@Bokhara2: Your patience in responding to such questions (and the patience of other Fodorites or TA participants who respond) is to be commended. I wonder: If the requesters are so clueless about relevant needs, do they even know that booking.com exists or that it has so many screening options? I know it's not uncommon for people to start threads asking if it's reliable.

I know newbies are often told by regulars "go do some research first"... but I think they rightly believe that posting a question Fodors (or Trip Advisor or other travel forums) IS doing "research"

I try to take an approach of "here's my own experience" and let the original poster take it for what it's worth... But I will admit parameters like "won't break the bank" can drive me batty.

Ditto for "recommended activities" - when we don't know if they are 85 year old intrepid 10mile per day hikers , or 20 year olds who have difficulty climbing a flight of stairs, or somewhere in between.
Ditto for "must have 5 star" - in that case, I (try to) tell about features I like in a hotel, and that I don't really care about a 24hr front desk, or other official star rating features.

And that is why we ask the questions -lol!

"won't break the bank" = So approximiately how much do you mean per night, how many people do you need to sleep, and what level of hotel are you seeking?

"recommended activities" = Please give us a little more information about what you would like to do each day... number and ages of your group, fitness levels or any disabilities or limitations to consider, and general interests. For example, you'd want to go to ancient or historic sites, art museums, city parks, cemeteries, guided walking tours, cooking classes, cathedrals, hiking in the mountains, live music concerts, theater, opera, farmer's markets, street fairs?

One of the things I most appreciate about Fodors is that we are free to respond as we see fit. Some people are willing and able to spend a lot of time with specific posters, and of those Fodorites, some of you obviously know enough about various options to be responsive. Some of us take a different approach. Speaking only for myself, my time is too limited and too valuable (to me, at least) to try to help those who don�t or won�t do at least a little research (other than simply posing a question) on their own. I�m willing to direct people to useful sources of information � that�s my version of teaching someone to fish rather than giving them a fish, to paraphrase the old proverb. And like J62, I�m willing to share my own experience if it seems relevant.

I�m not criticizing anyone for the approach they take. Our approach to answering questions is as individual as our travel preferences, and individuality is something I treasure.

I could be wrong, but I don�t think further examples of the vague questions we�ve all seen will prove particularly valuable. My original question was about asking for budget ranges � information that I�ve already noted is not something I would ever provide in any detailed way on a public forum. Again, others are free to (and obviously do) take a different stance, and the answers provided on this thread have helped me understand why some of you feel comfortable asking for it. Thanks again for the insights!

If people do not like the questions that are being asked on a forum, it begs the question, why bother responding at all? People are free to ask whatever questions they like and and people are free to respond, or not, as they choose. If that response is just to suggest they go to booking.com/do some research first and come back/ post in this or that currency etc. is it any wonder that these forums see very little traffic?

Well, catch23, one reason I "got hooked" on Fodor's was because I learned about some tools that I find very helpful in trip planning through answers that various people provided on its forums. For example, I learned about insuremytrip.com, weatherspark.com, and rome2rio.com from Fodorites. It isn't just that people can ask what they want and respond as they choose -- people differ in what answers they find valuable.

Not sure I follow your logic? If people want to know about insurance, weather or transport , surely they will ask questions about those topics?

I am curious why a person would not share a budget range when they are asking for help with a hotel in a specific place. That does not seem like an overly personal question to me?

No sense me answering with my $100/night budget suggestions if they are looking for a 5-star $1000/night kind of place.

You seemed to question the value of directing a poster to another source to find the answer to a question and suggested that providing information about useful information sources would turn people away from Fodor's. But logically, informing people of available tools to answer their own questions can be as vailuable, and maybe even more valuable, than providing an answer that has no generalizability, and in at least one case -- mine -- it was information about potentially valuable resources that helped pull me to this site. Maybe the poster doesn't know about booking.com, or doesn't know if it's reliable, or doesn't realize how many filters it has....

Asked and answered. I find it TMI. You (and others) cam ask; posters can decide what to share.

Thank you kja. I guess I just don't understand how clairifying if you want a 1-star or a 5-star hotel, would be considered "TMI". And usually you/we don't have to ask. Because if people are asking about hotels they most likely already know to give some kind of clues about the kind of place they are seeking.

suze, price ranges and star ratings are hardly the same thing. For one thing, hotel “star” rating standards differ across different parts of the world. And luxury accommodations in, say, Cambodia or Romania are not likely to cost the same as luxury accommodations in Singapore or NYC.

You don’t need to understand my position. You don’t need to agree with my position. And honestly, you don’t need to belabor the point. My recommendation -- which I sincerely hope you will accept -- is to let this thread die quietly.

"You seemed to question the value of directing a poster to another source". You are making assumptions about the question I asked and what you think I need to know, rather than responding to the question I actually asked.

If questions are unclear, then surely it is better to ask for clarification rather than make assumptions about what you think they mean, or you think they should be asking.

You say in your initial post that you would "never come to Fodors for lodging recommendations". That's fine, but others are entitled to ask whatever questions they want so why not just provide answers to those that do and ask supplementary questions if you feel they haven't provided enough information? I really struggle to see what possible use hotel budget information could be to a hacker.

@ catch23: How interesting that you say you want to answer people's questions as directly as possible, and yet you don't seem to be doing that with my question -- or rather, you gave your answer and now are simply repeating it and questioning my approach to participating in this forum.

To repeat myself: People can ask what they want. People can reply as they choose.

My thanks to those who replied to my question.

kia - I re-read your post #30. I didn't answer your question for one simple reason - you didn't ask one..

See the title of the thread.