Trip advisor is great and their forums are particularly helpful when travelling o/seas. You just have to be careful with the reviews as they tend to run a little 'bi polar', extremes in opinions. You tend to get either the guests who were extremely pleased or the guests who were extremely disappointed, but the guest photos are very helpful, great to see what a hotel looks like from the perspective of a guest and not a professional photographer.

I have used Tripadvisor prior to booking holidays for the past few years and have found it to be an excellent resource. It is so hard to tell what a hotel will really be like as most booking sites will make it sound great and use the most flattering pics . At least this way you can read about other peoples experiences and get a more realistic idea before making a booking.

Approximate cost: $free

Easy site to navigate,with alot of information to make researching easy.Opinions of others a easy to see,which also helps with the decsion making.Good amount of choice to compaer prices and info.

This website is fantastic!! If you are going on holiday this should be your first stop! It has just about every hotel you could think off! Its really great to get a feel of the place you are going to, and see if you ahould indeed go!