There was a day when you travel, maybe for work or maybe a family vacation, and at the end of the day you'd stop and look for a motel or hotel. Whatever town you might be in, you'd check around, maybe ask someone at a local cafe, and check into whichever one you could find.

And maybe it was good. And maybe it wasn't. In fact, most of them were just fine, clean and roomy, a nice shower and heck, if you were lucky...free HBO!

These days it's a lot simpler. Just jump online and use one of the, oh, thousand or so hotel/motel 'finder' sites. Doesn't matter which you use, seems like they all claim to have the best places at the best prices. Or maybe just Google the town you'll be staying in and find a great hotel/motel that way.

But if you're an old skeptical dog like me and still might not trust what you read and see online, well here are five red flags to look out for the next time you're booking a hotel or motel online. Because they're all signs the place might be worse than it looks.

1.  The photos of the rooms were shot with a fisheye lens.  It usually means they're trying to make the rooms look big, when they're actually tiny.

They might also post an artsy close-up of a vase in the lobby, but no photos of the ACTUAL lobby, because it's old and run-down.

2.  The website looks like it's straight out of the '90s.  If they haven't updated their website in 20 years, they probably haven't updated their hotel either.

3.  The manager posts nasty responses to bad reviews on Yelp.  Obviously the reviews themselves are worth reading.  But if the owner or manager is disrespectful online, he's probably not a ray of sunshine in person either.

4.  The website talks a lot about the area, but doesn't say much about the building or the amenities.  Chances are it's because there isn't much about the place that's worth mentioning.  If there was, they'd have it in there.

5.  See if it's listed on "The Bed Bug Registry".  Run the address through BedBugRegistry.com, and it should tell you if anyone's reported bed bugs there.  Obviously a decent hotel shouldn't have those kinds of issues.

 

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