On Course: Unvarnished hotel reviews

Q I'm looking for unbiased information about hotels. Do you have any suggestions on where to start?

A User-generated hotel reviews are notoriously difficult to trust, says travel expert Pauline Frommer in a blog entry for Bing.com. That's because hotel marketers often pay people to write and post fake reviews. And ordinary travelers usually only stay in one place in any given location, which makes it tough for them to definitively declare that the hotel they are writing about is "the best in the city."

Oyster.com may change that. The website sends out anonymous reporters to sleep in the beds, interview guests and photograph their entire hotel experience. If the room service tray wasn't picked up during the night, you'll hear about it. Likewise if the gym isn't well equipped and has no windows. Frommer points out that Oyster.com still hasn't worked out the kinks when it comes to accurately reporting room prices, but if what you're looking for is a thorough idea of what it's like to stay at a wide range of hotels, it's a great resource. Oyster.com currently reviews hotels in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Jamaica, Aruba and the Dominican Republic.

Answers to travelers' questions appear in Travel weekly and every Monday at startribune.com/escape artists; send your question by e-mail to travel@startibune.com.

ELIZABETH LARSEN

ON DISPLAY: SHEBOYGAN, WIS.

In its new exhibit, "American Story," the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in downtown Sheboygan presents works by 15 artists who give voice and vision to the American experience. Among the artists representing a cross-grain of that experience: a Cuban-American who creates installations, a hobo whittler, a Navajo medicine man, a Minnesota painter and a New York sculptor. The exhibit continues through Dec. 30. This Friday, visitors can also get in on the Big Sheboygan Shebang, "a hilarious and heartfelt vaudevillian extravaganza celebrating the diverse people and culture of Sheboygan," according to the Arts Center website, www.jmkac.org.

CATHERINE PREUS

FAST FACT

Around the world, three people check into a Holiday Inn every second. Now the company, with more than 3,200 hotels and 419,000 guest rooms, has undertaken the largest overhaul in hospitality history. The "rebrand" includes things like new beds, pillows and lobby design, new service training for staff and a new logo. Hotel guests may also notice something subtly different about the lobby, besides the updates and the new logo -- it's called "sensory branding," a scent and sound unique to Holiday Inn.

CATHERINE PREUS

BOOK BRIEF

It's always fun to see how your city appears on the big screen. In the entertaining "Film + Travel: North America, South America," eight writers offer their cinematic take of movie locations: San Francisco, New York, the South, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina and Chile. Some of the sites are iconic (scenes from Steve McQueen's "Bullitt," for example) while others are not as well known. And then there's that chameleon of a country, Canada, which often pretends to be something that it is not: Alberta filled in for Wyoming in "Brokeback Mountain"; Winnipeg as 1950s-era New York in "Capote," and Toronto for Chicago in "Chicago." A fun guide for cinemaphiles.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

SIDEROADS

You can dance, bop or tap your feet during the Great River Jazz Fest next weekend in La Crosse, Wis. Musicians and bands from around the country will perform Friday through next Sunday at the La Crosse Center Ballroom and Riverside Center South. And the music doesn't stop there. Around town visitors can check out after-hour jam sessions, a jazz parade, a jazz brunch and a Sunday jazz worship service at Riverside Park. Jazz memorabilia and other merchandise will also be for sale. Admission is $20 in advance, $22 at the gate (1-608-791-1190; www.lacrossejazz.com).

COLLEEN A. COLES