A FEW years ago, we made the mistake of looking up the name of the hotel we were due to fly off to on a certain well-known website.

My parents had selected the venue, and were treating us to a two-week break, a fact which should obviously have made us very happy indeed.

How many people get to enjoy 14 days of sunny Spain without having to provide anything but their spending money?

Unfortunately, however, our excitement quickly evaporated as we read some of the reviews British holidaymakers had left about the location.

And the more we read, the more we dreaded going to what was, judging by these reports, some form of hell-hole where no one in their right mind would choose to spend any time.

By the time we were through with reading these write-ups, we were thoroughly depressed and, if I’m honest, we were absolutely dreading leaving our home comforts for somewhere so dingy, smelly and loud.

Of course, as I am sure you’ll have worked out, the hotel in question turned out to be completely fine. It was just as its official rating – it was a three star establishment – had indicated and the food, about which the reviewers had been particularly damning, was absolutely great.

We have just returned from another Costa del Sol break with my mum and dad, another trip they organized and paid for – we are very fortunate indeed.

We went to a different hotel and this time, we looked at the reviews of the place after we had returned, checking them out just out of curiosity because we’d had such a good experience.

We sat, jaws dropping, reading badly spelled and factually inaccurate rants about a place which in no way resembled the fantastic family hotel we’d returned from a few days before.

The one star diatribes were laughable to us, but it must cause no end of trouble for business owners; I do not know how they manage to reply so calmly and professionally to some of the comments written on this site, especially when what has been written is so unfair.

They must be heartbroken, especially when they’re the victim of a tirade in which someone is merely showboating with their review, demonstrating how much they can stick the knife in and how cleverly and sarcastically they can achieve it.

I certainly agree that it’s useful to hold service providers to account and it’s good that customers can get together to help each other out by recommending great places, sharing travel tips and wisdom.

They can warn others about dodgy establishments in order to avoid a Carry On Abroad-level disaster.

But, generally, reviews on some sites seem to carry a weight which is completely out of proportion; a serious minority of those who have used the facility or sampled the culture will have left the comments about the hotel, or film or book or piece of music, a fact which I think I tend to forget.

Next time I’m checking out a possible purchase, I might glance at the reviews to try and establish an overview, but, come the crunch, I think I’ll (try to) pay less attention to the words of strangers.