By Steve Rhodes
Q. What’s wrong with this picture?
A. Reality.
This is the work of Oyster Hotel Reviews, which celebrates its one-year anniversary this summer and is the brainchild of Skokie native Elie Seidman, who now lives in New York City. (Seidman’s father is still a materials science professor at Northwestern.)
Oyster’s undercover sleuths go under the covers at hotels around the country to ferret out the truth about some of our finer establishments; their photos comparing marketing materials to reality is my favorite part of the site.
I spoke briefly to Elie Seidman this week. Here’s a transcript edited for clarity.
Beachwood: What gave you the idea for the site? Did you have a bad travel experience or something?
Seidman: Yes! I booked a hotel through Expedia in the fall of 2007 – in Seward, Alaska. It was at the end of a multiday trip. Had a great time but I drive up to the hotel and it was just a disaster. That was really the impetus for the site.
Think about it: Hotels are this product you can’t see before you buy and you can’t return once you get there.
And nobody is doing professional reviews; nobody is basically vetting this stuff. This boils the whole thing down to its essence.
Beachwood: Has any specific hotel or any particular chain responded?
Seidman: No, they ignore us.
Beachwood: Has any sued or threatened to sue?
Seidman: No.
Beachwood: Well, it’s not like they would have anything actionable. But to flip it around, are the doing anything illegal, violating a Fair Trade Practices Act or something?
Seidman: No . . . they’re basically just dressing it up. And it’s about omissions – what are they removing from their photos. And our reviewers see things they haven’t taken photos off. A tiny lobby. A tiny pool. Yeah, they have a jacuzzi but it fits only one person. And it’s by the Dumpster.
Beachwood: Is there a particular chain that misrepresents itself more than most? Have you established any patterns?
Seidman: No. There’s good hotels and great hotels and bad hotels. But even with the good hotels, there’s nuance.
Beachwood: Is there a chain that always seems to live up to its billing?
Seidman: Kimpton does a pretty good job. A great job. The photos don’t lie.
Beachwood: Who are your reviewers?
Seidman: We’ve hired, over time, people with some sort of reporting background. We train them to do photography, we have reviewing standards . . .
Beachwood: Are they full-time or on contract?
Seidman: We had staffers at one point; now it’s freelance.
Beachwood: Have your reporters ever gotten grief over taking photos?
Seidman: Yes! In Las Vegas, at Green Valley Ranch. They had a reality series there, one of the guys died of an overdose. They’re very finicky about their image now. They literally just shut us down. Big security guards came over to our reviewer and aggressively made sure she wasn’t taking photos.
Beachwood: But your reviewers are undercover, so to speak, right? So they just got suspicious seeing someone taking photos?
Seidman: Yes. The Four Seasons in New York too, very sensitive. But it happens infrequently.
Beachwood: On your website you have a select focus on a few cities. Any plans to expand to Chicago?
Seidman: It’s on the list, if only to appease my parents! There’s a bunch of cities we want to do before the end of the year.
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See also:
* The Washington Post’s “Secret Hotel Reviewers Get The Lowdown For Travelers”
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Comments welcome.
Posted on April 16, 2010