Usefulness of Reviews

Grumpy_chap

Doshwaster said:

You also get people who book a room in the middle of the nightlife area then complain that it's noisy when then want to go to bed at 10pm or complain that there is no 24 hour shops in the middle of the countryside.

Often factors like that can be down to the hotel listing and how accurate, or not, it is.  Particularly for guests that do not know an area.  We had exactly that with our trip to Tenerife last year.  We stayed at a hotel chain we used previously so had no reason to doubt the web description of a "peaceful family hotel" as that is exactly what the other hotels were like in the same group (subject to the extent to which "peaceful" and "family" might be an oxymoron).  The particular hotel, however, was located right in the middle of the night club strip so there was nothing peaceful at all about the hotel.  The fault is the hotel marketing for the same demographic as the other venues in the chain without realising that this location really needs to market to stag and hen groups.

pattycake

I read a review of a 4* adults only hotel in the Canaries which insist on long trousers for men at dinner.  This is clearly stated on the booking.  However, this reviewer on being refused entry to the restaurant in his shorts, went back to the room and donned one of his wife’s dresses.  He was outraged that he was not permitted to dine in that outfit.  He even obliging attached a picture of himself wearing the dress.  Not a pretty a sight!

NoodleDoodleMan

Despite ground breaking advances in medical sciences, a cure for ignorance and stupidity remains a challenge - as evidenced by the above antics.

Doshwaster

Grumpy_chap said:

Doshwaster said:

You also get people who book a room in the middle of the nightlife area then complain that it's noisy when then want to go to bed at 10pm or complain that there is no 24 hour shops in the middle of the countryside.

Often factors like that can be down to the hotel listing and how accurate, or not, it is.  Particularly for guests that do not know an area.  We had exactly that with our trip to Tenerife last year.  We stayed at a hotel chain we used previously so had no reason to doubt the web description of a "peaceful family hotel" as that is exactly what the other hotels were like in the same group (subject to the extent to which "peaceful" and "family" might be an oxymoron).  The particular hotel, however, was located right in the middle of the night club strip so there was nothing peaceful at all about the hotel.  The fault is the hotel marketing for the same demographic as the other venues in the chain without realising that this location really needs to market to stag and hen groups.

Which show how important it is to "Do Your Own Research".  It sounds like you ended up on Veronica's Strip in Tenerife. A few minutes on Google Maps would have told you that it wasn't a quiet area.

Hotels are almost as bad as estate agents in misleading advertising. "Close to the beach/city centre" can mean miles away and the use of camera angles and lenses can make rooms and swimming pools appear much larger  than reality.

Grumpy_chap

Doshwaster said:

Which show how important it is to "Do Your Own Research".  It sounds like you ended up on Veronica's Strip in Tenerife. A few minutes on Google Maps would have told you that it wasn't a quiet area.

Indeed, we did 

TBH, we did the booking as a fairly quick thing and did not feel we needed to really check much given that we'd stayed with the same brand at other venues previously.

The brand we booked markets to "peaceful family hotel also welcoming couples" and has restrictions on the size of single-sex group bookings, so is gearing away from the stag / hen booking or 18-30 market.

The same hotel group have another brand which markets "young party life" which specifically mentions "no restriction on single sex group bookings".    Clearly targeting the 18-30 / stag / hen market that sits well with a location right at Veronica's Strip.

You have to ask why no-one at the group level didn't realise they got the brand mix wrong in this instance and re-target this site to the obvious demographic?