Sometimes hotels fail to live up to the promises their management make in glossy brochures. Now web-savvy customers can avoid wasting energy and money, by using the latest tools provided by the Internet.

Whilst in the past it was a case of relying for better or for worse on the descriptions provided by the glossy holiday brochures which usually contained not particularly accurate descriptions, nowadays the user-generated content of Web 2.0 and new technology means the Internet is a much more trustworthy source of information. In particular aerial views of hotel complexes together with hotel reviews expose previously inaccurate hotel descriptions.

It is often the case that a hotel's surroundings are what give cause for complaint. Just how far is it actually from the beach or the busy main road? These questions are easily answered, by clicking the "View Hotel on Map" link in the hit list of hotels returned by the online hotel search and booking site, hotel.info. When the map is displayed, simply click the "Bird's eye" link to view the hotel and its surroundings at close quarters - the camera does not lie! The zoom function can be used to examine all the relevant details such as the hotel building itself and its surroundings so nasty surprises on arrival can be avoided.

Warini Munshi, Managing Director at hotel.info hotel booking Ltd., reports on the positive feedback received from customers, "In many cases we have been able to point out the bird's eye view to help customers who have been unsure of the situation of their hotel. Since the function was introduced. the number of customer complaints relating to hotel locations has dropped significantly."

In addition to the bird's eye view the online reservation service at hotel.info also provides feedback from actual hotel guests. This ensures that those looking for accommodation can rely on the fact that the opinions are provided only by people who have actually stayed in the hotel in question. In many cases this gives much more information on matters such as cleanliness, customer service and the hotel surroundings than is available in official hotel descriptions -bearing in mind that hotel.info.now has over one million hotel reviews.