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Hey, fellow travelers. Mark here with Wolters' World, and today we're in Lille, France. Today we're going to talk about or how you can find a good hotel to stay anywhere in the world just by looking at them online. First thing I want you to do is check those review scores. How are they? Do they have a nine out of 10 or eight and a half out of 10? Or is a seven out of 10 or a five out of 10? Ooh, that's definitely a no-no. Yes, you want to check those review scores. So, think of it this way. Eight out of 10 or higher, four out of five or higher. Usually, that means, "Hey, that's pretty good." But the thing is, those reviews are over the long haul. So, they might have been
a great hotel 10 years ago. Are they still? So, when you do look at those review scores, check the latest reviews. Are they still getting that nine out of 10 or eight out of 10? Or have they fallen to a six or seven? Because you want to look for that consistency. Because if they're consistently getting nines and 10s today and five years ago, that shows that hotel continuously cares about their guests and their hotel, which means, "Boom, probably going to be a good hotel." Now, next thing I want you to do is actually read the reviews. And I want you to read multiple reviews, but you want to look for certain words.
"It's clean. You felt safe. Good location. I was comfortable beds. Uh attentive staff." These kind of things in the reviews will show that, "Hey, this hotel's got some good stuff." But again, put those to the newest reviews first so you know what's going on more recently. Also, those new reviews will mention if anything's going on, like, "Oh, there's new construction going on across the street." Or they just finished their new renovations, and the hotel's even more wonderful. So, these kind of things can make a difference, all right? Now, the third thing I want you to do is when you're reading those reviews, go and look and see if the hotel has responded to them.
Cuz you want to know, are is the hotel caring enough about their hotel to see what people are saying? And if they're seeing issues out there, are they doing things to improve it? Like, are they commenting back, "Hey, here's a solution we can have. Hey, contact us to see what we're doing. You know, so basically, are they responding in a polite, professional way? If they're doing it politely and professionally, that means they see issues and they're trying to fix them. Do they respond in a childish, kind of mean way or they just blame something else? That's not our fault. That was something else. That might show you that oh, they're really childish about things, so maybe they do that same
thing in their hotel. Because in general, if a hotel cares about their online appearance, they're going to care about their appearance in their actual hotel as well. Which means they're probably going to take care of their hotel and it's probably going to be a good place. Now, another thing that makes a good hotel is the price makes sense. I know we all want to find that great hotel for a super low price, but a lot of times they have to have heavy discounts this for a reason. So, what you want to see
is if you're looking in an area like here in Lille, you'll see that oh, similar hotels have similar prices. And does that hotel fit in that same similar price range? That makes sense. I mean, they can have a deal every so often, but a good hotel doesn't have to have a deal because they're a good hotel. Now, the next thing what you do is when you're looking at the pictures of the hotel, look at the professional pictures done by the hotel, but those might have been taken in 2006 when they opened. But, look at the pictures posted by guests. Guests will take pictures of the issues. Gue- Guests will take pictures of the rooms. And do they align? Are they good pictures? Like, hey, the people that are staying there are
sharing good pictures. This looks like a nice place. And it matches with the stuff they're talking about. That's pretty cool. So, they say they have a pool, and then you see a picture of people having a good time at the pool that was a guest there. That can be a really good thing to show that hey, yeah, this is a good place because what they say and what people are experiencing and showing are similar. Because you don't have to have fake stuff when you have good hotel. People will share their experiences. Now, the next thing I want you to look at is their cancellation policy. Is it a very easy cancellation policy? Oh, it's free cancellation up to 24 hours beforehand. That's legit. I mean, hotels, like good
hotels know that life happens, things change, plans change, and that's okay. And they don't punish tourists, they don't punish guests because life happens. So, if you see things like, oh, yes, we take up, you know, we take your money up front and then you only get a refund if you cancel 1 month in advance and it's 50 cents, you know, to the dollar if you do it like 2 weeks in advance, but anything closer than that and we're taking all of your money. That is a sign of a bad hotel. Like, you want to be aware of that. Good cancellation policy usually means a good hotel. And then, of course, you want to look at location because location is important and people will say that in the reviews.
Oh, near the shops, near the museums, near the sites, near transportation. That's going to be good how people explain it, but also look on the map because a hotel will put exactly where they are on the map. It's not like Airbnb that gives you that like circle, you're somewhere in this area. No, it's going to say where it is and you can look around. Is there a church literally behind the hotel right there? Is there a market literally there's Intermarché right here? Like, oh, I'll stay at that hotel right there. It's really nice. What's that? And literally, it's like right there. And so, you have this location stuff that's going to be a lot easier for you. But also, they'll tell you if it's a safe neighborhood and you
can look around from those things. So, that can really make a difference. Next up, I want you to look at their description. Is it a realistic description of the hotel, of the rooms, or is it something like, a tranquil oasis away from the problems of your life in the outskirts of the world. La. Like if they give you all that marketing jargon to make it feel like, "Oh, it's a spacious room where your family can truly relax from the hectic nature of your travels." Uh no. When they do something like that, too much jargon, too much thanks, that's too much marketing.
Coo ca, right? You want them to be forward. Like good hotels will be realistic. Look, say 30 square meter hotel. It is a room with two queen size beds. If they say they're child friendly, they don't say child friendly. They say, "Hey, we have a play area and a pack and play is available if you need it." Like they lay out the description of the hotel that's there for you. They don't have that vague description out there that you think, "Oh, I thought they had laundry service. It said laundry available." What they meant is laundry is across the street. No, they say, "Hey, we have laundry services on site." That's much more of a realistic description. And the thing is, when
you're looking at hotels online, a lot of times you'll get a gut feeling. You're like, "I don't know about this one. This one seems okay." And you can read reviews and go, "Oh, that seems like that's an ex-boyfriend that's trying to get back at the owner kind of thing." So, make sure when you're looking at hotels online, trust your gut as well. If you feel comfortable or not, but these are just things that I and Jocelyn personally look at to see if this is a place we'd want to stay. And that's where I have picked up this by our hotel here in Lille, where I got my place in you know. That one is everywhere I'm going, these are the things that I use. So, what are your
kind of tips and tricks to make sure you get a good hotel online? Let us know in the comments below so we can have other travelers have a good time finding good hotels whether you're here in Lille, France or you're somewhere farther afield. Anyway, I wish you all the best and I'll say thank you to our patrons on Patreon or members on YouTube who make videos like this possible. If you want to help support us, you can click that join button down below or go to patreon.com/waltersworld to find out how you can support us to keep making honest travel videos to help people travel better. Anyway, I wish you all the best and I'll say bye from here in Lille, France.
Mhm.
