Jun. 23, 2003 - Hotel gossip is hot stuff. Unfortunately, there's not enough of it on the Web. 

Tracking down basic information on a hotel is easy. Any number of websites offer information on prices and availability, as well as a rundown of amenities, from pools to spas to restaurants and business services. But finding out from travelers who have actually been to a hotel whether the property is clean or dirty, the staff helpful or rude, is not so easy. 

Professional reviews tend toward the bland, while there are rarely enough of the blunt user reviews to give you a true sense of whether you should want to stay at the hotel or stay away from it. It seems a lot of travelers like to read the dirt, but few take the time to actually dish it. 

Stephen Kaufer, the president of Needham-based TripAdvisor.com, says user reviews are the best-read section of his website, which specializes in bringing together all relevant Web information on a destination, a hotel, or a theme park. He says the public's fascination with user reviews is surprising, given how little is known about the reviewers. Yet that is where visitors to his site head first, he said. 

"The trick is getting enough for any specific property," Kaufer said. 

TripAdvisor gives you a point of view. It assembles user reviews, guidebook reviews, and any other available commentary on the Web to build a popularity index for hotels in a given area. The top-ranked hotel is not necessarily the best hotel, but it is the one that has had the most positive and least negative things written about it. 

That's why the Greater Boston YMCA and the Boston International Hostel (ranked numbers 46 and 49, respectively, out of 99 in the Boston popularity index) are ahead of many hotels charging as much as $200 a night. 

Fodors.com also offers an opinion. It assigns a 0-5 ranking to every hotel, provides a brief review, and dishes up a smattering of traveler raves and rants, which are helpful if a bit dated at times. 

Overall, however, there are not a lot of consumer reviews on the Web. Wheretostay.com seems to be attracting a following, although its focus is strictly the Caribbean and Hawaii. Sites like HotelShark.com and ZoomandGo.com, which specialize in amateur analysis, have very little to offer so far. Concierge.com, which is affiliated with Conde Nast Traveler, offers hotel reviews that are so innocuous that it's virtually impossible to tell one hotel from another. 

To see what kind of inside information is out there, I selected five hotels in Boston that are not part of big-name chains and then scoured a number of websites looking for insights. 

The Eliot Hotel, at 370 Commonwealth Ave., did the best in my survey. It ranked 11th out of 99 on TripAdvisor's popularity index, garnered three stars from Frommers.com, and scored four out of a possible five from Fodors.com. DigitalCity.com called the Eliot an "understated gem." 

Consumer reviews, though, were fairly scarce. TripAdvisor had three positive reviews, including one in January from the general manager of another hotel who said he always looks for flaws when he visits other properties. "I could not find one thing wrong," he said. 

DigitalCity and Fodors.com also had a handful of positive consumer reviews, although Susan from southern New England ranted on Fodors that "the person who helped with our bags needed deodorant." HotelShark, ZoomandGo, and Epinions had nothing. 

The Lenox Hotel, at 61 Exeter St., also did well. It ranked number 12 on TripAdvisor's popularity index, posted two stars on Frommers, and snared a score of 3.7 from Fodors. There was also a little infighting between amateur reviewers on Fodors, with Harriet of Atlanta claiming that she got ptomaine poisoning from a room service meal at the Lenox while Sharon from England described her stay there as "brilliant." Epinions gave the Lenox five stars based on just one consumer review. 

The Fairmont Copley Plaza, at 138 St. James Ave., ranked 17th on TripAdvisor's popularity index, received two stars from Frommers, and was given a score of 3.3 by Fodors. The rants and raves on Fodors ran the gamut. James from Newport said, "I believe there are nicer prison cells than this room." But Marla from Los Angeles said she was "pleased overall." 

DigitalCity had eight user reviews, most of them positive. Trip Advisor had two. Epinions gave the hotel five stars based on two reviews, the most recent from May 2002. 

The Colonnade Hotel, at 120 Huntington Ave., ranked 35th on TripAdvisor's popularity index, had two stars from Frommers, and posted a score of 2.5 from Fodors. DigitalCity called the Colonnade "the personification of style." Consumer reviews were a mixed bag, everything from "Beantown Bliss" on TripAdvisor to Michael from Maine on Fodors who suggested the hotel seemed to be in desperate need of an update. 

Judging from the reviews, and there were a lot of them for a change, the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, at 64 Arlington St., may have some work to do. It ranked 79th on the TripAdvisor popularity index, received one star from Frommers, and scored 2.6 on Fodors. There were 31 user reviews on TripAdvisor, a mix of good and very bad. The more recent postings on Fodors, though, were generally raves. 

Maria from London, for example, called the hotel fantastic, but Simon Jones, also from England, called it "massively overpriced." Hotelshark finally had two generally positive reviews, while Epinions gave the hotel four stars based on five reviews. The biggest knock? Thin walls. 

Bruce Mohl can be reached at [email protected]. 

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