The review that got away

Importance of reviews

I was looking at some hotels for my upcoming vacation in Thailand and price asides, the other deciding factor that I looked at was the reviews for the hotels. Most of the reviews are frustrating to read as they were half-heartedly written, few went into details with photos which truly provided value for users like myself who are looking to travel. The users who wrote those amazing reviews deserve to be paid.

As I am quite particular about toilet cleanliness, those reviews with genuine photos of the hotel rooms’ toilet was really helpful for me. I don’t trust the photos from the hotels themselves as they are usually edited to show up better than the actual rooms and toilets in reality.

Here’s a funny story though – I who relies on reviews to make a decision, did not leave reviews for my hotel stays 😂

Because it takes time and effort to write a decent review that can help other users and I am too lazy to do so. Even when there are incentives.

I probably shouldn’t be complaining about the half-hearted reviews, at least they leave some indications.

What motivates people to leave a genuine review

During one of my business trips to Bangalore, India; I stayed in this Goldfinch Hotel where I got the best breakfast experience out of any other hotels I have stayed at, thanks to this particular staff. The staff who’s name I unfortunately cannot recall, warmly welcomed me into the breakfast lounge on my first morning at the hotel and exchanged introductions. He subsequently greeted me by my name, along with the name of other guests whom he has met prior. He would offer to serve omelets directly to the guests’ tables and pour our drinks for us.

The service from this staff was astounding, so much so that I wanted to leave a good review for the hotel. I looked forward to my mornings at Goldfinch for their continental breakfast and excellent servicing crew.

I realize that the there are two scenarios where people would write meaningful reviews – when we are really satisfied and when we get really pissed off.

It makes sense because we invest more effort into writing our review when we feel strongly about the matter.

Leaving a review should be simple

Unfortunately, I did not leave a review in the end. Rather, I wrote a review but did not publish it.

Here’s the reason…

I took the effort to snap a photo with the kind staff and wrote an appealing review for the hotel which was around two paragraphs in length. To submit the review however, a local India number was required. Don’t have an India number, but that did not stop me though; I used a random number. The webpage then proceeds to load for five minutes with no results. So I refreshed the page, re-uploaded the photo, entered a random number and submitted the review again. Sad to say, still did not work. I was unable to submit the review in the end and I felt that it was too much work to use another’s phone to do so.

One may argue that I needed to use a legitimate number to submit the review. But that really defeats the purpose of submitting a review for the hotel no? I really doubt the hotel only wanted reviews from locals.

I wished that they would have made it more simple to leave a review or fix their webpage.

Leaving a comment should be just as simple

I would like to know your thoughts on relying on reviews before making a purchase decision as well.

Unlike Goldfinch hotel’s review webpage, you can simply leave your comment below. No long loading time, promise.

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