How To Avoid Vacation Nightmares?

Vacations are taken all through the year and if planned or research properly the vacation can be wonderful, but if not it can become a nightmare. Dirty or out dated hotel rooms, bad food , poor customer service and vacations spots that don't live up to expectations are just some of the nightmares that a consumer can experience. How does one avoid these nightmares? Proper research! Which means reading the comments left by past guest or recent consumers and making sure that the company that you are doing business with is giving accurate information. The reason why these comments are so useful , is because they tend to be very truthful and reliable. It may also give you a peek into the hotel room , time share or vacation spot that you are planning on renting. Just a bit of advice (from personnel experience) never believe the comments or reviews left by the vendor or the company that's providing the service. Because in most cases they were written by their employee's or staff and are very over rated. How does one find these useful comments or opinions, that can help one avoid these nightmares? Use Google, Yahoo , Bing or other search engine sites, they allow their customer's to leave or post comments and tell people about their personnel experiences.
 As an extra benefit before checking in, I recommend that  you read about the companies cancellation policies , before checking in a hotel or before booking a trip with a travel agent or a online vendor. Doing so can save the average consumer money and it can also help them avoid becoming angry or from wasting their time. Shocking as this may sound, many hotels, travel agents or vacation planners such as Expedia or Priceline now charge the full amount upfront and in most cases you only have 24 hours to cancel. Also each vendor now offers a survey as a way of gaging their costumer service or experience with their company. Please answer them honestly and if you have had a bad or good experience with that particular vendor, vacation spot or hotel. As a courtesy for future vacationers, one should leave comments on the companies website or search engines. That way you can help or aid others make their decision when choosing a hotel, vacation service, travel agent or website.  How to avoid vacation nightmares? By being smart, doing some research and checking things out first, before jumping in head first.
Have a wonderful vacation,
Chuck