{Travel} Top Tips for booking Accommodation 

Last week I shared with you some of my top tips for booking flights. This week I wanted to share with you how to book Accommodation at an affordable price and decent services. I know for those with kids who are going back to school its not really an ideal time to think about holidays but for those without this is the perfect time to go on holiday, why? well because back to school is imminent so holiday destinations are getting cheaper.

Last year I planned a trip to Zambia outside the school holidays and the flights were just a little over £500 when the normal price is anything from £700 and during school holidays can go up as much as £1000+ so this does give you an idea of the best time to go on holiday if you don’t have anyone in school is.

When I was planning (last-minute) my trip to Brussels a couple of months now I was looking for a cheap, has necessary services, free wi-fi (a must) and affordable hotel to stay in for the few days that I was planning on staying there. I would like to say I checked a lot of websites and narrowed it down for you but honestly I just looked at one and that was enough for me. I used booking.com, I have been using this site for a couple of years now and 99.9% of the time I been very impressed with the hotels, resorts and B&B’s that I have found. So I took to the net during my lunch break at work and long and behold I had all these options, I chose a few hotels then read reviews on each of the hotels and decided New Hotel Charlemagne a 4* hotel was mine for the taking. For 2 nights the price was £85, it is super close to the train and tram station and easily accessible. I was right next the European parliament and since they were on break I knew it would be quite. Usually they charge from £70 per night so you see I got me a real bargain here, I could have chosen a cheaper hotel with similar services but honestly when am I ever going to miss out on a good deal like that and besides it was a 4* hotel.

Now that you’ve seen I was able to get a good deal for my hotel room, here are some of my tips

Research – whether early or late it’s important to do research of your destination, some travel sites record hotels near by so these are worth a look.

Hotel Booking sites – once you’ve done some research you now have an idea of the local hotels, B&B etc and now its time to start searching the booking sites. I use booking.com because they give you a lot of options and you can always filter by hotel star rate, location or price.

Hotel site – what I like to do both with hotels and flights I like to check out the service provider as well. So if on booking.com I find a hotel that I like I will visit the hotel homepage and check out what offers they might have (if any). Then decide which one to use when booking, I usually stick with booking.com because on most of the options listed you have an option to cancel the booking up to a certain time. My hotel choice had an option to cancel the hotel 24 hours before arrival otherwise they would charge full first night’s rate so its important to be mindful of this. Also on booking.com some options are book now pay later which can be handy if you know for the drink you will have the money but not just then so you can still reserve the hotel without paying deposit.😊

There are other options for lone travellers or those looking for other options.

Couch surfing – Though this scares the pants off me most of my friends swear by it and suggest its cheaper and one of the best ways to get to know the locals and the area you’re visiting.

Hostels – A few friends of mine what stayed in hostels before and they are a lot cheaper than hotels and B&B’s, I avoid them only because I’m scared I might oversleep and someone might still my things so I stay away but the hotel I stayed in in Brussels across from it was a nicely maintained hostel and had great service according to the guests there.

These are some of the tips I use when booking accommodation and a few extras for those looking at different types of accommodation.

What are some of your tips?