9 Warning Signs Your Hotel Is Not What It Seems

Sure, the hotel’s website photos look nice, but don’t we all try to post only the most flattering pictures of ourselves? Filters, creative cropping, and Photoshop can make almost any place look like the Ritz. If the official pictures look too good to be true, that may be a warning sign that they are. Look for real images of your potential hotel on Oyster (SmarterTravel’s sister site), and see TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent site) for photos posted by past guests; this should help you suss out misleading hotel photos.

The internet is an essential tool for travelers nowadays. If a hotel can’t be bothered to update its website, what are the chances it has bothered to update its furnishings, fixtures, and technology? We’re not saying that the tiny B\&B you found has to have a flashy website, exactly—just that you might want to independently verify what the property is really like with a few other trusty sources.

Read the reviews (as many as you can possibly manage) before you book. We may be biased, but our sister site Oyster.com is a great place to start. You’ll get an insider look at the hotel, including specifics about room size, pools, food, and cleanliness. There are plenty of other sites where you can find reviews, so research and read as much as possible, to find the hotel’s red flags.

Suppose you can’t get hotel management or reception to respond to your email or phone inquiries in a friendly, timely manner when they’re trying to win your business. What makes you think they’ll be helpful once you’re actually staying there?

If your hotel claims to be located right in the middle of all the best attractions, don’t just take its word for it. Verify the property’s central location by plugging the address into Google Maps. Better still, scope out the exterior on Google Street View (iOS | Android). If it looks dated, poorly maintained, or not exactly as front and center as it claims, then run—don’t walk—back to your browser and find a new hotel.

We’re sorry we even have to mention this, but have you ever checked out BedbugReports.com? You’d be surprised at how many otherwise nice hotels wind up with these little critters running around between their sheets. That’s why it’s a good idea to check out your hotel on the site before you check in. One or two isolated complaints shouldn’t cause too much concern, especially if they’re a year or two in the past, but a number of recent listings should raise a red flag.

A hotel's history of rebranding can be a sign of management trying to escape bad reviews or a poor reputation. Search the address or phone number of the hotel online and see if the property has operated under different names recently. If there are multiple identities in a short time span, that is a red flag.

If the hotel does not offer secure payment methods like credit card or PayPal, it could be a scam, or at the very least, very risky. If they ask for direct wire transfers, RUN, it’s likely a hotel scam. Look for secure checkouts, and always be cautious of sketchy payment requests, especially on third-party sites.

Even the smallest hotels typically have some sort of social media presence. A complete lack of social presence or extremely outdated profiles could indicate that the property isn’t active or reputable. Search for the hotel on social media platforms to see if they engage with comments and post real-time photos. If not, be cautious.

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Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2014. It has been updated to reflect the most current information.