francophile03

Is anyone aware that she has a message board on her website www.cheapeatssleeps.com?
You can ask her questions about hotels and restaurants. But what surprised me is that she will not make any comments about establishments that are not featured in her books.
I asked her advice on a couple of hotels I am considering but she will not say anything one way or the other about the ones not listed in her book. I'm not sure why-maybe she doesn't want to be sued?
Just wondering.

elberko

I would imagine she would have enough trouble keeping up-to-date on the hotels in her guidebook. How many places could one person (or guidebook for that matter) know anything about?

Christina

I did see it and the purpose is for comments and questions on her book. She isn't running a general French advice board to answer all kinds of questions, even if they are about hotels, I'd say that's why. I think she is pretty busy as I know she has 3-4 hotel books alone. I think it's really kind of neat that she reads and answers questions on her own books.

Bree

Thanks for the tip about Sandra Gustafson's message board, francophile. I just took a look at the website, and I was interested to see that there's a "Not so great" section, in which she identifies hotels and restaurants that are recommended in her books, but that she no longer recommends (although she doesn't say why she's changed her mind about them, which would be interesting to know).

So in the future, if I'm thinking of booking a hotel or restaurant that I've seen in a Sandra Gustafson book, I'll be sure to check her website to make sure it hasn't been taken off the "recommended" list.

francophile03

Bree, I noticed she excluded a couple of Parisian hotels in her latest edition. I think you have to ask her then she may say why. I did ask her about the Hotel d'Angleterre why it wasn't included this time and she said that the owner is (her words) "a tightwad" and until she spends to fix up the hotel, it's not considered a good value in her opinion.