Beware phony hotel photos

Did you ever stay at a hotel that had great photos on its website, but when you got there the place was a dump?

That's the complaint of many travelers these days. But now there are some new ways to find what the place really looks like.

Gorgeous Photos Online

Hotels love the internet, where they can post swanky photos that make a dump look like the Ritz.

But the website Oyster.com (Click here) is now exposing some of that trickery, posting real user photos of the same scene.

Oyster shows a beautiful pool (and female model) at one Caribbean resort, from that resort's website. Oyster then shows an actual guest photo, showing the same pool jammed with jiggly and overweight young partygoers. ( Click here to see these photos)

Another hotel website shows a pristine resort beach. Oyster shows the same beach packed with hundreds of people!

A cool rooftop pool at a Los Angeles hotel? Uh, it's really in the shadow of a giant Macy's store, with the store wall and sign directly over the pool.

And another hotel shows a mouth watering buffet with beautiful people looking at it.  Oyster's real life shot makes it look like a messy feeding trough.

Doesn't that Stink?

So from the doesn't that stink file, hotel photos that leave guests disappointed: I say doesn't that stink?

That's why my favorite pre-vacation stop is the website tripadvisor.com (click here) where I can read real traveler reviews, and see photos that weren't staged with models when the pool was closed.  Oyster also has good honest reviews.

Bottom line: Read as many traveler reviews as possible of any hotel or resort you plan to visit. Don't just go by the hotel's photos, so you don't waste your money.

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