HOTEL STAYS • TRAVEL SMARTER
Hotel Reviews: Who Can You Actually Trust?
I thought I’d booked a winner. Budapest in August had other ideas.
By Rob Wheatley – Program Director & traveler
Draft for review · Research checked 20 October 2026
I know the routine. Scroll through the reviews. Admire the stars. Find a few reassuring photographs. Congratulate myself on being rather good at this travel business.
Then came Budapest.
August. A heatwave. An Airbnb without air-conditioning. I was already committed to the place, which is a wonderfully polite way of saying I’d managed to book myself into an oven.
Eventually, I went out and bought three standing fans. Not one. Three. I was showering five or six times a day, which is less a holiday routine than an attempt to remain a mammal.
It was hell. Hell with three fans.
Hotels have provided their own education. The hotel had five stars online. Unfortunately, none of them appeared to be working that evening. That sums up the feeling rather well.
I’ve had rooms that made me think a black light would be a terrible idea. If I’d had one, I suspect I’d have slept on my unpacked clothes and dried myself with a jacket.
Years in hospitality, and I can still be seduced by a flattering photograph.
The photographs are usually doing their job. The question is whether I’ve done mine.
Knowing how to read hotel reviews means looking beyond the score. My Budapest heatwave taught me how much one missing facility can matter. Compare recent comments, room details and guest photos against your own needs, then ask about anything essential. Reviews help, but they cannot decide what you can comfortably live without.
Five stars, three fans and one missing question
The Budapest lesson was expensive in fans and rather economical in subtlety: a place can be well reviewed and still be wrong for me.
I needed to know whether I could sleep there comfortably in August. A cheerful average score couldn’t answer that. Checking the cooling arrangements could have helped.
Hotel stars add another small confusion. A hotel’s star classification describes facilities or service under a particular scheme, which varies by destination. Its guest-review score reflects the experiences people report. They are different measures, even when both appear beside the same seductive photograph.
Neither knows that you’re a light sleeper, that stairs are difficult for you, or that your relationship with extreme heat is best conducted from an air-conditioned room.
So I’d start with the boring essentials. Sleep. Cleanliness. Access. Location. Cooling, where it matters.
Get those wrong and the decorative cushions will offer very little consolation.
The February guest and the August problem
Now imagine reading that Budapest listing with one question in mind: what happens to this room in summer?
Suddenly, the reviews have a job to do. Search for heat, ventilation and air-conditioning. Check the stay dates. A guest who loved the place in February may be perfectly honest and of very little use to you in August.
The same applies to noise, unreliable lifts and housekeeping. Do different guests describe the same issue? Are they discussing the room category you’re about to book, or the suite you’ve been admiring without any intention of paying for it?
Read a few middle-rated reviews, too. These are often where you find the practical compromises: lovely staff, tiny bathroom; great location, noisy street. Less theatre. More information.
Then check another source. The FTC recommends evaluating reviews across sources, rather than leaning on the score alone.
One furious account needs context. A chorus describing the same broken lift deserves attention. Especially if your room is on the fourth floor.
A lovely hotel—for somebody else
“Nothing to do in the evening.”
Depending on the trip, I might consider that a selling point.
Meanwhile, somebody else’s “wonderfully lively atmosphere” could mean I’ll be listening to their wonderfully lively atmosphere through the wall at two in the morning.
This is why I want to know who is writing the review and what they wanted from the stay. Families, business guests and couples may be answering entirely different questions.
Perhaps some of the Budapest guests tolerated heat beautifully. Good for them. I needed three fans and a shower schedule.
However, personal preference only explains so much. Dirty bedding doesn’t become charming because the building is historic. A promised facility that doesn’t work is still a problem.
Know your own travel preferences, then check the promises against them. You’re allowed to need a quiet room. You don’t have to apologise for wanting to sleep in it.
The photograph never needs a shower
The official photograph has soft lighting, straight cushions and no evidence that anybody has ever needed to charge a phone.
The guest photograph has a suitcase on the bed, a wet towel on a chair and a thumb over the lens.
I’d like a word with both photographers.
Compare several recent pictures, looking past the tidiness—or lack of it—to the useful details. Bathroom layout. Storage. Steps. Room size. Make sure you’re examining the category you can actually book.
A wide-angle lens can flatter a small room. A dark snapshot can make a decent one look dreadful. Neither can tell you everything about cleanliness.
For that, read the specific housekeeping comments alongside the photographs. Repeated accounts deserve more weight than one alarming image with no explanation.
My imaginary black light can stay imaginary. There is enough information to investigate without bringing forensic equipment on holiday.
Who wrote all that praise?
Once a stay has disappointed you, the glowing reviews can feel personal. Who were these delighted people? Did they bring their own air-conditioning?
But my miserable Budapest experience doesn’t prove that anyone else’s praise was fake. It tells me that their recommendation didn’t answer my particular question.
