Master Your Money With Our Accommodation Booking Tips
Accommodation is an integral part of any trip and with so much choice out there now it can be hard to find the right place to rest your head. We’ve compiled this guide to help save you money, as well as find best the place for you.
Decide What Accommodation Best Suits Your Needs
Before we get into how to get the best deal on a hotel, apartment or hostel we’ve listed out the different types of accommodation with the pros and cons for each. We stay at a mixture of different types of accommodation depending on where we’re staying and how long we’re staying for. There are hundreds of choices when it comes to choosing where to stay so you need to decide what option is best for you and then book it for the best possible price!
Hotels
Hotels are the most popular and obvious choice and they will usually provide towels, bathroom products and fresh laundry daily. Many hotels will offer breakfast and will have at least one restaurant serving dinner. There will almost always be a front desk with a reception team who can help with questions about the local area, book you a taxi or deal with a complaint if something isn’t right.
Hotels are a convenient choice and due to the level of competition at most destinations the prices will usually be very competitive. There are a huge number of websites to book hotels through. Our favourites are booking.com and Expedia, but we also like using DirectRooms or Trivago which searches through all the top hotel booking websites to show which one is offering the best rate for your dates. If travelling to China then Trip.com is a great way to save money on hotels as it often offers places that aren’t available on other sites.
Apartments Or Private Homes
What if you fancy a bit more space than a hotel room can usually provide? Look into booking an apartment as they can be bigger and cheaper than a hotel whilst giving you that home away from home feeling. An apartment will also allow you more flexibility, you’ll be able to prepare packed lunches, cook your own meals and do your laundry — you can still dine out but you’ll have the freedom to decide if and when you want to, plus you’ll save a ton of money on restaurant bills! Some apartments will provide towels and bathroom products, but many won’t so be sure to check this out when deciding what you need to pack.
If there are more than two of you in your party then an apartment or house rental is bound to be cheaper than booking several, separate hotel rooms. Sites like Airbnb offer a huge range of options with many different filter options to help narrow down your search. You can usually get weekly or monthly discounts too so this is a great option if you are staying in the same place for a week or more.
Private Rooms
Many websites, such as Airbnb, that list apartments and whole homes will also list private rooms that are in peoples homes or holiday homes. These rooms can often be very cheap to book, but you may need to share the bathroom, living areas and kitchen with other guests. If you’re on a budget and will be out and about most of the time this is usually a great option, but just ensure you read the full description of the room so you know how many people you may be sharing facilities with.
Hostels
Hostels are usually one of the cheapest option when it comes to accommodation, especially if you are staying in a dorm room where you may be sharing with 8–10 other people. Some hostels will only provide this type of sharing accommodation, but many will also provide private double or twin rooms. Often in private rooms you will still need to share the bathroom in the hostel, but some rooms do also come with private bathrooms — the cost for this will often be the same price as a budget hotel though.
House Or Pet Sitting
House or pet sitting is on the rise and is usually a very cheap type of accommodation. It usually involves joining a community type website like Trusted House Sitters or Mind My House and there will be a joining fee to pay in order to set up a profile. You will normally need to be flexible with your dates and sometimes be available for a longer term let, but often the accommodation will be free in return for looking after someone’s home or their pet while they are away on holiday. The one-off joining fee usually works out to be good value for money even if you just use the service one or two times a year.
Camping
Consider camping and these days that doesn’t always have to mean in a tent! There’s a huge number of boutique camping sites popping up all over the world and many now offer the same level of facilities you’d expect from a hotel or apartment. There’s everything from tents, glamping pods and eco-pods to fully kitted out log cabins! Another option to consider is hiring a campervan or car with a pop-up tent on the roof and then stop at campsites while on the road.
We even camped on the Great Wall of China!
How To Save Money On Hotels & Alternative Accommodation
So you have decided what type of accommodation is best for your trip, now lets delve into tips on how to save money and get the best deals on where you have chosen to stay.
Choose To Stay In Shoulder Or Low Season
You’ve probably heard of the term shoulder season, this is the travel period between a destinations peak and off-peak seasons. In peak season hotels and resorts will increase their prices due to high demand and lower them in off-peak season which is usually in line with the destinations worst weather. Shoulder season however is less crowded and still has favourable weather along with great deals on accommodation, car hire and flights. If you book your hotel in low season this can cut costs as much as 40%, fewer people travel in these periods so hotels have to drop their rates in order to pull in more business.
