Online Hotel Booking – What You See And What You Get?

Last summer I planned a trip to Goa with some friends from work. We had five days equally distributed between North and South Goa. Some of us were keen on partying on busy beaches while some were looking for quiet, serene beaches to enjoy dips in the ocean and books to read. After spending a couple of  days at North Goa, we reached Palolem Beach, looking forward to two quiet days. But what we were looking forward to wasn’t meant to be.

Our accommodation turned out to be dirty, filthy rooms with pigs, monkeys and insects roaming around. The place wasn’t anything like it looked in pictures on various forums and for once, even Tripadvisor lied. We hadn’t imagined pigs when the details mentioned that there are animals and one can bring pets too. Without a second thought, we promptly refused the stay and looked for a better place. The one we found was not great either, but thankfully it was at least a clean one. Tripadvisor didn’t accept my review of the place because I mentioned that we had refused to live with pigs for two days. Also, there are many good reviews of this place, which are maybe written by staff members or are paid ones.

Since that episode, I have always been very choosy about booking hotels online. Homestays are a different story though. But with hotels, unless they are star hotels, one can never be sure even after paying a decent amount. Pictures can be deceptive, to say the least. With the correct lighting, angle and props, a good photographer can make a shady place look like a dream. That’s exactly what happened with us at the property in South Goa. We ended up wasting a lot of time in finding an accommodation and got tired for no reason at all. Needless to say, the high spirits evaporated, and South Goa became more of a task than anything else. The practice of faking it all through pictures has become so common that recently Oyster.com did a piece on Photo Fakeouts by hotels and resorts. It’s an eye opener, really.

One more problem that arises is the sheer number of hotels that pop up in what is a decent budget per night. The Corporate Bell Curve works here very well. There will always be a few budget hotels, a few luxury super expensive star hotels but a very long list of hotels which fall in the range of Rs 2500 – Rs 6000 per night. Now, looking at each of these, comparing the charges on various websites, going through Tripadvisor reviews and then finally selecting one is a project in itself.

There are a lot of factors which we take on face-value while booking a hotel because there is really not much we can do about it. We don’t really have a choice, other than spending days on Tripadvisor or checking with people who have stayed at a property earlier and go with references. I have been wondering since a long time if it is possible to have a more predictable hotel booking experience? Can the amount of research it takes be reduced? Can it get better and reliable? The answer is Yes, and it’s coming soon.

This new portal will allow you to actually ‘see’ a room before you book it! Yes, that’s not day dreaming, but a brilliant technological advancement added to the whole online hotel booking experience. The ones with deceptive pictures will automatically not opt for this, because letting the customer see the rooms before booking will beat the purpose of that costly professional photoshoot. So, that filters out the dust from the best.

Unveiling of this portal happening soon! Stay tuned 🙂