Things to Consider When Booking a Hotel

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Topic: Hotels

Booking hotel accommodations is usually where travelers spend a bulk of their time when booking travel. The following tips will help make your stay more enjoyable and save you some time and money when you make those arrangements.

• Use Priceline and Hotwire to book your stay. Booking hotels through Priceline and Hotwire is the best way to get a nice hotel for a deeply discounted rate. The only drawback is you won’t be able to specify the exact hotel or location. But you can use a site like BiddingForTravel.com to get an idea of how much to bid and which hotel brands are available in the general areas you are interested.
• Use a deals listing site to find great lodging rates. You won’t actually book your accommodations through sites like Tripmonger or Travelzoo, but you will find out through their listings how to get amazing rates on lodging in major markets.
• Book your hotel with your flight and/or car using an online travel agency. You can often save a significant amount of money by buying a package deal from Expedia, Travelocity, or Orbitz. These large travel agencies have negotiated lodging rates you won’t get anywhere else, so they can offer you great discounts on the hotel portion of your package when you buy a package from them.
• Consider getting a vacation rental. Vacation rentals still provide the best bang for the buck, especially for large groups and families who need more space, longer stays, or a kitchen. Use Craigslist, VBRO.com, or HomeAway to find vacation rentals that can save a lot of money on a per person basis.
• Use a travel search engine as a comparison-shopping tool. The travel search engines, like Kayak and SideStep, find prices across multiple websites for the same property. It’s a good place to comparison shop and see which websites have the lowest prices. But keep in mind that they are not allowed to search all websites, like Expedia, Hotels.com, or Travelocity, so you should also run a search on those sites as well.
• Get candid feedback before booking. The most popular hotel reviews website is Tripadvisor. This is a great online resource to learn more about any given lodging establishment. The reviews will help you get an overall impression of the accommodations, but remember to take those reviews with a grain of salt, especially the really positive or negative ones.