An observation about online reviews.

I was just looking at some hotel ratings on Yelp and Trip Advisor of a hotel I recently stayed at in Las Vegas and got a chuckle at folks complaining about slow check-in service late at night (The hotel in question is a nice hotel, not some no-tell motel.). Let's see, the majority of guests show up in the afternoon and early evening, so hotels will have more clerks during those times. So if you're showing up at 1 am to check-in, don't be surprised if the hotel only has one or two desk clerks working at that time. If you're expecting five star service at a three or four star hotel, you're going to be disappointed. If you're expecting it at a two star hotel, you're going to be in for a rude awakening. If you want five star service, you've got to spend the $$$ for a place that is a five star establishment. Don't book at a Holiday Inn Express and expect the Mandarin Oriental. If you don't want to have to wait in a line to check-in, plan your arrival time better.

I've walked past my fair share of front desks in the middle of the night while out in Las Vegas (either coming in for the night or hitting the desk to check out and head to the airport for a 6 am flight) and the most desk clerks I've seen working is two, even at major hotels on the Strip. In some cases, it's just one person. I've stayed at hotels that seemed to never have more than one person working the check-in desk, even in the middle of the afternoon.

Personally, I don't take a lot of stock in user reviews on sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, etc., unless there is a definite pattern in the reviews. If the recent reviews (within the last 60-90 days) tend to skew a certain way, I'd tend to believe them, especially if it's a swing from earlier reviews. If there's a overly glowing review in a sea of average or below average reviews, or a savagely negative one in a sea of above average or average reviews, I tend to look at them as either planted reviews or we're not getting the entire story (Folks will tend to leave out details, especially when said details makes them look bad.). As the saying goes, "your mileage may vary".