On Accommodation - Part 2

For the previous post, see here: https://steemit.com/travel/@mtvesuvius/on-accommodation-part-1

Throughout my planning process I have learned new tricks for finding and booking hotels. Here are 8 assorted tips on the process:

Tripadvisor is my best friend, and it should be yours too. I can't say this enough. No matter what sort of accommodation I am looking at, Tripadvisor is my first stop. In the cases of AirBnB or Couchsurfing where Tripadvisor doesn't have information, I trust the reviews and avoid places with 1-2 reviews or references if possible. Don't be afraid to ask as many questions about the accommodation as you feel are necessary.

Remember, the hotel's own photos aren't always reflective of reality -- Real traveler's photos give a better idea.

Just because you can't find a hotel in one place doesn't mean you should give up. There have been times when I found a hotel on Tripadvisor and wanted to book it, but Tripadvisor told me it was sold out. A quick check of Kayak showed that there was a site that still was showing rooms available, and I jumped on it. The same thing goes for flights -- Don't just stick to searching one site! (A great example of this is my Amsterdam-Moscow and St. Petersburg-Stockholm flights -- I found options with perfect times, but I waited until I had confirmed I had my Russian visa before trying to book. They disappeared from all US-based booking sites when I looked a couple days later, but I was still able to find them on ebookers!)
The blind-bookings on Hotwire and Priceline can be good resources for hotels, but only when you are OK with any of the potential options. In many European cities, this is not the case, since there are often a few really poor 3 or 4 star properties you'll want to avoid, and you wouldn't be able to do so through Hotwire or Priceline (although they now show you the Tripadvisor rating for the property usually -- A very useful thing to look at before booking). The best places for Hotwire or Priceline are smaller cities and places like Scandinavia, where all the options are high-quality. Yet again, Tripadvisor is also good way to judge when Hotwire or Priceline could be best: When all the possible options are very close together (if you care about location) or when they are all rated highly (if you care about quality), often using either site can be a good option.

Mystery Hotels can be hit or miss

For chain hotels, avoid using booking sites like Orbitz or Expedia because those rates often are ineligible for any loyalty program rewards directly from the hotel. Instead, try to go through a portal found via Cash Back Monitor and book directly on the hotel's website.
If not booking a chain hotel, always make sure you are getting some sort of benefits or rewards back if possible. Especially for a longer trip (or if you are staying in places for one night), going through cash-back or other reward portals can add up, and they have offers for almost every major hotel booking site (as well as the Hotel's own site in many cases too). Use a site like Cash Back Monitor to find a suitable portal. You can get 3% back on Hostelbookers, 5-7.5% back on Orbitz, and 5.5-7% back on hotels.com. My preference is hotels.com, which I explain in tip #6.
Best rate guarantees can be an a great way to score free or discounted hotel nights. Many sites and hotel chains have their own variation of a best rate guarantee, and if you can get your claim approved, it can be an easy way to heavily subsidize your stay. Unfortunately, getting these claims approved can sometimes be a pain, but in many cases it's worth the effort. I don't have too much experience here, but I did manage to get one approved with Orbitz: Expedia was offering a hotel for $110 and Orbitz was offering the same room for $159.

Check for Best Rate Guarantee options, especially with chains like IHG, which offer a free night for their Best Rate Guarantee

Many major booking sites have their own loyalty programs which offer even more money back... My preferred choice is hotels.com, which effectively gives 10% back on every booking through their Welcome Rewards program, and that rate is the best in the industry that I am aware of. Many sites offer bonuses or discounts for bookings of multiple nights, and often these are worth $20-$100 as well. For example, Orbitz regularly gives 15% off all eligible hotels in addition to their usual 3% back through Orbitz Rewards, and Hotels.com regularly offers $20 off a 3-night booking and similar.

I can usually get a hotel at a minimum of a 10-15% discount, not counting the 3-7% back I get through tip #4. For hostels, it is more difficult to get much back, although sometimes the major booking sites will offer rooms at hostels too. For example, I booked my night at JumboStay (the 747 hostel/hotel) through Hotels.com for the same price I could have gotten through a hostel booking site.

Easily one of the coolest places I have stayed.

Even though it might not sound like it is worth the trouble of going through these steps when booking hotels, the benefits add up quickly, especially when booking close to 54 nights worth of lodging!

Using my JumboStay booking as an example, the private room I booked cost $108. I will get 10% of that back from Hotels.com's loyalty program, and 5.5% of that back from the portal I used to click through to Hotels.com. After both of these, it will really only cost me $91.26... And that's without any promo codes. Not bad!

Other noteworthy sites I haven't mentioned yet include Rocketmiles and PointsHound which offer airline miles for hotel stays. Rocketmiles offers a minimum of 1000 miles a night, while PointsHound offers 100-1000ish... Rocketmiles has a more limited collection of hotels, but they usually offer a lot more miles than PointsHound. Both are worth checking out depending on the circumstances, and although I still feel I can do better on balance by booking through Hotels.com, I do use both sites from time-to-time.

If you do decide to join either site, you can earn bonus miles for being referred by an existing member:

For Rocketmiles, you can get 1000 bonus miles on your first booking by using my referral link:

Join RocketMiles

For Pointshound, you can get 250 bonus miles on your first booking by using my referral link:

Join PointsHound

If you do happen to join using either link, thanks! I get the same amount of bonus miles (1000 or 250 respectively) for a referral after you book your first hotel.

I'm still learning new tricks and options all the time, and you'll learn new tricks as you go too. There are more booking sites than stars in the sky, and there are always new complications and ways to maximize each hotel booking. I learned a lot by messing things up, and while I kind-of hope that isn't the same for everyone, it is a learning curve and you will miss out on some opportunities... Don't let that discourage you at all.

Next up will be a run-down of different accommodation options and some of my thoughts on them... Most of these thoughts are in the context of traveling in Europe, although they mostly still apply elsewhere.