15 Red Flags That Scream Bad Hotel Experience

Traveling can lead to exceptional experiences—except if you check into a lousy hotel. It can quickly ruin your vacation or business trip. Before booking or checking in, you can cursorily run through many potential red flags, from cleanliness issues to unresponsive service.

“Doing your research and knowing what to look for is important in avoiding a subpar stay,” advises Anthony Melchiorri, hospitality expert and host of Hotel Impossible. He advises travelers to “pay attention to reviews and trust their instincts about red flags.” Here is a list of the most glaring red flags that point to a potentially terrible hotel experience.

Negative Online Reviews

Online reviews can offer an unfiltered view of what others have booked before you. However, if a hotel scores consistently below 3.5 out of 5 on platforms like Google or TripAdvisor, it’s a red flag.

Some significant warning signals are unpleasant maintenance, indecent staff, and terrible furnishings. It pays exceptionally well to focus on repetitive problems—these indicate systemic problems in the hotel.

Lack of Recent Photos Online

A reliable hotel should show updated pictures of rooms, amenities, and facilities. Furthermore, if the images appear outdated or ridiculously staged, or there are none at all, that’s a signal that the hotel is misrepresenting itself. According to experts, a lack of transparency in hospitality visuals is often a mask for badly kept facilities.

Hidden Fees Buried in Fine Print

Always check the price details before booking. A hotel that surprises you with extra fees for items like Wi-Fi, parking, or the amenities you thought came with the hotel can really ruin your stay.

NerdWallet found in a survey last year that U.S. travelers spent more than $3 billion in hotel fees and surcharges in 2022. Using this practice may indicate that the hotel is utterly untrustworthy.

Public Reviews

Poor Standards of Hygiene are big red flags, as are complaints about cleanliness, like being unable to get stains out of your linens, unkept bathrooms, or even seeing mold on the carpet.

Cleanliness is key for guests, with 76% of hotel guests saying they won’t go back to a hotel that isn’t clean, according to a PLOS One study.

Unresponsive or Rude Front Desk Staff

Disinterested front desk staff will ruin the experience. If you see repeated comments that the front desk staff is rude, dismissive, or slow, think of it as an indication of poorly trained or poorly managed staff.

A hospitality experience is as much based on the backbone of a welcoming and professional team. Don’t compromise on this.

An Outdated or Dysfunctional Website

A hotel’s web presence is a mirror of that institution’s standards. A hotel with broken links, missing information, or outdated interface design may neglect other areas.

Poor Lighting in Room Photos

Dim photos may result from dim lighting in the rooms. This hides subpar furnishings, dirt, or other defects. Clear, high-quality images are a hallmark of a hotel that takes pride in its accommodations.

Reports of Noisy Surroundings

Poor soundproofing, due to thin walls, noisy neighbors, or street traffic, can make for quite the noise complaint. This may severely hurt your ability to relax and get a good night’s sleep. If peace is essential to your sojourn, deal breakers are such details.

Missing or Broken Amenities

Functional air conditioning, heating, and reliable Wi-Fi are specific amenities that many travelers feel cannot be ignored. Hotel reviews frequently mentioning these broken or unavailable amenities should put the property on your “no-go” list.

Cancelled Reservations with No Explanation

Hotels have almost no excuse for canceling already confirmed bookings unless there’s an emergency. Numerous reviews with last-minute cancellations will strongly indicate that the premise practices overbooking or handles mismanagement poorly.

Secure On-Site Parking Not Available

Many travelers depend on on-site parking, and the lack of secured or properly monitored parking spaces creates safety problems. If you’re driving, check reviews to see that parking is safe and readily available.

Visible Signs of Pest Infestations

There should be no tolerance for pest infestation in a hotel. Any hotel with reviews on bed bugs, cockroaches, or rodents is immediately crossed off the list. Not only can pest infestations ruin your stay, but they also can return home with you.

Considerably Lower Room Rates than Competitors

You may be after a bargain, but there’s no doubt that drastically low rates often come at the cost of quality. Watch out for suspiciously low prices — this may also indicate hidden problems, such as lousy maintenance, specific issues with the location, or bad service.

Generic Responses to Negative Reviews

Hotels unable or unwilling to respond to criticism in such a professional and personalized fashion might not be that dedicated to service improvement.

Indifferent, unresponsive management rarely equates to a great experience, and generic responses display that without emphatic qualities.

No Cancellation and no Refund policy

Never book a hotel that doesn’t allow you to cancel or get refunds if you change your mind. Life happens, and hotels should have a way of dealing with reasonable alternatives to make the booking experience pleasant for the guests. “Hotels with rigid policies are often focused on their profits over the guest experience,” warns a travel expert.

Disclaimer – This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.

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