Family Vacations
and
Family Travel

Thanks to the internet, communication has been made much easier. Total strangers from different parts of the globe can log online, share ideas and their own personal opinions. Modern communication has really effected vacation planning for families. Websites like tripadvisor and epinions let regular folks post their own personal hotel reviews. In general, this is a very good barometer for would-be vacationers trying to make their own travel plans but we at vacationkids recommend travelers keep a few things in mind when reviewing online reviews.

Anyone who works in service industries or customer care knows if you do a good job, it will probably go unnoticed but if you make one mistake, everyone and their brother will hear about it. This seems to be true with hotel reviews. Generally the longest posts on hotel review sites are written by disgruntled people with complaints. They were upset by certain issues and want to make sure everybody in the online world knows about it. The only problem here is that hotel management does not have any means to respond. They cannot go in and post a reply to the allegations made about them. In fairness, there are two sides to every story yet hotels are not given a voice at all.

Vacationkids recently experienced this situation first hand. We suddenly started receiving numerous calls from clients regarding hotel reviews at one of our favorite properties. Dozens of families with pending reservations saw a post by one family saying their toddler was not allowed in any of the ala carte restaurants. This family went on and on saying they wracked up serious babysitting bills, were not given what they were promised and were exceptionally angered by their entire experience. Our staff at Vacationkids thought these allegations were really unusual. As with most of the resorts we recommend to our clients, several of our staff members and their own families had visited this resort and knew from first hand experience that young kids were welcomed in the restaurants here. Vacationkids made a couple of phone calls and found out the mother of this hotel's general manager passed away suddenly. The hotel's management did not want the resort to be short handed so they immediately flew in a resort manager from one of their other properties. The new general manager came from a hotel where indeed the rules did not allow young children under 5 years old in the restaurants so he assumed the same held true here. This was a temporary situation due to a personal, family emergency of the manager and is completely understandable. By the time vacationkids made our inquiries, the regular general manager had returned, sorted out the entire situation, refunded all the baby sitting money to the couple who complained and situation was rectified. Vacationkids passed on this information to all of our nervous customers with impending reservations. Yet all of the readers of this online review never heard the legitimate explanation for this situation and never heard about it's solution.

Conflicting reviews cause the most angst. One traveler will post a comment like "this is the most beautiful beach in the entire world". A week later another traveler will write "The beach was disgusting, full of seaweed and garbage". The poor vacation planner won't have all the details and won't know what to believe. This past year my husband and I planned a scuba vacation to Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean which in my humble opinion, is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It's known for it's calm waves and excellent visibility for diving. Our luck, we planned our vacation during the week of hurricane Isabella. Although we had 90 degree days and sunny skies, my beautiful beach was red flagged due to rip tides and full of seaweed and garbage due to the turbulent, stormy ocean.

And speaking of personal opinions, they go hand in hand with our experiences. The first time my youngest daughter accompanied me to London, we were both fortunate enough to be upgraded to first class seats on Virgin Atlantic. First class on Virgin means free pajamas, fully reclining sleeper seats with feather pillows, goosedown duvets, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries as a snack while you choose from 300 movies...there are even onboard shiatu massages offered. My darling teenager uses this experience as a measure of every flights she takes. Now that she knows how the other half lives, we joke that she has become a travelsnob. She's planning a trip to Australia with her school this summer and I can't wait to hear her reviews after she has to fly coach class. I am certain, they will be different from the expectations she currently has. Very experienced, savvy travelers will have more means of comparison by which to offer opinions.

Another repeated complaint travelers will read out at online review sites are maintenance complaints like air conditioning issues, plumbing problems and the like. As a homeowner I can relate to these comments. I remember the time our oven at home broke and we had to wait for a part that was back ordered to be shipped so it could be repaired. Yes this was an inconvenience for my family and we were sick of eating sandwiches after two weeks but things happen. Room location is another good one. You'll see one review saying "make sure you get a room in Building 17 for the best views" The reviewer failed to mention building 17 is right next to the nightly entertainment stage and the family with young kids kept awake by the evening noise may not think this is the best place to be.

One of my personal favorite complaints..."the bed was too hard". Are these people related to Goldilocks? When you travel, things will be different and sometimes you need to take the good with the bad. If you're the kind of person not willing to accept this, then maybe you should stay home. Another good one is..."It rained during our entire stay". Somehow other travelers read this kind of review and interpret this to mean it always rains, every single day during the entire month of April. Seems to me, I've spent weeks at home when it has rained in buckets. Slow service is another popular complaint. Slow by whose standards? When my husband and I honeymooned in Europe we recognized how quickly we gulped down our food during evening meals compared to our European counterparts. How about the folks who complain they couldn't find a lounge chair or had to wait in long lines at the restaurants? A closer look at their travel dates might show they traveled during a peak travel week. Hmmm, if you don't want to wait in lines at Disneyworld, then don't go during spring break when every kids in America is off from school! And speaking of Spring Break, a savvy travel agent knows which resorts in Cancun allow the MTV partiers and which ones do not so that your youngsters don't have to witness tequila chugging contests during your family vacation.

And who are these people posting reviews...really? Savvy internet users know online anonymity can be advantageous. Vacationkids has heard first hand stories from hotel staff members who post negative reviews of a competing hotel or stories about disgruntled hotel employees trying to get revenge. Saying that several members of your large group were hospitalized for food poisoning is enough to have other would be travelers stay elsewhere. We also know of resort staff posting glowing reviews about a property that Vacationkids knows is average by every other means of comparison.

Respectfully, these hotel review websites were designed to as a service to help the traveling public. Yes, there are hotels and resorts that deserve every negative comment written about them. Vacationkids wants to remind families that everything posted online about a particular resort is not gospel and what is mentioned by returning travelers needs to be taken into perspective. The best hotel in the world with the very best reviews may not be the best place for your family's vacation if it doesn't fit your family's lifestyles and interests. This is where the advice of a professional travel agent can help you and your family sort the noise from the truth.

A sense of adventure and a sense of humor can go a very long way when your traveling, especially on family vacations. Indeed travelers paying good money for a memorable trip want a good time and do not want hassles and problems. But in all honesty, in the many years I've vacationed with my kids, we've had some great trips and some not so great trips. Somehow the trips that turn out like a Chevy Chase Vacation movie seem to be the most memorable for everyone. The bad trips taught us patience, flexibility, how to complain properly and be assertive. They also gave us a means by which to compare our good vacation experiences.