Our Review Process

Hotel Reviews:

In order for you to understand how we arrive at each conclusion for establishment (hotels, bed and breakfasts, motels, hostels, apartments, etc.), that we review, there are a few things you should understand about our process. First, we only have two individuals who review each of the establishments reviewed on our site. This ensures a systematic approach for each review and consistency among the reviews. Second, our staff always stays a minimum of  1-night at each establishment that they review. You may not be aware of this, but Lonely Planet Guidebook authors do not stay at each of the establishments that they review. In most cases they spend about 10-15 minutes with the owners or managers and some guests and base their conclusions on that. Although we do admit that Lonely Planet authors are really good at their job and in most cases do arrive at the proper conclusion, we do feel the distinction should be made that we stay at the hotels when they do not. There are many things that you will not find out in a 15-minute conversation that you would find out by spending a night. Again, we do support Lonely Planet authors and recommend that you purchase their guidebooks before heading out to any destination. Third, we do not inform any establishment that our staff is travelling to their establishment to do a review on them. We feel that this could bias their staff and provide preferential treatment to our staff. We want an accurate first hand account on the rooms that guests are given and how they are treated during their stay. Fourthly, all of the photos found with each review posted on our site is taken by our staff when they enter the room so that you can see the state the room on their arrival. We feel that some accommodations show photos on their websites that aren't accurate or have been staged. On our site, you can find accurate photographs of each place on our arrival. Finally, we inform every establishment where we encountered a problem or had a negative experience of our findings in hopes of them taking positive steps to rectify the issue(s) so that if you do decide to stay there, your experience will be better. We are not afraid to post negative comments about any establishment where we had a bad experience. We will not be intimidated or threatened by any establishment. We feel that every consumer has the right to accurate information about any establishment that they might stay at, even if it's negative. 

Please note that the ratings given to any establishment are only comparable to establishments in similar categories. For example, a 4/5 rating for a hostel does not represent the same services, amenities, etc. as does a 4/5 rating for a 5-star hotel. The 4/5 rating for a hostel means that our experience and conclusions were better than at a hostel that we assigned a lower rating to and our experience and conclusions for a 5-star hotel with a 4/5 rating were better than a 5-star resort that we gave a lower rating to.

Car Rental Agency Reviews:

Similar to our hotel review process, we have adopted the same practices to our car rental agency reviews. We always rent cars for a minimum of 3-days from the agencies we review. We always try to rent from local companies that provide the best price for that region and base our reviews on that experience. 

Destination Reviews:

In line with our previous review processes, we visit each country that we talk about and spend a bare minimum of 5-days in the country that we review. Some of the things that we base our reviews on are the people we encounter, the sites we visit, the experiences we have, safety and costs. There are many options available to each vacation goer and limited time to explore each place. Please keep in mind that our destination reviews are highly subjective. Nevertheless, we will post the positive and negative aspects (if any) of the countries that we visit based on our experiences so that you can have a better idea of whether or not this is where you want to spend your money and limited holiday time. Knowledge is power.

Our Rating Scale: