Hi, I have 12 upcoming reservations for hotels and B&B’s within 60 days. I always do a last check of reviews a month before a trip. I only book reservations with more than 50 reviews - typically in the 100’s - 1000, and ones that have a rating of an 8.5 +. It’s seldom that I need to switch a reservation. Here’s what I found today:
My reservation at Leipzig, Germany had two recent 1.0 reviews! The place is closed! When I called Booking, she was very nice to me and refunded my money (was a paid non-refundable), plus she asked me to contact them after I stay at a different place in Leipzig, and they will reimburse it, too. (I have an excellent status level with them.)
My Cologne hotel still had comments that the construction at the building next to the hotel isn’t finished, so it’s noisy early in the day & on. Since this is a 2-night location, I switched to a different hotel.
The rest of them are all still excellent, and I am excited! : )
My process is to open my list of Booking reservations, click on my hotel, click on reviews, and filter by newest date. I am looking for any trend that the newest individual ratings are no longer in the 7-10 range, or there’s a new comment such as an issue with keys, etc.
I started doing this after our 2023 reservations in England & Wales when I noticed a B&B changed names (received an email from Booking), but checking the reviews a month later showed the new owners weren’t honoring the reservations.