Rooms for review

Writing your own hotel reviews and posting them on the net is really beginning to take off. For a while now, sites like tripadvisor.com or igougo.com have allowed us to say what a place is really like. The trouble is that they speak with a heavy American accent.

That could be about to change with the launch of the first UK site to offer similar peer reviews. Promising "unbiased hotel reviews by British travellers", diytravel.co.uk sells some cheap accommodation, while leaving the ratings and the reviews to people who have actually stayed there. It also offers a few innovations: not only can you upload your own images or send questions to the proprietors, you can also quiz your fellow users, ensuring that the network is robust enough to stop any unscrupulous hotel owners giving their own places top marks.

Book ahead

The 59th Cannes Film Festival (festival-cannes.fr) doesn't start until May 17. Even though the festival proper is strictly invite only, tickets for the Directors' Fortnight (quinzaine-realisateurs.com, runs from May 18-28), are open to all. Book today and you can still find easyJet (easyjet.com) flights to nearby Nice for under £75 return. Alas, the cheap accommodation in Cannes has already been taken, but a beachfront double at the Syracuse Hotel in the neighbouring town of Villeneuve-Loubet (booked via bootsnall.com), is available of £48 per night during Directors' Fortnight.

· All prices correct at time of going to press.