no food that children could eat.
So last week, TA heard our cries and launched a new "Business Travel Center": business travelers "can now specifically sort reviews written by business travelers about their business trip stays at hotels, and see rankings that display hotels that best cater to business travelers." Ooooh. So now, separate from a hotel's general Popularity Index (you know, "#1 in San Diego" and whatnot), there is now a Business Popularity Index that will rank hotels based on popularity specifically for business travel.
Tags: Refereeing Hotel Reviews / TripAdvisor / Kimpton Hotels / Washington DC Hotels / → All Tags
Lorien Staffers Roll Out Red Carpets and Fix Flat Tires
We have to hand it to Kimpton for their newest hotel. Since opening Feb. 12, the Lorien Hotel & Spa in Alexandria, Virginia, has managed — first of all — to impress us (no easy feat). And now that three weeks have passed, we thought it high time to dig deep into the first take on the guest experience in the often ugly, no-holds-barred world of TripAdvisor.
Except, well, hmm. Seven reviewers, seven perfect ratings. If you’re like us, overly glowing reviews strike you as a little suspect — especially for a brand-new hotel. But these reviews just don’t sound particularly phony. On the contrary, they read like the words of genuinely happy customers. And get this: The hotel’s GM actually responded to five of the reviews, even including his phone number and email address so guests can get in touch if/when they return. Wowza.
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