Check recent lodging reviews again near your travel time

Thanks for sharing you experience Jean. I confirmed all my hotel reservations via email. But I didn’t think to look at current reviews.

This is a very good point. Just this month we stayed at a B&b booked thru booking.com in Varenna, Lake Como. I did not check recent reviews because we stayed there in 2019 and were very happy with the apartment. It was located over a restaurant / bar, but all was quiet by 10:00pm- then . Well, times have changed, and now the Restuarant/ bar is a very popular spot with young folks, and it's open until 1:00am! Our first night there was really loud until 1:00 am, even with the windows closed.
Our host allowed us to check out early and move to a quieter location. I later checked the reviews, and indeed, the noise issues had been reported.
Thx for bringing this up!

Thanks for the reminder to keep checking even after making reservations. My worst rental ever was an apartment in Paris. When I made the reservation the reviews were all good. I had to wire transfer the deposit when I booked it. Lesson learned, it’s expensive. I’ve not done that since. Upon arrival two women greeted us. My friend went into the apartment while the other one accompanied me to an ATM to get enough cash to pay our balance. I should have inspected the apartment first before handing the money over. While my friend waited for me to come back from the ATM she saw a mouse scamper across the floor (we didn’t see it again). There was a bed on the mezzanine and a twin bed below the platform. That evening I discovered there wasn’t any bedding for the twin bed, where I was to sleep. I found a sheet that didn’t fit for the jackknife style sofa and made do with that. There were some other issues as well. I looked at the rental listing again and the most recent review found things similar to our experience. I called the landlord and he did bring a brand new set of sheets, but all in all it was not a pleasant place to stay.

A good reminder Jean to check recent reviews, especially since the pandemic when so many businesses either shut down or changed during the lockdowns.

These are great reminders. I am sorry to everyone who had one of these switcheroos ! Thank you for taking the time to remind us of this crucial step. Jean i am glad you were able to get different lodging ahead of time, before you spent on someplace that wasn't suitable or clean or quiet or safe.

Jean, that's a very good idea. I always check ahead of time but usually that's it for me. I'll keep this in mind for the next trip. Thanks!

Very good idea. I notice Booking defaults to reviews in order of 10 and down. I booked a number of Costa Rica lodgings via Booking, the most ai have booked with them at one go. I didn't pay attention to the sorting and had one disappointing lodging. The room was as expected, but the property had suffered during Covid, and I had banked on several days birding on the property, which could not happen.
For some reason, TripAdvisor reviews didn't reflect the recent issues several of us noted.
So as well as check current reviews before final cancellation dates, review several sources.

Jean, I do all those things, but what I didn't notice when booking, is that the reviews default as 'most relevant' which is 10/10. My memory was the default was by most recent date, and that seems to be how I interpreted them. I know better now, and I ensure I double check the sort for any reviews.
As to TripAdvisor, I look for reviews by people with multiple reviews and sometimes look at their other reviews to see their travel and review activities. Easy for Costa Rica as chances that people who reported about bird watching are not likely to be bogus 😆 but yes, one needs to wade through a lot of one time or suspect posts.

Thank you Jean. Good reminder for me since I made our bookings for this fall 6-9 months ago. Time to go back in and read current reviews.