Survey Uncovers Destinations with the Worst Hotel Reviews

Planning a trip? You may want to avoid certain destinations around the United States, particularly if you anticipate booking a hotel. A new survey from Planetware, which looked at nearly 100 U.S. cities and nearly 10,000 hotels, alongside almost 8 million hotel reviews, reveals which destinations are home to the worst-ranked properties.

According to the survey, destinations with the largest majority of negative hotel reviews are also destinations popular for one key feature: beaches. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Virginia Beach, Virginia, are the survey’s top three destinations in the country for bad hotel reviews. Planetware uncovered, in these three cities, 20 percent of all hotel reviews are negative.

So, what does a negative hotel review typically include? The most common complaints across the nearly 8 million analyzed reviews included bed bugs, not enough toilet paper, smoky smells and thin walls.

Beyond these complaints, the survey also looked at destinations where hotel service was the primary complaint, and found, when it comes to how dissatisfied travelers are with hotel staff performance, other destinations take top spots. Worst destinations for hotel service include Miami Beach, Florida; Montauk, New York; Cape May, New Jersey; Siesta Key, Florida; and New York City, New York.