Last month, my wife and I stayed at Eden House, a great boutique hotel in Key West, Florida. We loved the historic main building and the beautiful grounds with a lovely pool and hammocks hidden amongst the many trees. The hotel is a pleasant five-minute walk from the main drag, Duvall Street, where there are plenty of great restaurants (our favorite was Pepe's - try the barbecue and amazing key lime pie), interesting stores, and a fascinating human parade at all hours.
We found the hotel through our favorite travel website, Trip Advisor. We have used this website to find some great hotels around the world over the past three years. We like this source because it contains over 3 million reviews from travellers, and it is much more up-to-date than guidebooks that oftentimes come out a year or two after they're written.
In The New York Times on 2/7/06, you'll find a great article called "Hotel Reviews Online: In Bed With Hope, Half-Truths and Hype" that reveals how many hotels are submitting their own rave reviews or bribing their customers to do so on their behalf. It's interesting to see how the online review websites are fighitng back with methods ranging from closer scrutinization before reviews are posted to special algorithms designed to flush out phony reviews.
Eventually, smart hoteliers will realize that you can't build buzz with fake reviews. Rather, bad reviews should be welcomed since they reveal service flaws that should be corrected. People will naturally buzz about the hotels that they frequent. Providing an excellent customer experience is the best to guarantee positive buzz.
