Why I Don’t Book Cheap Hotels Anymore, Especially On Travel Sites

Last time I arrived in Paris, the city of light and love, it was horrible. After a great train ride from Amsterdam, and looking forward to a few relaxing days in Paris I arrived at the wrong hotel. There turned out to be two hotels, with exactly the same name. Thanks, Expedia. Travel gone wrong. The first one, where I showed up, met all the expectations – just as the reviews and online pictures had suggested. The other one, the one I apparently had booked, did not – by any means. It was a dump, to put it nicely. Registration didn’t even involve checking identification, which is more or less an industry standard at this point. It made me wonder what this hotel was used for mostly. They probably had an unadvertised hourly rate, too.

The room was nothing short of the looks and smells of a brothel. Nothing like the love and light I expected of Paris. We left within five minutes – lost and confused like in a bad love affair. Paris will do that to you. I was tired and had no idea where to go…