If you are a businessman who needs to travel on business for practically half the year, you would certainly want to compare the comforts that various hotels have on offer. Whether these hotels are budget hotels or luxury ones, the basic features that characterize a good hotel are common. Before you start comparing various hotels, let’s think of the various points of comparison. You would probably think of all or any of the following:
• Room service
• Cleanliness
• Proximity to airports and stations
• The location of the hotel
• The additional amenities that are offered
• The price you need to pay
It is certainly not easy to say that one hotel is better than another, till you have actually stayed there. Very often you end up staying in a hotel, because one of your colleagues has gone there before you. Another reason may be because you have been impressed by the brochure or advertisement of the hotel. Even with these impressions, you may have a totally different experience, once you reach there.
Comparing hotels will take on a whole new significance if you are a tour operator. If you had to regularly take groups of people (students, housewives, families) on conducted tours to various places, you would have to start comparing the facilities offered by three or four hotels. This of course, depends on the place that you are taking these people to. If you are going on a pilgrimage, you also know the kind of people who would be coming on your tours. They would probably prefer a hotel that was fairly close to the place of worship, they are supposed to go to.
On the other hand, if you were taking a group of young school children, it would be better for you to put them up in a hotel which was a little cheaper, but yet situated in close proximity to the places of interest that you would be taking them to. It would not be advisable for these young children to travel great distances to see the sights of a particular town or city.
Another section of people for whom comparisons of hotels have to be done, is the lower or middle income group. Here, the primary concern is the amount they have to shell out for a room per day. If the amount is too high, they will certainly think twice about staying in that particular hotel. Apart from this, they would also be keen to get the most out of what they spend. Value for money would be their focus.
After weighing all the pros and cons, one realizes that the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. You really do not know what a hotel is like, until you have stayed there for a considerable length of time. There is absolutely no harm in checking out the amenities, the add-ons and the tariff, before you come to any sort of conclusion.
Ben Jackson writes articles for hotel reservations and cheap hotels. Other articles written by the author related to discount hotels, cheap accommodation and compare hotels can be found on the web.