Investigate your future vacation spot using social media and other online tools before you book your vacation.
Finding the right holiday destination can quickly turn into a nightmare: geographical position of the hotel, equipment of the apartment and residence, state of the amenities offered in a rental, often photos and descriptions posted by tourism professionals only show the positive sides to make you fall for it.
Unfortunately, it sometimes happens to face unpleasant surprises once there: the room is dirty and dated, the hotel is located in an outlying area, the facilities offered are far from as new as they are appear on the photos provided by the hotelier, the list can be long.
To avoid disappointments, it is better to conduct your own investigation before confirming your reservation. And nothing like going to find reviews and photos published by holidaymakers who have gone before you to get a glimpse of what to expect.
1. Check out reviews and pictures posted by other customers
It may sound simplistic and horribly mundane, but looking at reviews and pictures posted by other vacationers can help you prepare for any eventuality and sift through the destinations you want.
While some low-praise comments will undoubtedly be taken with a little hindsight, consulting the opinions on several platforms can help you form a first opinion.
As for photos, tourism professionals generally only display the photos that best highlight their establishment. Nothing beats then, photos, sometimes poorly framed, taken by amateurs, to highlight the most negative aspects of a place.
To start your survey, go to TripAdvisor, but also on Google Maps. The latter records both reviews published on Google and reviews published on the Booking.com platform.
For each of these services, you will be able to consult the French-speaking comments, but also those made by foreign tourists. Don’t panic, opinions written in a language other than French can, in principle, be directly translated by the platforms.
Change the order in which reviews are displayed by sorting by date, showing most favorable, most unfavorable, etc. Thus, if old notices mention a residence in poor condition, the most recent notices may allow you to know if renovations have been carried out.
In addition, more and more business managers are responding, both on TripAdvisor and Google Maps, to customer reviews, allowing you to have the two-party version of the most negative reviews.
Go to TripAdvisor (Free)
Download TripAdvisor for Android (apk) (Free)
Download TripAdvisor for iPhone (Free)
Go to Google Maps (Free)
Download Google Maps for Android (Free)
Download Google Maps for iPhone (Free)
2. Identify the environment
To avoid finding yourself in an out-of-town hotel, discover by surprise that the beach of your campsite is located next to an industrial zone, or that your rental is located next to a wastewater treatment plant or a road railroad, it is undoubtedly safer to identify before leaving, the environment which is all around.
For this, you can use Google Earth and Google Street View. The first, thanks to its satellite images, will allow you in certain places, to have an overview in 3D of the environment located in the immediate vicinity of the establishment to which you plan to visit.
The second will allow you to virtually walk around the neighborhood where your drop-off point is located. It is also a good way to check the presence of shops, public transport or even cycle paths.
On PC, Google Street View is accessible in Google Maps from your web browser, while you will need to download an application if you want to use it on mobile.
Use Google Earth for Google Chrome (Free)
Download Google Earth for Windows (Free)
Download Google Earth for Mac (Free)
Download Google Earth for Linux (Free)
Download Google Earth for Android (Free)
Download Google Earth for iPhone / iPad (Free)
Download Google Street View for Android (Free)
Download Google Street View for iPhone (Free)
3. Look for localized images on social networks
Using social media to gain insight into your vacation spot in real time can also help you learn a lot. Instagram is, for example, a great tool. The social network indeed offers the possibility of searching for photos using keywords, but also by location.
Go to the search module, go to the # section and enter your keyword. Do the same by going to the Location option and search for the name of your residence, hotel, district, etc.
By launching a query on a specific location, you will then obtain all the photos of users who have located their post, a great way, again, to get a glimpse of the place in another context.
Download Instagram for Android (Free)
Download Instagram for iPhone (Free)