stories about independent travel every day becomes more and more. And no wonder! To choose a tour that meets all your wishes, it is better to think through every detail and create it yourself. Here the question arises: “How and where to book a hotel on your own?” Today, there are a lot of hotel booking services. Among the top systems, one can note the largest and well-known Booking.com, also gaining popularity in Russia and Europe Agoda.com, Hotels.com, Hotelbook.com, hrs.com and other sites. You determine the parameters of the trip - the site issues guaranteed rooms. It remains only to book, indicating your personal data.
If you are an avid traveler, then most likely many of our tips how to rent a cheap hotel you know. But I think a couple of life hacks will be useful even for the most experienced, not to mention novice tourists. In this article, we will consider the algorithm of actions for finding accommodation, popular and not so popular services, as well as select promotions, discounts and promotional codes for hotels.
Check the list!
Always check hotels through several services. Remember that every site has its strengths and weaknesses. Consider a specific example (Let the point of our journey be Vietnam, Hanoi). In the review I will consider those sites that I often use myself.
Hotels | Hotellook | Agoda | Booking
Early booking of hotels
A popular way to rent a hotel cheaply - earlier booking. True or not? Partly yes, partly no. Here you need to take into account seasonality and holidays, if you are planning a trip during a “hot” period, then only earlier booking. Let's consider our case. First, choose a hotel 2 months before the trip:
Not a bad hotel with 3 stars and a good rating of 8,8 in the very center. This result was given by the RoomGuru search engine. As you can see, he checked all the sites and offered to book through Agoda, the price is $37, and the popular Booking is $43.
The same version of the hotel, but for tomorrow's date already costs $ 352 per night. So the first tip is booking hotels early is often a good way to save money.
Promotions and super offers
У каждого сайта по бронированию отелей есть свои супер предложения для отдельных регионов. Это может быть личная договоренность с отелем на специальную акцию. Найти такой вариант не очень сложно, к примеру Agoda выводит такие предложения в самом начале.
A very tempting offer, isn't it? Therefore, always check the promotions before booking! At Agoda и Booking they are especially attractive, but not always.
Cashbacks and loyalty cards
Забронировать отель дешево может не получится по многим причинам, тогда на помощь приходит совет номер 3 – используйте системы лояльности. Сейчас про кэшбек слышали уже пожалуй все. Многие банки предлагают такую услугу по своим карточкам и советуем не отказываться! Если есть возможность экономить от 1 до 5% на туризме, то почему и нет? Тем более сейчас большинство платежей совершается онлайн. Помимо карточек банков, есть и кэшбек-сервисы. Совершая бронирования через них, вы получите назад на счёт какую-то сумму денег, небольшой, но плюс.
Alternative
There are such tourist destinations where it is unrealistic to book a hotel on your own and inexpensively. There is always a large flow of tourists, and therefore even for a cheap room you will have to pay a lot. What to do? Consider an alternative renting an apartment or room. And of course there will come to the rescue airbnb, so you can, for example, stay in the center Barcelonabut for a reasonable amount.
Tip 5 - buy a package tour
There are countries where it is much cheaper to buy a tour than to book a hotel on your own. Hence tip number 5 and the way how rent a hotel inexpensive is consider a package tour.
It often happens that in certain regions it is cheaper to buy a package at once (Flight + Hotel). Vietnam - this is a country where hotels are not very expensive, but flights are cheap. Plus there are not so many direct flights. But buying a tour, you can decently save. Where to look for a package tour? The list below:
Online tours | LevelTravel | Trevalata
Aggregators to find the best hotel price
It is unlikely that you get pleasure when, when buying something, you realize that you have notably overpaid. And during the holiday season, when you need to book a hotel, tickets, and even postpone for entertainment, it becomes a shame from your hindsight. When choosing from dozens of hotels, it is important to compare prices on several portals. To keep the situation under control and not throw your money away, you need to have a “weapon” with you. They may become hotel booking service, which covers several booking systems and provides a list with prices for each of them. There are not as many search aggregators on the Internet as booking systems, but you also have to choose from them.
Perhaps we will name the top three winners in the nomination “best hotel meta search engine”. They became RoomGuru, Trivago and Hotellook. Each of them offers a wide hotel base, a user-friendly interface and meets the main goal - finding the best price.
How do these services work?
A meta search engine that combines hotel booking offers from more than 50 verified booking systems. Services allows compare prices to hotel rooms on different platforms. Often they cooperate with such giants as Booking.com, Hotels.com, Ostrovok.ru, Agoda.com and many others, providing up-to-date information about rooms and their prices.
The RoomGuru database of hotels has more than 1,2 million options. Finding the right hotel helps convenient search filter. You can search for a hotel on the site by location, type, amenities and services provided by accommodation facilities. You can use the assessment of tourists about the hotel or recommendations about food, proximity to shops and attractions, design in the hotel.
You do not need to waste time and open each hotel search engine separately, just enter the necessary data in the selection window and get the best price for the hotel you have chosen.
One of the benefits of this service is catalogue, which accommodates not only hotels, but also hostels, apartments and guest houses, among which there is definitely your option. Metasearch engines work with hotels and directly, allowing you to book a room first-hand. Try to find an option for your trip.
For example from personal experience:
2 nights in Palanga on booking -142$
2 nights across the islet - $112 in the same hotel. It definitely makes sense to use a meta search engine, at least in order to find the really best prices.
Independent travel is much more interesting, you think over where to go and what to see. Of course, you need to look for hotels yourself, but search engines help, and you can find an acceptable price. Thanks for the hint on search engines.