Your Guide to Having the 'Perfect' Vacation!

Vacation!!! We all try our best to take them every time we have a chance too. Most of the time we are trying to escape from our normality. We wanna experience something different from what we are used to every day. When I travel, I always want to make sure the service they claim to provide is really what they say it is. From the hotel to restaurants to the local events, I want to make sure what I'm paying for is worth it. I tend to always use review sites such as Trip Advisor, Yelp, Google & Facebook. I quickly check these sites for reviews. This tends to to help when making decisions for vacation and even work travel.

Okay! First things first, where are you going? For how long? Do you have all this information? Now let's head to your nearest internet-enabled device and go to your browser. There are two different processes that I tend to do. The first one I tell you may take little longer because it's a little bit of research. However, the end results will make you happy in my opinion. First, in your search engine of your choice, type in what ever establishment that you are going to while on vacation. Usually the first and maybe also the second sites lead you directly to their home site. WE DO NOT WANT THOSE SITES. We want the sites that tell us the real deal where the business does not have access to control the content. Also where the consumer can inform others of the service they received. It has been reported that consumers tend to use review sites to help with the vacation decision planning. I tend to look for the review sites I mentioned, although I'm also looking for other sites with chat forums and pages with discussions boards. I do not join them, but if I can, I do like to read what is being said about the staff, the environment, the food, the aura, everything. I want to know who to look for and who to avoid. Now if you do not have time to read through, the second step is a sure win for you.

Remember those sites from earlier? Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook etc... These are my go to sites for best info on almost everything. Most establishments have at least 50 reviews. At times this could also be because it's a new business and business is not booming just yet. It could also be that the business does not inform the consumers to go online and provide feedback if possible. In my opinion, online consumer feedback as of 2012 was one of the main factors to the success of a business. According to Heidi Abramyk, travel blogger and author at Vendasta, "Over 88% of online consumers use review sites to make their purchase." Review sites such as the ones I mentioned before do not give the businesses access to modifying any feedback. I find that these platforms can be very informative to let you know if you are going to have good service and furthermore a pleasant vacation. Now here are some tips you can follow when reading these reviews so that you can follow through with your vacation expectations.

When reading these sites, I suggest reading five random reviews from various dates within the past year. I would do this on up to three different sites. Once you compare all the feedback, if out of all 15 reviews you have more bad than good, you may want to rethink your vacation plans. Every time I go on vacation, I tend to drift to the 4.5 star businesses or better, trying to be bougie and within my budget as possible. Now, settling for a little less than perfect is not as bad as it may seem. Sometimes I'll even settle for 4.0 or 3.5 stars. That's the beauty of review sites; they help me do this. Groupon, just like other similar sites, allows me to remain in budget and get great deals. Most review platforms will give you the option to type in anything specific that you would like to do or have. When on the review site, you can go to the search engine and type in the business, and once you get your business page of reviews and detailed information, you can go to town with the tips explained to you earlier. You will also find a search bar within this page that allows you to type in keywords within the reviews so you can pinpoint what details or specifics you need.