Q: Before we make travel plans, we check latest customer comments on travel advice websites. We won’t name them, but recently we’ve heard one refused to publish negative reviews and reports of physical dangers to travelers. Do the sites censor complaints because it means lost income to their client hotels, resorts, cruise lines and other travel businesses? Mrs. TLM, London UK

A: Of course, the main incentive for all in the travel industry is to keep tourists and cash coming in. Several years ago, your travel4seniors.com editor awoke after a night in a Las Vegas hotel to finding the bed infected by biting bedbugs.

The staff reacted by sending a security guy up with an old Polaroid camera to take idiotically blurry photos of the evidence. Then the desk manager generously offered us another room on the same floor down the hall. We just packed up and left. When we tried to post the experience on several travel advice websites, it never appeared.

Before you make your next travel plans, check with a trusted local travel agent, as well as with friends and family. Get good and/or bad info from people who’ve had experience with your destination hotel, including cleanliness, unexpected costs, personal safety and other issues.