Another busy day in the Travel Rants inbox with consumers contacting me by their dozens for suggestions on holiday and hotel review sites, since TUI owned Holidays Uncovered appears to be offline and has been for the past few days.

I have mentioned the offline issue of Holidays Uncovered with a source in the travel industry and I will update this blog post when I have more information. If you have any suggestions for independent holiday and hotel review sites then please let me know in the comments.

As I have mentioned previously, I always check Trip Advisor to read reviews of the hotel I am planning to book prior to booking, and Lakes Hotel, had one review, which was negative, but I decided to still book, because of the location and price.

What a mistake that was..

The Lakes Hotel is located only a minute’s walk from Windermere station, and tourist information office, so is perfect for those travelling by public transport. The hotel itself though is run down, and is badly managed in my opinion.

We arrived at 10.30am, and was told that the room wouldn’t be available until 1pm – that was probably my fault because I did say we would be arriving around 1pm but I got mixed up with the bus times, so we went for a walk and came back just after 1pm.

After ringing the bell for sometime the owner appeared, and gave us our room key, but said that the hotel is still not ready and to come back at 2.30pm. We returned, to find a note on the hotel door to say that the hotel is closed until 4.30pm, so again we disappeared and went for another sightseeing trip.

Arrived back at the hotel at 4.30pm and went straight to the room – the room smelt horrible, it was run-down, dark and dingy; the only window to the outside was small window with a brick wall just in front of it, so not exactly scenic views.

I left the room, and went straight to the reception desk, and told them I wasn’t going to book the room, and left in disgust – thankfully I didn’t pay until I had seen the room. It only took us 10 minutes to find another B&B called Brendan Chase, which was in a good location, had bright and airy rooms, and was slightly cheaper.

Lesson learnt – read various review sites, and go with your gut instinct.

A tip that I have given holidaymakers many times in the past is before you book the hotel [be it with a travel agent, hotel booking site or direct with the hotel] make sure that you read reviews of the hotel.

Whilst Trip Advisor is the best site for this, they are others, and it’s probably a good idea to check two or three hotel review sites to get a better picture of the hotel.

Here’s a selection of hotel review sites I found on Google:

Holiday Watchdog
Holidays Uncovered
Real Holiday Reports
Gusto
Travel Library
Hotel Shark
Travel Post

I have only used Trip Advisor and Holiday Watchdog in the past, but the other sites seem to have tons of reviews and will help you make that important decision. If you use a site that’s not mentioned here please feel free to leave a comment.

When you’ve book a hotel you never know what to expect, no matter how many photographs you view of the hotel. I have to admit I took a bit of a gamble, because the hotel reviews on Trip Advisor weren’t exactly brilliant, with reports of ladies of the night and a peep show near the hotel.

The City AS Hotel was a good choice though, with no sign of ladies of the night or peep shows and to be honest I couldn’t really imagine anyone wanting to stand around on the streets at night in minus 12 temperatures, but the aim for me was to get somewhere cheap, clean and central.

The hotel reception is located on the 4th floor, and I was greeted at the hotel by a friendly member of staff who checked me in and told me about the hotel and its facilities. The room was small, and had a shared shower and toilet, but the room did have a sink a double wardrobe, bed and television [I won’t mention the free ‘Swedish channel’]

I was impressed that a cheap hotel in one of Europe’s most expensive capital cities had facilities such as free WiFi access and a TV-room and business facilities. The breakfast was including in the price of the room, and included a typical continental breakfast – including fresh bread and meats.

The downside to the hotel was the noise – the walls were thin and I could hear everything that my neighbour got up to, but, I was willing to put up with that considering I only paid £25 a night, and I paid three times this on my last visit to London for an unimpressive hotel.

Sometimes you have to take a gamble, and this one paid off.