General philosphical Question Hotwire stars vs. Tripadvisor ratings?

[oak47]

It seems to me that a good quality (i.e. clean and comfortable, with decent service) 2.5-3.5* hotel can end up being better than a 4* hotel with poor cleanliness and/or service.

I understand that the Hotwire ratings are meant to combine conventional star ratings (based solely on amenities, without regard to quality) as well as hotel reviews, whereas Priceline relies on the conventional stars. So in using Hotwire, and leaving aside the price differences, would you think it is preferable to book a 2.5-3.5* hotel with a 4 of 5 or better tripadvisor rating (as reported by Hotwire) than to book a 4-4.5* hotel with a 3 or 3.5 TA rating?

I think I read in another thread that the consensus is the Hotwire * rating is within 0.5* of a conventional star rating, but it did not say in which direction. Is this still the consensus?

Also, how up-to-date is Hotwire's reported Tripadvisor rating?

[AaronJB]

HOTWIRE uses what I believe is an "average" star rating taken from various services. In some instances, HOTWIRE's star ratings are higher than PRICELINE's ratings.

In terms of which is best, there are a lot of factors. Keep in mind that Tripadvisor reviews are often done by those who pay full price, and someone who paid $300 for a NYC hotel may have a different outlook than a person who paid $150 via PRICELINE or HOTWIRE. There's also the factor of location or added services. If the 4* is less expensive than the 3* - which is not uncommon - I'd take the cheaper 4*.

There are 3/3.5*'s that I've stayed at that I've liked more than a 4* down the street, but again, I think there are other factors at play, as well.

HOTWIRE's tripadvisor ratings are not "live" - not sure how often they are updated, but they are not "to-the-minute."

[pres001]

I use Trip Advisor (TA) quite a lot. I would never rely solely on TA propularity ratings of hotels. For one thing TA lumps all hotels from budget to luxury in one category and reviews, as always, are very subjective.

If you want to use TA as a source for info on hotels I suggest you go to the TA site and read the actual reviews. You might find that a high or low score is based on some factor that is not even important to you.

Of course if a hotel is TA rated # 5 out of 100 you might pick that one over a hotel that is rated 95 out of 100, but I honestly mostly ignore TA hotel ratings even though I use the site often for trip planning.

[bb92037]

I don't see TA ratings on Hotwire website. I could have sworn I saw them yesterday. Did they get yanked just recently?

[yellowdog]

bb92037

It's nothing strange. The TA rating comes and goes.

Yellowdog.