Reviews..

...I'm going to start doing them soon.

Years ago, I worked for High Life, the British Airways in-flight magazine. Every month I got sent off on an assignment with a photographer, and we would photograph street fashion.

It was huge fun. This was back in the days when I was single, had no children and could easily lose 2-10 days on a trip without it massively impacting.

On one of those trips, to Paris, the photographer introduced me to L’Hotel, the hotel where Oscar Wilde died, reportedly saying that either he, or the wallpaper, had to go. The photographer took me to the bar there and I seemed to be coming down with something (I actually became really quite ill quite soon after with some sort of horrible virus) and the barman was so lovely and he made me a hot toddy and gave me some crisps.

The photographer told me she’d stayed there and that the rooms were amazing. So of course when, a few years later, I wanted to go to Paris for a romantic weekend (I went twice a year for the shows but I stayed with my uncle and aunt) I thought back to L’Hotel, looked up some reviews which all said it was amazing and spent a lot of my own money (looking back, this was NOT romantic!) on a room.

And was really disappointed.

The bathroom was smaller than mine at home, there was no room service (essential for a romantic weekend) and it was just overall lacking. Now, I’m sure it’s great now, I don’t know I’ve not been back. But I have stayed in a lot of hotels since and I’ve learnt two things:

1. Most magazine/newspaper reviews aren’t that honest because there’s a transactional aspect to them. I learnt this because I then went on to become a travel writer and always DID try to be honest but if you were you then never got invited onto another trip and as travel writers rely on these trips, you see how things get a little sticky. So my travel writing career was relatively short lived (a few years).

With magazine reviews one has to be especially careful of those, as the editorial is often dictated by the advertising. I stopped writing for magazines some years ago because I was told which products I had to mention. No thanks. Newspaper articles are more honest I’ve found, but even then people want to be invited back on trips so they don’t tend to go full “this was shit” on a review.

I’ve heard many a travel writer (and let’s not even get started on beauty journalists) say “it wasn’t great but I can’t say that”. It really annoys me.

2. I’ve never met a hotel in Paris that I really recommend, aside from the Crillon. But that is crazy expensive and I didn’t pay my own money staying there so who knows how I’d feel if I had.

I’m also frustrated by how hotel websites never put the stuff you really need to know, so you have to email them like a really needy person. Such as: what toiletries do you provide? I once stayed at a multi-starred hotel in Amman in Jordan. I had done so much travelling that year that I’d got my toiletries down to a small, fine, art. By this time I was sure I could risk leaving behind my Aromatherapy Associates (the BEST) bath oils and in fact, all my body stuff. When you do a lot of travelling, home comforts really matter.

“I’m sure” I said to myself, “a five star hotel will have lots of lovely stuff.”

Wrong. They only provided handwash and it was attached to the wall by the sink, so I had to bathe stepping in and out of the bath, whilst pumping handwash into my hands.

So I intend to write up when I do stay in a hotel that I paid for (ie all the hotels I stay in) with my honest review; because I pay for it I am not obligated to say what the PR wants. The last press trip I accepted I had to sign a multi page document saying what I could and couldn’t say and what I had to include and that’s when I decided that that life wasn’t for me.

I don’t do madly exotic travel anymore, but what I do do I will share here for my subscribers. And also put in as much info as I think might be helpful (such as which products are provided).

And I’ll also be reviewing other things - products - that I pay for that might be useful.

My dad used to say “For Me…” and then give a verdict and that’s a family tradition I’ll be continuing.

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