The Room in the Photo Is Not Always the Room You Get, How to Read a Hotel Page Before You Book

This is the most common mistake.

Travellers open the hotel page, see a general gallery and decide they like the place.

But the hotel is only the frame.

What you are actually booking is a particular room category.

For example:

Standard Room

Superior Room

Deluxe Room

Executive Room

Junior Suite

Suite

Sea View Room

City View Room

Garden View Room

Partial Sea View Room

Every one of those categories can look completely different.

So before you fall for the main gallery, move to the photographs of the exact room you are about to book.

At some hotels you will find wording saying the photographs are illustrative, or representative of the room type.

In plain words:

your room does not have to look exactly like the room in the picture.

It should belong to the same category, but there can be differences in:

The room's position

Colours

Furniture

The room's layout

The number of windows

The size of the balcony

The floor

The direction of the view

This happens especially in older buildings, boutique hotels, riads, historic hotels and converted buildings.

In a modern hotel with 300 identical rooms, the differences are usually smaller.

In a centuries-old riad, two rooms in the same category can be completely different.

One of the most dangerous words on hotel pages is:

View

Because there is an enormous difference between:

Sea View

A view of the sea.

Ocean Front

Usually the room faces the sea directly.

Partial Sea View

You may see the sea from a certain angle.

Side Sea View

The sea is off to the side.

Marina View

A view of the marina, not necessarily of the open sea.

Resort View

It can be a view of the pool, the garden or the hotel's own buildings.

City View

It can be a beautiful skyline, and it can be the building opposite.

So if the view matters to you, do not settle for the word View.

Check exactly which kind of view appears in the category you are booking.

Here too there are surprises.

At some hotels a “King” really is a King.

Elsewhere a double bed can be smaller than you expect.

And in some destinations, especially in Europe, two single beds pushed together can be sold as a double room.

If the bed matters to you, check:

The bed type

The dimensions, if they are listed

Whether it is one bed or two pushed together

Whether you can choose Twin or Double

Whether the choice is guaranteed or only “subject to availability”

Those last words matter a great deal.

Because if it says subject to availability, the hotel is not promising the request will be met.

Here too you have to read carefully.

If the hotel's photographs show balconies, that does not mean every room has one.

Look for the word Balcony inside the room description itself.

There is a difference between:

Balcony

Terrace

Juliet Balcony

Shared Terrace

Patio

Outdoor seating

A Juliet Balcony, for instance, can be nothing more than a glass door with an external railing, with nowhere to step out and sit.

If you want to drink your coffee outside in the morning, make sure it is a real balcony.

Hotel photographs are usually shot with a wide-angle lens.

And that can make a small room look very large.

One of the best ways to genuinely understand a room is to check its floor area.

For example:

15-18 sqm

A relatively small room.

20-25 sqm

Perfectly reasonable for most city breaks.

30-35 sqm

Now it is spacious.

40 sqm and above

You usually start to feel a significant difference.

But here too you have to understand the destination.

A 20 sqm room in Tokyo can count as spacious.

At a resort in the Maldives it would count as small.

In the photographs it looks lovely.

A bathtub inside the room.

Glass walls.

An open shower.

But if you are travelling with a friend, an older child or even a partner who prefers privacy, it can work rather less well.

Check whether:

The bathroom is fully enclosed

The toilet is in a separate room

The wall is transparent

There is a curtain or some way to close it off

The bathtub sits right inside the sleeping area

It is a small question well worth asking in advance.

The floor affects:

Noise

The view

Light

Privacy

Proximity to the lift

The sense of space

A second-floor room facing the street can be very noisy.

The same category on the tenth floor can be excellent.

If the hotel offers a choice between Low Floor and High Floor, that is not just marketing.

Sometimes it changes the whole stay.

It sounds odd, but it happens.

Some hotels have:

A private pool for villas only

An Executive Pool

An Adults Only Pool

A Rooftop Pool with restrictions

A Club Lounge Pool

A seasonal pool

So if the pool is the reason you chose the hotel, check whether it is open to all guests, and at what hours.

Breakfast can be:

Buffet

Continental

Set Menu

À la carte

Breakfast credit

Breakfast for one

Breakfast for two

Sometimes a room meant for three people includes breakfast for two only.

Sometimes children pay separately.

Sometimes “Breakfast included” applies to adults only.

Do not assume.

Check.

This is one of the most expensive mistakes there is.

Free Cancellation does not mean you can cancel at any moment.

You need to look at:

the last date and time for cancelling without a penalty.

After that moment, you may be charged:

The first night

A percentage of the booking

The full booking

And in some cases the time is set by the hotel's own time zone.

Even when it says you pay at the hotel, the hotel sometimes runs:

a pre-authorization

a deposit

a guarantee charge

a temporary card hold

It is not always a final charge, but it can temporarily reduce your available credit.

If the booking is expensive, it is worth being aware of that.

Even when the price looks final, some destinations add charges on site.

For example:

City Tax

Tourism Tax

Resort Fee

Destination Fee

Environmental Fee

Transfer Fee

This is especially common at resort destinations and in certain cities.

So do not only ask:

how much does the room cost?

Ask:

how much will I have paid in total by the time I check out?

If you are travelling with children, you have to enter:

the number of children

the exact age of each child

Why?

Because different hotels define a “child” differently.

At one hotel an 11-year-old can stay free.

At another they already count as an adult.

And also:

a room listed as suitable for 3 guests is not necessarily suitable for 2 adults + 2 children.

There is a difference.

Extra Bed

Usually an additional bed.

Sofa Bed

A sofa that folds out for sleeping.

Rollaway Bed

A folding bed.

Existing Bedding

The child sleeps in the beds already in the room.

If it matters to you that everyone has a real bed, check that in advance.

Another difference that matters to families.

Connecting Rooms

There is an internal door between the two rooms.

Adjacent Rooms

The rooms are next to each other.

Nearby Rooms

They can even be along the same corridor, but not necessarily side by side.

If the children are in a separate room, that word matters a great deal.

You can ask for:

A high floor

A quiet room

A double bed

A room near friends

Early Check-in

Late Check-out

But unless the hotel states the request is Guaranteed, it is only a request.

That is one reason it is worth separating what you actually booked from the notes you added to the booking.

I always go through these:

1. The room category name

Not the hotel's name, the room's name.

2. The room's size

In sqm.

3. The bed type

4. The maximum number of guests

5. The exact view

6. A balcony

If it matters to me.

7. The bathroom

8. Breakfast

9. The cancellation terms

10. Taxes and additional charges

11. Photographs that belong to the room category itself

12. Notes such as “subject to availability”

Only after that do I look at the price again.

First of all, there is no need to start an argument.

Open your booking confirmation and check:

what exactly was promised?

If it says:

Balcony

and there is no balcony, that is a clear problem.

If it says:

Sea View

and you were given a room facing a wall, take it to reception.

But if you asked for a High Floor in the notes and arrived on the third floor, the request may simply never have been guaranteed.

That distinction matters.

This is perhaps the simplest way to remember the whole article.

The photographs make us want the hotel.

But the small details decide what we actually get.

So the next time you see an astonishing suite, a floor-to-ceiling window and a bathtub facing the sea, stop for a moment.

Check the room's name.

Check the size.

Check the view.

Check what is really included.

And only then book.

Because sometimes the difference between an excellent holiday and a disappointment begins not at the hotel's reception, but five minutes before we hit Book.

When you compare hotels, pay attention to more than the main photo and the price.

Check exactly what you are getting in the room you chose.

Do not book before you have asked Sherry.