I’m not a great fan of travel magazine’s “Best Lists” editions where they parade the top hotels to stay or places to visit worldwide. Despite the façade of being independent and unbiased most of these compilation lists are not based on input from people like you and I. They also tend to include hotels or resorts where one night’s stay is the equivalent of the national debt of most African countries.

However, one of my favorite sites at the moment when searching for lodging is TripAdvisor.com. And this is why.

TripAdvisor.com encourages user reviews and feedback on each property listed on the site. And these reviews are not edited (except profanity is banned), but left as written by the reviewer. This does make for some interesting feedback at times. The point is the reviews are written by normal non travel professionals.

So when properties make the “Best of …” TripAdvisor.com lists I pay attention as they are based on user reviews of people who have stayed there without identifying themselves as a travel journalist or professional. The room they get and the service they receive is just what little ole you or I would get.

So where am I going with all this?

TripAdvisor.com has just published their TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice 2009 lists, and I looked for New England properties listed so I could ascertain how well and competitive as a state we are doing.  Only two lodgings made the various categories defined in this year’s lists, and both are on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. These are:

Seacoast Inn, Hyannis

Annabelle Bed and Breakfast, Sandwich

Now, neither of these places are expensive nor have great jaw-dropping architectural significance – in fact most would class the outside look as… ordinary.

But where they do excel is in the atmosphere and service they provide, and value for money. Today’s travelers expect great service and superb accommodation if they’re paying $500 per night in a Boston or New York hotel, or staying at a $1,900 per night resort in the Berkshires – they’d better, they’d better – you bet!

But where we get surprised and delighted is when we pay a $150 or less per night and get our socks blown off! Just visit TripAdvisor.com and read the reviews for these two properties and you’ll see for yourself the consistency of the reviews and why they made the lists for their respective categories.

Are there a few less than stellar reviews on these properties… yes there are. You can’t please everybody all of the time. But in my scan these were few and far between, and I’d be concerned if there wasn’t as it would sniff a bit strong if every one of the reviews was glowing, and shall we say… sounding like it was written in the same voice.

And the results are:

Seacoast Inn in Hyannis, Massachusetts made it on the “Top 100 Best Bargains – Worldwide”, “Top 10 Best Bargains – United States”, “Top 10 Best Hidden Gems – United States” and “Best Service – United States” lists.”

Annabelle Bed and Breakfast, Sandwich, Massachusetts made it on the “Top 10 Best Inns and B&Bs – United States” list.

You can download your own copy of the 31-page report by visiting TripAdvisor.com – you’ll need to sign-up using a valid email address to get access to the report.

Next year I’ll look forward to seeing even more New England properties make it on TripAdvisor.com best list. But for now if you’re considering a cape cod vacation this year then hop on over to TripAdvisor.com and check the reviews of these places and plenty of others before making your final lodging choice.

Another New England post by one of our writers is being prepared right now so be sure to visit again or just subscribe to our RSS Feed here and get notified automatically of events and news.

Cliff Calderwood
Publisher
New England Online Magazine

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