I have been
deep in the throes of planning a trip to Europe later in the year and just felt
the need to vent a little about some things that bug me. I hope you don't mind! Your thoughts on these issues would be most
welcome.
My first
wee rant is about why car rental
companies won't let you select the model/make of car you want to
drive. There is one major brand that
will let you do this – on more expensive cars – and they are at the premium end
of the market anyway. Surely with
today's technology they should be able to monitor the movement of their cars
and be able to give you a choice of the ones they know to be available at that
location on that date?? Why do we
consumers put up with it.
And it is
also annoying when you rent a compact car (best for narrow French backroads)
and they announce that you have been 'upgraded' to some enormous car – sure it
doesn't cost more in the hire charge but it is not as convenient to drive and
costs you more in fuel. Next time this
happens to us we have decided to refuse the 'upgrade' and see what happens. My guess is that they have just got their
vehicle mix wrong and have run out of compact models.
Enough of
that topic – the next one is the details – or rather lack of details – on accommodation websites. Hotel websites are the worst – the photos in
the photo gallery are almost always not labelled so you don't know which sort
of room is which. And even traveller
photos on Tripadvisor are rarely captioned in a helpful way. There are never enough photos to show you
what the bathrooms/wc are really like or what the wardrobe is like. And selecting the right room type is a
nightmare. You just feel like you are
taking pot luck.
Why can't
hotels provide detailed floor plans of their room layout and let you reserve
the actual room you decide you want?
Maybe someone in the industry can explain why this is not done….
Perhaps
Google Maps could extend their street view to videoing the interior of hotels –
that would make choosing rooms so much easier.
Enough
ranting for today. Ciao!
I love the idea of Google maps expanding their coverage.
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