In a recent study, it was noted that in the UK, 73% more people went to hotel review websites than to hotel booking websites. This means that a much larger time is spent online researching the hotels and destinations before booking. Also, some of the bookings can and will happen offline, while most of the research (ignoring Rough guides) happens online.

There are a slew of hotel review websites in India. Tripadvisor leads the pack, but there are quite a few others – Raahi.com, Indianhotelreview.com and oktatabyebye.com.

The website generate a decent amount of traffic, but rue the fact that not enough people leave back comments. They point out the fact that Indians are more worried about basic amenities while a hotel review would tend to focus on a few addons which were liked by the reviewers. Lack of a personal PC could also be a reason, given that the cybercafe still remains the an important point of contact with the internet.

The cultural diversity of India means that reviews written by one set of people might not be relevant for another. A Bengali might not mind the meat market closeby but it might drive a vegetarian up the wall.

A few of these Indian websites report exceedingly negative comments – users do not bother when all goes well, but mess with their coffee or their Air conditioning and expect a long rant on one or more of these websites. Hotels beware – the online Indian hotel guest is here to stay. Though the business might be small for now, as with a lot of other models based on India’s growing online penetration and volume, its potential is not in doubt.

On a lighter note, click here to see an ingenious display of using the ubiquity of Google search for self promotion.