For my stay in Utah, I wall be staying at the Salt Lake City Marriott City Center. When looking for restaurants I always search with these factors in mind: distance, pricing, customer reviews, and menu selection. So, I went directly to google and searched 84111 (hotel’s area code), Italian Restaurants. Distance is always the number one factor for me. I can save money on transportation and/or gas if I can walk to the restaurant. The search showed a little over a dozen Italian restaurants that I would be able to walk to in minutes. Usually when traveling I like to keep a budget. Therefore, I typically go for locations that have a casual setting because they are often less expensive.

One thing I love about google searching restaurants, is that you can filter the search to your specific wants and needs. So, I filtered my search from $(very inexpensive) to $$$ (about moderately priced). This narrowed down the selection to about have of what the original search showed. I then filtered my search even more by using ratings. I only wanted restaurants that had at least four-star overall ratings from customers. I’m a firm believer in rating and reviews. After all the filtering, three restaurants stood out to me: Stoneground Italian Kitchen, Cannella’s, and Vento Ristorante Italiano.

My next step was to look at the menus to see the selections and pricings. This is when I noticed Cannella’s was temporarily closed. This left me with only two options. Both were in walking distance and had above average ratings. However, while looking at the menus I noticed that Stoneground did not have wine on the menu. Because of this I choose to dine at Vento Ristorante Italiano. This restaurant met all my needs. It was a little more expensive and farther than Stoneground, but they served wine and had more desserts to choose from.

During this process I realized how picky consumers can be. I never realized how often I filter my searches when ever I’m looking to shop or travel. Companies like google, expedia, and amazon have these filters so that the needs of almost any consumer can be met. Everyone’s preferences and standards are different. Someone could do the exact same search as I did and end up dining at a completely different restaurant.