13 Signs Your Hotel Is Overpriced

Remember that excited feeling you got as a kid when you were going to stay at a hotel? Oh boy! It feels like a mini-vacation, until the experience of your actual stay leaves you cringing. There are ways to avoid a bad hotel altogether. Check it out! 1. The photos look too photoshopped. Say that like any good traveler – you go to the hotel's website and do some research. The site should provide photos of their rooms and amenities, like the pool. Give these photos a close look. If they look fake and too edited, the hotel may have something they'd rather you not see. Look for the use of a fisheye lens. This can be used to make rooms look bigger, and for colors that look like they may have been enhanced. Good hotels will have professional-looking photos on their sites, but they'll look authentic and realistic. 2. The hotel website and Google don't seem to match up. Google is your friend. Open a new tab and Google the hotel you're looking into. Do some cross-checking – even a Google image search can give you a lot of info. Are there only pictures of the outside of the hotel on their website? But Google Image shows photos of some not-so-stellar-looking rooms – huge red flag! Are there reviews posted on Google, but not on the hotel's website? Another red flag! And a simple Google Earth search will tell you if your hotel is really where you think it's located, too. 3. The hotel website itself is outdated. A hotel's website should be inviting but clean and, above all, modern and professional. It should make you want to stay there. And the Internet has become the basic tool for traveling. We look up travel tips and things to do, even purchase our plane tickets all online. So a hotel should definitely care about what their online presence looks like. If their website makes you feel like you're in a time warp back to the 90s, that's some pretty poor upkeep. And what does that say about the actual hotel? It might lead you to think it isn't clean or inviting. And you're probably right. 4. The computers are outdated. If the front-desk clerk is typing on a dinosaur of a computer, that could be a bad sign. It could also mean a security breach if they have to write your credit card number down instead of swiping it into the system. One misplacement of that credit card number could mean a huge headache for you. Outdated technology in the hotel means it probably hasn't been bringing in a lot of money, which would lead you to ask why that is. Bad reviews? Dirty rooms? Or please say it isn't so, bad bugs? If a hotel is doing well, their technology should be just as updated as what you have in your hands. 5. The price is not right. Excuse the wordplay, but it's true. Besides, wordplay is what I do. Anyway, if the hotel you're thinking of staying at doesn't seem to match the price for one of its rooms, then something probably isn't right. How many stars does your hotel have? Are you paying a cheap price for a luxurious hotel that seems too good to be true? Then it probably is. Compare prices to hotels in the same area and of the same caliber as your hotel. Are the prices pretty close? If not, that's another big red flag. 6. Backlash at bad reviews. If the hotel provides reviews for you to look at, and they should, definitely take the time to read these, and particularly if and how your hotel responds to poor reviews. Are their responses rude, offensive, or full of excuses? Or do they take the bad review as constructive criticism and promise to do better? How hotels handle reviews really speaks to their integrity. Also, keep in mind, if the hotel takes criticism well, that's a good thing, but you still probably don't want to stay in a hotel with a ton of bad reviews. 7. The good reviews aren't recent. While we're talking about reviews, how recent are those positive reviews? No matter how wonderful a good review made a hotel sound, if it's over 6 months old, at the very least it means something drastic may have changed. Obviously, positive reviews are great, but don't take them at face value. Dig a little deeper. Are there a surge of new reviews, positive or negative? If the hotel previously had good ratings, and now there are poor ones everywhere, something is clearly wrong. Same goes for the opposite. If the hotel had negative reviews before, but is now receiving positive ones, that means the hotel cared enough to fix what was wrong. 8. Bed bugs Gross. But never fear, there's actually an online bed bug report that you can look up. You can type in the name and location of your hotel, and see if any previous guests have reported bed bugs. Don't even consider a hotel if bed bugs have been reported. These critters are easy to take home with you, but hard and inconvenient to get rid of. 9. Dirty carpets If the carpet is supposed to be white, it should look white. Just imagine how many people have stayed in that room, and how long it's gone unvacuumed to make the carpet look so gross. If the hotel truly cares about its appearance and cleanliness, rugs and carpets won't look dirty at all. They'll look like they've been regularly vacuumed and shampooed. This is a quick and easy visual way to check if your hotel's cleaning standards are up to…snuff. 10. The hotel doesn't seem to care about safety Unfortunately, this is one of those things that you might not be sure about until you walk through the doors. If you arrive after hours, even super late in the evening, is there still an attendant at the front desk? Do the rooms have intact and functioning lock systems? If the answers to these questions are no, then you may want to stay somewhere else. Your safety should be the hotel's top priority. Don't stay in a hotel that's careless about it, even if you think it's located in a good area. 11. Hotel signs aren't in good condition Whether it's an exit sign, a sign pointing you to the elevators, or a sign indicating where your room is, their condition can tell you a lot about the hotel's standards. And what about their sign outside? It's the first bit of advertisement you see, and the first indication of what kind of hotel you're about to walk into. If their signs don't look polished and professional, that may mean that they're careless about maintenance in other, more important areas, like your bathroom. Whether you see pictures of a hotel's signage on their website or in person, it's something worth noting. 12. It's hard to reach a real person at the front desk You know, it can be really annoying when you want to order room service, or you need some more towels, and you can't reach anyone at the front desk. You just get a recording. Hotels are considered part of the hospitality industry for a reason. They should be at your service. You're a guest of the hotel. Staff are expected to take care of your needs in a timely manner. If you have trouble reaching someone at the front desk, this could indicate a lack of discipline on the management's part. They may not really care whether their employees are doing what they should be, or that they're where they should be. Which brings me to… 13. Generally poor service Has this ever happened to you? You walk up to the front desk with a question, and a messy-looking clerk takes their time to look up at you, barely hides an eye roll, and asks you to repeat your question. Now you just feel like a bother, even though they clearly aren't busy at all. How you're treated right when you walk through the doors of your hotel is a good indication of what the quality of the rest of your stay will be. Adding to that, did you ever have any conversations over the phone with the hotel before you arrived? Was that conversation helpful and pleasant? The same goes for when you catch the clerk while they're on the hotel's phone. Take note of how they're talking to the person on the other end. It could be another guest, and therefore, a strong indicator of how you'll be treated. Professional, pleasant, and willing employees are a good sign that you're in for a good stay!