TripExpert.com

Are you sick of searching through crowdsourced hotel reviews while trying to figure out if the bed will be good enough? A solution is here.

» What it does: TripExpert assigns a hotel a score based on reviews in 20-plus publications, including guidebooks, magazines and newspapers. These include, but are not limited to, Travel & Leisure, Frommer’s, Fodor’s, Tablet, Michelin Guide, Lonely Planet and The New York Times. It features 500-plus destinations and continues to grow.

» What’s hot: If you are looking for a short list of distinctive hotels, you’ve come to the right place. Use the "Explore" section to find collections of Top Destinations and Top Hotels. Once you click on a destination (you also can jump to your city using the search bar), you’ll find a page of hotels with their scores, description and number of reviews. You can also filter by price (budget is less than $150, midrange is $150 to $300 and luxury is more than $300 a night). Click on the hotel’s page and you can read either an excerpt or the complete review in its original publication. You can locate the hotel on a map and see if rooms are available. If you’re ready to book, TripExpert leads you to online booking sites where you can make a reservation.

» What’s not: The ratings are too conservative, with wonderful hotels rated only in the 80s and low 90s. Who wants to stay at a hotel that’s an 80 when TripExpert’s scale goes to 100? It’s hard to consider a hotel that’s rated in the 80s and think of it as having anything more than a B grade.

Jen Leo, Los Angeles Times