Originally Posted by
RichardInSF
I find TripAdvisor useless for mid-range and higher hotels, the reviews are overly glowing. I expect most folks on this forum would agree.
Over Xmas, we stayed a few nights in Kingman, Arizona. Unfortunately, the best hotel in Kingman and surroundings is a Hampton Inn -- which is at the low end of mid-range, complete with plastic cups. Take a look at some of the TripAdvisor reviews for that hotel to get an idea of what I mean.
"We were treated like royalty....Anyway, the rooms were luxurious, the staff was incredibly friendly..., the breakfast was delicious...."
Wait one! I've not stayed at the Kingman, AZ HI, but enough others to understand by whom the reviews were likely written and their perspective of the hotel in question. Odds are good that none of them have ever stayed in a luxury hotel, found the joint hospitable (a welcome change from some HIs and similarly priced hotels in some other parts of the country) and reacted accordingly. They liked the breakfast. It was free and hot (or heatable). 'Nuff said.
Quality is entirely in the eye of the beholder, and beholders' eyes form relative images.
I presume, had you taken time to review the hotel, the rest of us would now be equipped with your honest (and relative) opinion to balance the commentary on file.
In my case, having been exposed to hotels of every class, category and pretension (and pretentiousness), I have yet to find a "luxury" Vegas hotel that didn't seem almost actively unpleasant. Maybe it's simply Vegas, and the fact that, except for poker, bridge and pitch, I find gambling, especially organized gambling, absent any entertainment value, no better than the lottery with neon and cocktail waitresses. "Free drinks" aren't worth having to sit there and watch folks make fools of themselves. The same is true for many of the "resort" hotels in which I've stayed. The hotels and their facilities may be nice, but life is too short to be spent in company with the sort of clientele on display in many of them. Maybe it's the patrons, but in the US at least, too often the staff seems to emulate attitudinally the guests' profiles.
In late April, a major trip will take us to three Central European capitals, and three "more than overnight" stays in a trio of big (US) name hotels, 2 by Marriott, one by Hilton, burning up some points before growing too old to enjoy doing so. While not quite "Luxury" hotels, all three by virtue of the names over the doors attract a fairly upscale tourist and commercial trade. I look forward to what they look like, how they feel, and the demeanor/reactions of the staff. But just as did the reviewers of the Hampton Inn in Kingman, any reviews I write will be based upon my own jaundiced eyes.