Oct 4, 2007
An addendum to my recent comments on the advice in "user-generated" travel websites
I have read with great interest the response of readers to my recent slam at "user-generated" websites. But it seems to me that hardly anyone has dealt with the fact that these users are not making comparative judgments, but are issuing their critiques or applause based solely on their experience of one hotel -- repeat, one hotel -- in the community they have visited. Unlike a guidebook writer, the traveler sees only one hotel; he or she does not traipse to twenty hotels in the same price range to get an idea of what the standards are in that particular city.
In Paris, for instance, the user never realizes that there may be superior hotels in the same price category as the one they have used. Or, they are unaware that the hotel they have used is greatly superior to other hotels in the same price category. Though they are able to say that they enjoyed or disliked a particular hotel, they are never able to make a comparative judgment, which is the task assigned to the writer of a travel guide and is of enormous value to the traveler.
Isn't it important for a traveler to know that there are superior hotels to the one that traveler chose -- and at no extra cost? As someone who devoted a large portion of his life to walking the streets of Europe, looking at one guesthouse and hotel after another in order to find several that I might recommend, I'd be interested to read comments on this point.
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In Paris, for instance, the user never realizes that there may be superior hotels in the same price category as the one they have used. Or, they are unaware that the hotel they have used is greatly superior to other hotels in the same price category. Though they are able to say that they enjoyed or disliked a particular hotel, they are never able to make a comparative judgment, which is the task assigned to the writer of a travel guide and is of enormous value to the traveler.
Isn't it important for a traveler to know that there are superior hotels to the one that traveler chose -- and at no extra cost? As someone who devoted a large portion of his life to walking the streets of Europe, looking at one guesthouse and hotel after another in order to find several that I might recommend, I'd be interested to read comments on this point.
Write and read comments about this post.
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Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