Fake reviews do exist. Bursts of vague praise, repeated wording or sparse account histories can warrant a closer look. None is proof on its own. Nor does polished writing prove that AI wrote it.
Even “verified” deserves a moment’s attention. Booking.com’s standards allow reviews from people who booked and either stayed or arrived without staying. That is useful context, rather than a guarantee that you’ll agree with the verdict.
Likewise, look for sponsorship or gifted-stay disclosures in social-media recommendations. Somebody enjoying a complimentary weekend may be telling the truth. You should still compare that account with recent experiences from ordinary paying guests.
Admire the infinity pool. Then investigate the bedroom.
Now let the hotel answer
There is another person worth hearing from: whoever has to reply on behalf of the hotel.
I’ve worked in hospitality long enough to know that things go wrong. A useful response acknowledges the actual problem and explains what happened next.
For example, if guests keep mentioning hot rooms, I want to hear about cooling arrangements. “Thank you for your valuable feedback” does not lower the temperature.
Yet “we fixed it” is also a claim worth checking. Look at later reviews or ask directly.
I’m wary of replies that insult guests or disclose personal details. Equally, a calm explanation may add something important that the complaint left out.
The reply gives you a glimpse of how that uncomfortable conversation might go if you’re the one standing at reception.
Before the front desk becomes a battlefield
By the time I was purchasing fans in Budapest, the heat was no longer a booking consideration. It was my daily weather, indoors.
The better moment to ask about cooling had passed. However, when a problem develops during a stay, there may still be time for someone to help.
Tell reception—or your host—what is wrong, how it affects you and what you’re asking for. Be clear enough that the person listening can do something with it.
For a hotel where advertised air-conditioning has stopped working, that might sound like:
“The room isn’t cooling, and it’s too hot to sleep. Could someone check the air-conditioning, or could we move to a comparable room? What is possible tonight?”
That’s an example, not a conversation from my Budapest stay. A facility that was never included and one that was promised but doesn’t work are different situations.
If the first person cannot help, ask for the duty manager or contact the booking platform. Keep relevant messages and photographs.
A public complaint may get attention; it doesn’t guarantee a remedy. Give staff a chance to respond without making a favourable review the price of peace. For the rest of the chaos, there’s my guide to when travel goes wrong.
Leave something more useful than steam
Eventually, the stay ends. The suitcase closes. The temptation to deliver a devastating one-star farewell becomes quite strong.
“It was hell” would certainly capture my Budapest mood. But the next guest needs the part about August, the heatwave and the missing air-conditioning.
If I were turning that experience into a useful review, I’d write:
“I stayed in August during a heatwave. There was no air-conditioning, and I found the heat extremely uncomfortable. I bought three standing fans and showered five or six times a day. Check the cooling arrangements carefully before booking a summer stay.”
That gives someone a decision to make. It doesn’t guess what the host was thinking or claim that everyone will have my experience.
For a hotel, mention the room category where relevant and explain how staff responded. If they put something right, say so. A problem resolved is part of the story.
Keep the review independent of rewards, too. Tripadvisor prohibits incentives offered in exchange for reviews.
The next traveler doesn’t need my revenge. They need my information.
My five-minute hotel-review check
- Choose your essentials: sleep, access, location and the facilities you actually need.
- Read recent comments: look for recurring issues and note the room types involved.
- Compare guest photos: check them against the room you plan to book.
- Check another source: use a map and read management replies for context.
- Ask one precise question: confirm anything that could make or break your stay, preferably in writing.
Five minutes is my suggested starting point, not a magic guarantee. If the answers still feel unclear, keep looking.
Hotel-review questions
Can you trust hotel reviews?
Use them as evidence, rather than a guarantee. Recent patterns across several sources are generally more useful than one glowing endorsement or one furious complaint.
Is there a minimum score I should book?
There is no universal score that guarantees a good stay. Look at the platform’s scale, the number and age of reviews, and whether reported problems affect your needs.
Should I ignore one-star reviews?
No. Read what happened and look for corroborating details. A single review may flag something important, but its rating alone doesn’t explain the property.
Does a verified review mean someone stayed?
Check the platform’s definition. Booking.com also allows a review from someone who booked and arrived at the property but did not stay. Verification is useful context, not a promise of accuracy.
I went to Budapest expecting a good stay. Instead, I acquired three fans and an unusually intimate relationship with the shower.
There is a lesson in there somewhere, beneath the damp towel.
Enjoy the photographs. Read the praise. Then find the unglamorous detail that could decide whether you sleep. Ask the awkward question while you can still choose somewhere else.
Because the best souvenir of Budapest should not be a working knowledge of its standing-fan market.
What did the reviews forget to tell you? I’ve admitted to the fans. Your turn in the comments.
ROB’S ROOM CHECK
Before you book
Five stars won’t cool the room.
Have I checked…?
- The exact room category?
- Cooling and night-time noise?
- Recent guest photos?
- Access and location?
Keep your travel wits
Make the next trip better
A little planning beats an emergency fan purchase.