Google reviews can mislead and be fatal

You land in a new city, scout for a decent place to stay for a night or two. What would you do? We live in a feedback economy, our decisions and choices are derived by the reviews in various sites and Google being the primary one. Businesses today are built on the kevlar of star ratings.

Look at this place in Secunderabad, India.

An innocuous wayfarer may be tempted to usher into this place for a night sleep and nothing to blame for the choice. But wait beware, what these reviews hide is more than what they reveal especially in Indian context, where rules and regulation are bent with impunity.

Fait accompli last Monday night this place got engulfed in smoke, killing 9 travellers, choking them to death, as misfortune would have it one of my close friend lost his brother in the mishap.

Though we have to accept this as fait accompli, the callousness with which this place has been designed has to be called out. The hotel is top of an electric bike showroom, the basement is used as godown, garage for electric bikes. Apparently there is no fire stair case, sprinklers weren’t working, and there’s just a single point to enter and exit the building, a recipe for disaster in the waiting.

On that fateful night chaos ensued when an electric bike caught fire setting off a series of explosions to near by vehicles in the basement. Though fire didn’t spread up, thick black toxic fumes billowed up and engulfed the building leading to asphyxiation and death of 9 people.

Google has been enriching maps and adding new things like products, services, menu, messenger etc. It may be prudent to add safety measures in place in the building so that the next weary traveller is not blindsided by the shining reviews and walk into their death trap.

Before the advent of smart phones, remember those old days where booking a hotel means to go and visit the place, inspect the room before making a booking. Though not practical in this feedback driven and busy era, older ways of first hand inspection and getting a hang of the place may have worked better, because those untold, unseen, unheard things like fire exits, safety features, accessibility may best be gauged by our own eyes. I was passing by this hotel yesterday and took the above pictures, what reviews conveyed and what I see were in contrast. Yes the hotel had impeccable service, great rooms, nice staff etc., but it was very glaring that safety has taken a second seat here, there was no external fire exit, there’s no space between this building and the next one and having an e-bike garage in the basement is a sure shot sign of callousness and temerity to throw safety out in the winds.

So next time it’s better to check reviews and still be wary before making a final call just based on shiny star rating widgets.