On 2007-11-08 14:33:13 +0000, Huge said:

On 2007-11-08, Andy Hall wrote:
On 2007-11-08 12:31:21 +0000, Mathew Newton said:

On 8 Nov, 05:31, Andy Hall wrote:

Generically, airport hotels and those close to railway stations are
almost always bad, regardless of who they are. I've never worked out
quite why, but pretty much always eliminate them unless there's no
choice.

It is because they are competing successfully on location alone and
not quality.

Mathew

Indeed.

It's the same basis under which certain Best Western properties just
about creep into 4* ratings. They do the barest minimum to tick the
boxes

Don't all hotels do this?

I used to think that, but not so much now. Best Western I think is
noticably bad. Other groups, I think that there is more of an effort
on service.

For example, Radisson is generally what it says on the tin, as is
Hilton and Holiday Inn with a few notable exceptions.

Those that are groups with brands at different price points and styles
have reasonable consistency - e.g. Accor, Starwood for each brand.
Sometimes the knowledge of that is useful, especially when looking at
a new destination without having prior knowledge. For example,
Radisson has free internet connection and it almost always works well.
Sofitel is usually good standard - there are excellent ones as in
Amsterdam and appalling ones as in Vienna and Madrid. These get
added to the 'never again'' list.


They game the system so as to get the maximum number
of stars. IME, this has very little to do with the quality of the hotel.


Smaller individual hotel groups with just a few or even one are very
often a good bet, but can be a risk in that there is no comparison.

Up to a point, Tripadvisor can be useful. However, one has to ignore
reviews by holidaymakers who don't use hotels regularly and will accept
anything, and Harry and Martha from Duluth who really should have
stayed at home.


(BTW, we used to stay in the Novotel in Aulnay because it was close to the
office. I used to put off booking a room until the last minute in the hope it
would be full, so I could stay in Porte de Bagnolet - still a Novotel, but you
can get into Paris on the Metro.)

Last minute bookings can often be useful.