A Review of Hotel Secrets by Peter Greenberg

Learn How to Bargain for Good Hotel Rooms With the Travel Detective

Oct 4, 2009

Get the best hotel deals for the best rooms. Travel Detective Peter Greenberg reveals secrets in the hotel business, but is this book the best solution for readers?

Hotel Secrets by the Travel Detective claims that it will reveal insider tips from bed and breakfasts and hotels. The author suggests that readers use travel agents to book their hotel rooms because travel agents have insider's knowledge. He left out a major point. Many sites that book rooms have sections where people can review the rooms. How about reading reviews from actual guests? Word of mouth recommendations or criticisms from actual guests do carry some weight.

Getting the Best Hotel Deals

Readers want to know how to get cheap hotel rooms, and the author does a good job in explaining how rooms are priced and how to get the best price for a hotel stay. The author, Peter Greenberg, states that online deals from third party sellers may not be the best deal and urges readers to check with websites that are directly owned by the hotels. It is definitely worth any future hotel guest's time to read Chapter 2, Who Do You Trust?

Anyone who is planning a hotel stay should read Chapter 7, What Housekeepers Won't Tell You, because this chapter discusses cleanliness in hotels. Because the staff usually have limited time to clean the rooms, sometimes the rooms are not well-cleaned.

Greenberg gives great advice on what to do to make sure that guests have a cleaner hotel room. In that same chapter, however, he rants about some efforts for hotels to become more environmentally friendly without passing the savings on to guests. Should hotels reduce the number of times that they clean towels to save the environment? Well, that's up to the guest to decide. He does, however, suggest ways that he feels hotels can help the environment.

Hotel Secrets does share insights that the average guest will not be aware of, such as how hotels are priced and how to negotiate for the best deal. Those are the good parts, the information that readers want to know. There are, however, parts of the book that may not be of interest to some readers.

There is an entire chapter devoted to what the concierge does and secrets related to the concierge. If guests would like to research the length of time that a concierge has worked at a hotel, they can go right ahead, but Greenberg wants to make sure that hotel guests get what they pay for. The information is slightly interesting, but it's hardly a secret that a good concierge can point a guest to the good stuff and at the more expensive hotels, an experienced concierge has connections.

Therefore, there is some information that readers may find to be extraneous. It would be difficult to read the entire book cover to cover unless the reader is truly interested in most aspects of the hotel industry.

Hotel Secrets is an acceptable read to learn some of the ins and outs of the hotel business, and the book is worth reading to learn how to get the best hotel rooms for the best price. Perhaps readers can get the best deal on the book by checking it out at a local library or buying it from a used book dealer.

The copyright of the article A Review of Hotel Secrets by Peter Greenberg in Travel Books is owned by Claudine Williams. Permission to republish A Review of Hotel Secrets by Peter Greenberg in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.