Pictures don’t always say a thousand words. Have you ever booked a hotel that looks great online, only to show up and find out you were completely misled? There are all kinds of phony marketing tactics designed to get you to click. We’ll show you everything to AVOID this weekend on The Travel Detective with Peter Greenberg. We’ve got the images the hotels want you to see next to the “real” pics that are taken without a wide-angle lens, professional lighting or PhotoShop manipulation.Check out this slideshow of some of the worst marketing tricks.
When looking online for a hotel, it’s common to see photos of spacious rooms and intimate pools. But more often than not, the hotel doesn’t look the same in person. In fact, hotels are known for “photo fake outs.” These are photos that show a hotel room looking more spacious than it really is, or they make a crowded beach at a mega resort look like a deserted oasis. With the help of Oyster.com we put together this collection of fake-out photos side by side with the read deal. Would you be fooled by these shots?
The image on the left is from L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. The hotel room is decorated in warm tones with a fake view of the George Washington Monument. Even though you can only see the beds, it’s easy to imagine that the room is fairly large.
But in reality, none of this is true. The room is smaller, the colors aren’t quite as homey and the view is of a rundown building.