Whatever time of year you stay consider staying mid-week as weekends are nearly always busier and more expensive times to stay with the exception of business hotels.
Research If There Are Big Events, Festivals Or Public Holidays
Before booking any trip it always worth researching if there are any big festivals or events during the time you want to stay, whilst also checking for school or public holidays and conventions — any of these will increase the price of accommodation and the amount of people wanting to stay there. Unless you specifically want to be somewhere because of a big festival or event it is worth trying to change your dates if you’re looking to get a good deal.
If you are travelling to see a festival or big event make sure to plan and book well in advance. Hotels are likely to sell out and prices probably won’t fluctuate much as they know they can sell the rooms at a higher rate.
Search For Voucher Codes
Search for voucher codes and deals online, if booking through a third-party website such as Agoda don’t forget to look for voucher codes for Agoda as well as the hotels own website. You can find voucher codes and deals on websites such as Groupon, Voucher Codes and LivingSocial.
Use Social Media
Follow your favourite brand on social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter as many hotel chains distribute codes and announce flash sales across the various social media platforms so you can always be one of the first to know.
Use Air Miles & Loyalty Reward Programmes
Use air mile points towards hotel bookings and sign up for hotel reward programmes as these will also notify you of group and chain offers as well as many other perks. For example Marriott’s loyalty program includes a best-rate guarantee for guests, free Wi-Fi on each trip, and access to exclusive events and experiences, while other programs could include free nights or free items with bookings.
Unique Hotel Deal Websites
Check out websites such as Roomer and Cancelon for deals as these sites list accommodation options that others have booked and can no longer go on. If someones plans change and they can no longer go to their destination, but their hotel booking is non-refundable they can sell the room using one of these websites. If you choose to book one of the rooms, the website transfers the booking into your name and you turn up to the hotel as though you booked it in the first place.
Sign Up To Booking Websites
Sign up to third-party booking websites, for example if you book 10 nights accommodation through Hotels.com you receive a free nights stay and Booking.com offers members a genius rate where you can save a further 10% on bookings. Many booking websites will also have new customer only deals and there are lots of blogs and websites that will have links where if you sign up using their link you will get money off your first booking.
Some websites like AirBnB and Booking.com will also give you links after you have made your first booking to share on your social media or via email to friends and family — if someone uses your link to book accommodation they will receive a refund or credit after their stay and so will you.
Price Alerts
Sign up for price alerts on hotel websites such as Hotels.com and Kayak and they will email you when the hotel prices start to drop for the dates and location or specific hotel you are looking to go to. This saves you going back to keep checking on prices and means you will be one of the first to know about a price drop so you can get in quick on book your accommodation before it sells out.
Use A Reward Credit Card
Use a reward credit card to book accommodation and you can gain discounts or earn points. There are many travel reward cards out there to choose from. If you use your reward credit card for everyday spending and always pay it off in full every month, you can quickly build up points and use them towards your next stay. This is one of the best ways we have found to save money on hotels.
We highly recommend the American Express SPG credit card which has a sign up offer of 10,000 SPG points, this is enough for a 3 night stay at certain SPG properties. There is a yearly fee of £75.00 but we think this is a bargain for avid travellers, if you were to purchase your fuel, shopping and pay your bills on this credit card over the twelve month period then it’s quite easy to gather enough points to redeem a 7–10 night stay for free in one of the many SPG properties worldwide.
We’ve just earned enough points for an 8 night stay in Kerala (for the value of £750) from doing this and that’s money would have spent anyway. Taking off the £75.00 yearly fee that’s £675 we’ve got back from around an £8,000 spend on this card and this is a lot more than you would get from a cashback credit card. One of the best things about this card is that there are no blackout dates for using points to book free stays as long as there are rooms available!
Check Out Bundles
Look into bundling your accommodation booking with an airfare or car hire as some offer discounts when booked together, but before you book it as a bundle, always be sure to check how much it would cost booking it separately as well to ensure you’re getting the best deal.
Book Early
With the amount of people travelling and going away at an all time high, last minute deals are getting much harder to come across so booking well in advance is probably the best way to save money. If you’re travelling out of season you could risk it and wait to see if you can get a last-minute rate, but that isn’t a guarantee with some hotels never dropping their prices below a certain rate.
