Hawthorne Suites Gambles on Guest Reviews - Or Do They?

Hawthorne Suites recently announced they are adding hotel reviews, along with star ratings, to their web site. The ratings are culled from emailed surveys mailed to confirmed guests of the hotels. HotelChatter called it a "ballsy move" and noted all the reviews they found were glowingly positive, wondering if the hotel chain will post negative ones. HOTELS Online adds:

I hope more hotel brands follow Hawthorn's lead—but if it's done, it's got to be all the way. Only posting the good reviews actually undermines your product more, making the consumer ask, "What are they hiding, and why?"

Glowingly positive reviews ("We loved it!!!!") and extremely negative reviews ("Stay anywhere else") do seem to be the norm; it's rare to get a really balanced review. The reason? Unless it's your job (like yours truly), you generally have to be quite passionate about a hotel stay, good or bad, to take the time to write an online hotel review.

Speaking of which, if you can give me an honest, balanced (good and bad) review of a hotel you've stayed in recently, I'll make you a star by publishing it -- because those are the ones I love to get.

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