To Review Or Not To Review

It appears that opening up hotel reviewing to the masses has come at a cost. Reality, does not always match people's expectations and you don't have to search too hard to find reviewers who are furious because the television set wasn't quite large enough, or the bacon at breakfast wasn't crisp enough. There is, of course, no accounting for taste, and herein lies the problem.

In the days before the web you had to write a letter, put it in an envelope and go to the post box. Now you can sit down and fire off a rant online. The immediacy of the web means that if you've had a bad day and one of the towels isn't folded properly, you can go online and write a scathing review saying what a bad time you've had. But how often is that balanced by someone saying they had a wonderful time? Critics are concerned that people with an axe to grind can write a savage review and hide behind their online anonymity.