Tripadvisor website

Tripadvisor website image

Now that we’ve (pretty much) decided which route we are going to take from Delhi to Mumbai I thought I’d start looking at hotels. Naturally finding a place in Delhi was the first thing to do so I started thinking about which area to stay in. We’ve stayed in three different places in Delhi before, South Delhi, Karol Bagh and near the New Delhi railway station – whatever that area is called!?

South Delhi’s too dear for us but the hotel’s are lovely. Karol Bagh area is fine but the hotel we had was pretty horrid. The Ginger Hotel near the New Delhi railway station suited us – and our budget – well but prices have gone up and it’s no longer the best value for money around.

A different hotel was required so I turned to TripAdvisor and found a number of hotels in different areas. Bearing in mind that we’re not too worried about staying in a grotty and busy area as long as the hotel is clean I started looking at hotels in Old Delhi, finding one particular one that looked pretty good. I won’t name it but it’s easy to work out, it’s got the best reviews of the cheaper hotels in Old Delhi.

So after doing lots of TripAdvisor reading I’d made my decision. That was until I came across a post from one of my IndiaMike colleagues who suggested that some of the recommendations were made by the hotel staff.

Surely not I thought.

Going back to check the TripAdvisor site perhaps I wasn’t too suprised to see that most of the recommendations were made by people who stayed there for one or two nights and had only ever recommended one hotel on TripAdvisor.  It begs the question then that if they are the sort of person to leave reviews of hotels they visit how come they have only ever left a single review?

I was starting to think that my IndiaMike colleague was quite correct.

I researched another destination, Palolem in Goa, where I found a lovely hotel which is not too dear and right by the beautiful horsehoe of golden sand. The same thing happened: lots of awful reviews by people who’ve made lots of reviews of other hotels and lots of glowing recommendations by people who’ve only ever reviewed that Goan hotel.

Let me be clear: I love TripAdvisor and what it stands for, the honest advice and reports given by people, but they’ve got to find a way of weeding out the fakes.

I’m still no nearer to find any hotels in Delhi or Goa but I think I’ll turn to IndiaMike where reviews can’t be left by people who have only posted a few times.