Once you know where you’re going, it’s likely that you’ll need to find somewhere to sleep. The obvious choice is to turn up and walk around until you find a suitable place. However, you run the risk of paying over the odds and spending hours of your first day trying to find somewhere with a spare room.
By booking in advance you can usually get cheaper rates. It allows you to compare different hotel/hostel rates, so you know if you’re getting value for money or not.
Getting Cheap Hotel Rates
If you know where you want to stay
If you know where you are going, or the name of the hotel in which you wish to stay, then make use of online travel brokers such as:
It may be worth while contacting the hotel directly, to see if they can offer an extra discount by cutting out the middle man. Double check you are getting a good price by using a comparison website, such as travelsupermarket.com and hotelcomparison.co.uk. This will give you figures to base your haggling on.
Before you finalise your booking have a look at the honest reviews given by other travellers such as tripadvisor.com . It allows users to ask questions on information which traditional bookers and travel agents couldn’t answer.
If you don’t know where you want to stay
If you don’t know where you want to stay then are loads of websites which can help you find the best and cheapest deal available.
Hotels.co.uk
- Provides a reservation service for 80,000 independent and chain hotels worldwide
- Price guarantee, so if you find a cheaper deal you will be refunded the difference
- Allows searches to be made by entering the name of a landmark or attraction, which is useful when you don’t know what the city is called
Laterooms.com
An online late availability hotel booking website with over half a million genuine last minute deals
There is no booking fee
Priceline.com
- Independent travel website which claims to find the best deals on flights and hotels
- Has a ‘name your price’ section where the user enters what city they wish to stay in, and how much they wish to pay. The site will then try to find you somewhere which matches your criteria.
- The only downside to this is that you must be 100% sure, as you have to enter your card details before they will search for you. Once they find a place, it will be automatically booked and non-refundable.
- This method of booking is often excluded in some of hotels terms and conditions, which leaves consumers unable to claim unfair treatment.
- Alternative sites are: hotwire.com , betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com
Hotelpronto.com
- Bookings can be made online or on the phone
- Prices seen on the website are the final, complete prices - there are no hidden fees
Octopustravel.com
- Independent worldwide travel agent
- Conducts a refund system along the same line as their competitors - if the same deal can be found cheaper they will refund the difference
Always go back to the original hotel and try to get a discount. Ensure that the room tax is provided in your final room price.
Again be sure to read “real” reviews from tripadvisor.com to ensure your hotel choice is as good as it can be. Don’t rely solely on the star system as they are often based on facilities not on hotel quality.
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Cheaper Alternatives
If you looking for cheaper deals consider using hostels, low cost hotel chains or B&B’s. Hostels are cheap alternatives for young people due to their shared accommodation. If you want to have the privacy of a hotel room , but without the cost, you can stay in a private hostel room.
Hostels are great for young people as they are very sociable places allowing people from all over the world to meet and interact while using the shared facilities.
Hostelworld.com
- Database of over 80,000 hostels worldwide
- Provides reviews written by fellow backpackers reflecting on their own personal experiences
Hostelbookers.com
- Book hostels in over 2500 countries
- No booking fee
- A free phone card, with credit, is issued with each booking
- Reviews appear when 6 or more users have stayed at the hostel
Travelodge.co.uk
- Saver rates available if you book 3 weeks in advance
- The company aim to provide a “comfy bed, a good shower and a night’s sleep” and to do this at the lowest possible price through cutting out the luxuries experienced in other hotels.
Travelstay.com
The website works as a normal search engine but includes halls of residence which can be great alternatives for travellers on a budget.
Easyhotels.com
This is EasyJet's expansion into the hotel market – expect orange rooms but very cheap prices
Londontown.com
Soley for hotels in London but promises that if you can find a hotel cheaper in the capital within 48 hours of booking via the website, you will be given a refund and £100 in cash
Eurocampings.co.uk
This site has information about camping sites throughout Europe with most of the 8400 sites reviewed. The site has a loyalty scheme enabling low-cost camping with discounts available of up to 50%.
Ensure you stay up to date with any new hotel openings. Often there will be cheap rooms available allowing guest to test the facilities or special prices available during the low season. Check both hotelnewsresource.com and hoteldesigns.co.uk for more info.
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Free Accommodation
There are some even cheaper and free alternatives to hostels:
Couchsurfing.com
- Offers free accommodation around the world, by members who let you stay in their home for free
- It’s a non-profit organisation aimed at providing free “cultural experiences”
- If you partake in couch-surfing you will get to see a real point of view of the city and experience what it is like to live in a city from someone who knows it best
Homebase-hols.com
Sleepinginairports.net
- Details the best and worst airports to get stuck in or choose to stay at in order to reduce the cost of your travelling further
- The site has reviews of a wide range of airports worldwide detailing which are the best airports to choose to stay in
- It provides information of airports from which you will be thrown out of for sleeping in, as well as some tips for making your ‘stay’ more comfortable
Loyalty Points
- Not technically free accommodation, but you can redeem your loyalty points from both Tesco and Sainsbury’s for hotel stays
- Tesco Clubcards are worth approximately four times their value when used out with of the store making them great “free” alternatives
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