You could always hedge your bets and book a refundable reservation well in advance whilst continuing to shop around. Just make sure you read the small print to ensure it really is fully refundable and if you have to cancel before a specified date to be entitled to it.
Use A Hotel Price Index
Check out Hotels.com’s hotel price index where you can see a unique, global report showing the average hotel prices from major destinations around the world, including a break down based on the start rating of the hotel. They gather a huge amount of data from the bookings on their website and analyse it to show how prices are changing and to provide realistic expectations of the cost to stay in top destinations. If you choose your home country in the top right hand corner it will show the prices in your home currency.
There is also a page showing the trends of where fellow travellers are heading and why the average prices at your chosen destination have changed over the last year depending on popularity. If you haven’t decided on your destination yet, this can help you see where you can get the best deal!
Get Paid To Write Reviews
Get paid to write hotel reviews and travel stories on Yonderbound, when you write a review and someone makes a booking after reading your travel story you earn 70% of the sales profit. This could be a good way of saving on your hotel cost post-stay and you will have helped to inspire someone to book their dream trip.
Delete Cookies & Browsing History
Delete your cookies/browsing history as websites can track your search history and use it against you. Cookies are pieces of information that store the details of your web browsing, the websites then know when you come back you’re more likely to book as a repeat visitor and charge you more. You can avoid this by clearing your cookies after each search or before booking — the option to do this is usually somewhere in your browsers privacy section under settings or advanced settings.
Tips For Choosing Where To Stay
Even once you have decided what type of accommodation to book the sheer volume of options can be somewhat overwhelming, below are tips on how to narrow down your search.
Use The Filter Option
Most hotel booking sites allow you to filter your search by your requirements such as wi-fi, parking, swimming pool or free breakfast. You can also choose a price range, distance from the airport or city centre and only choose hotels with good reviews. So before trawling through pages and pages of hotels consider your interests, budget, travel style and level of comfort as well as the facilities you want before you start searching as this will make the booking process a lot easier.
On Airbnb you can also use this type of filter, with one of the must do filters being whether you want the entire home to yourself or just a private bedroom, unless of course you don’t mind and you just want to see what your options are within your price range.
Always Look At The Map
Nearly all booking websites will have an easy to find link to a map of where a hotel or accommodation type is located and it’s important you use this. Look at your hotel or other accommodation on a map before you book and make sure you’re near your desired activities and attractions or have good transport links. Remember the savings you make on that cheaper, less central hotel doesn’t always outweigh the extra costs on transport, not to mention the precious extra time spent getting about, especially if you are only staying somewhere for a couple of nights!
If you’re looking to stay in a glamping pod or house sit your options are more limited in terms of location and choice of facilities, but you may be willing to splash the cash on a glamping pod in the middle of nowhere for that feeling of being outdoors. If you find the perfect house sit that’s not in a great location, you may still be happy to pay additional transport costs as you are staying there for free after all.
If you’re renting a car, the location may be less of an issue as it will easier to get to attractions and local shops, but always make sure there is free parking at or nearby the place you want to stay.
Check Out Trusted Reviews
Before booking anywhere it is worth checking out the reviews, many booking websites have their own reviews, but always look closely to how many people have actually left a review, rather than just the score of the reviews overall. It may be that a hotel has a review score of 5 out of 5, but only 2 people have ever left a review, so although it is good to know that those 2 people rated it highly, it doesn’t provide a wide range of opinions.
No matter how many reviews are on the booking website, we would always recommend checking out the reviews on TripAdvisor too anyway. You will be able to see recent reviews, a wide range or opinions and also real people’s photos — which can often look quite different to the professional photos! If there are any negative reviews it is worth reading them through to see if their reason for giving a low score is something that would also affect you. For example someone may have been unhappy with the gym equipment and breakfast at a certain hotel, but if you won’t be using the gym or eating there this isn’t something you need to worry about. If lots of people of complaining about the same thing though, like unclean rooms, then this is probably something that will occur during your stay too.
It is also worth bearing in mind other people’s expectations. If someone has booked a 2 star hotel and expected it to be the same as a 5 star hotel, they had unrealistic expectations and should not have marked the hotel down for that. Although it takes time, it is worth reading through the most recent reviews so you can get a better understanding of what the accommodation can offer and if other people’s problems are something you could put up with.
Ultimately reviews are there as a guide and only you know what aspects of a hotel or other accommodation choice are important to you.
