Trip reports, holiday reviews, being responsible.

Boy oh boy, I am getting such a big response to my tweets about holiday reviews and trip reports!!

The responses have come from two sides:

– the people who write reviews (and they are usually also the ones who read them)

– owners of properties, ie people who have been victims of a nasty report

I have just come across a really good blog by a lady who travels a great deal. It was all very interesting and made for entertaining reading … till I hit on her Barcelona report.  She had not received her hotel wake-up call and this (understandably) caused a panicky rush … but it was all OK in the end.  Now, what I object to is that she gave the name of the hotel.  That is not fair.  The night porter (who forgot her) may well have been fired as a result – certainly, in many MANY non-European/non-USA countries, he’d have been fired.  The hotel in question bent over backwards to right the wrong and the journey continued with no further problem.

The hotel did not deserve a bad review. The lady in question needs material for her blogs – we can all understand that.  But to NAME the hotel was unkind, unfair and downright childish.

People do not understand the damage they can do, nor the distress they can cause.  A friend who is the owner of a wonderful restaurant in Hopkins, Belize, was terribly upset to be given a totally bitchy report by some extremely over-weight clients a few years ago.  You cannot imagine how upset she was. She had worked all her life, worked very hard, built the business up from zero … and then to have these grotesque people write a nasty report just because she was slow in serving them was horrid.

Be responsible in what you write and remember your AIM.  Is your aim simply the love of your own voice, or do you seriously feel that the public in general need to be warned about the place you stayed ?  Bear in mind what you paid and the description!  It is unfair and unkind to give a bad report just because you happened to dislike it.  If you absolutely must tell of your stay, do not name the place – unless it was really truly very VERY bad.

I travel massively – more than most – far more than most – and I have never ever had cause to write a bad report … despite having been forgotten for my wake-up call and more!

Also remember that a recent UK survey showed that people who frequently write bad reports have some kind of “inadequacy” problem.  Also bear in mind that the owners of places ALSO have access to the internet, and blacklists are become steadily more popular ….

 Click here for “Positive people …”

Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist.  She is widely travelled and writes regularly for magazines and blog sites.  Her sketches are on her web site http://turquoisemoon.co.uk .  Her books are available from Amazon and on Kindle, or can be ordered from several leading book stores.

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Catherine Broughton is a novelist, a poet and an artist.  Her books are available as e-books on this site:-

https://payhip.com/b/tEva            “A Call from France”

https://payhip.com/b/OTiQ          “French Sand”

https://payhip.com/b/BLkF         ”The Man with Green Fingers”

https://payhip.com/b/1Ghq        “Saying Nothing”

They are also available on Amazon & Kindle, or can be ordered as paperbacks from most leading book stores and libraries.