9 Tips How to Find the Best Accommodation
Finding the right accommodation for everyone's needs, demands and budget is one of the most important stages when planning a trip on your own.
After you have chosen the destination you want to visit and you have solved the transportthe next step is to book your accommodation. For this, I have prepared in this article a list of tips on how to find the most suitable accommodation for you.
Content
- How do I find the best accommodation?
- 1. Book accommodation on Booking or Airbnb
- 2. Decide what kind of accommodation you want
- 3. Book accommodation with free cancellation
- 4. Check the reviews
- 5. Look for accommodation as close to the center as possible
- 6. Set the filters and choose the best accommodation
- 7. Compare the price on mobile
- 8. Book in advance
- 9. Cheap does not mean the best
How do I find the best accommodation?
1. Book accommodation on Booking or Airbnb
Use one of these platforms to search and book accommodation. On Booking you can find numerous hotels, hostels, guesthouses or apartments, while Airbnb focuses especially on apartments.
I recommend using such sites, especially Booking, for the safety they offer you and the permanent support you can call on. You leave home with the assurance that whatever happens, Booking will not leave you on the road and will offer you alternatives, if unforeseen events occur with the booked accommodation. Example: there were situations when certain hoteliers or guesthouse owners announced the guests that they could no longer receive them on the day of their arrival, for various reasons. Booking comes in in such cases, and gives you alternatives to stay elsewhere.
There would be another option where, after finding a certain accommodation on Booking, you call the hotel or owner directly, to get a better price. Even if you will earn that difference in money, it is not a way of traveling that I recommend, because of the lack of security that a platform like Booking gives you. Sometimes, the peace of mind is worth the extra money.
In fact, in addition to Booking or Airbnb, you can also use Agoda, which is more popular for destinations in Asia.
2. Decide what kind of accommodation you want
Before you book anything, you need to know exactly what kind of accommodation you need, and can you start by answering the following questions:
- How many people are you travelling?
- Depending on the number of people, you can decide what is best for you. For example, if you are a group of 6 people, then an apartment with 2-3 rooms can be less expensive than 3 rooms in a hotel. If you will be only 2 people, maybe it is not worth paying for an apartment for 4 people.
- Do you travel by car?
- If you are traveling by car or want to rent a car at your destination, then you will most likely need an accommodation with available parking spaces.
- Do you need to leave your luggage at the accommodation?
- Many times, if you have an early flight and arrive at your accommodation before check-in time, or you have a late return flight, you will need to leave your luggage somewhere, so that you don't have to walk around the city with them all day. In these situations, I always look for accommodations that offers a room for storing luggage.
- Are you arriving late at the accommodation?
- If you know that you will arrive late at the accommodation, look for a room at a hotel with 24/24 front-desk reception or an accommodation with self check-in. There are many properties, especially among the private ones, that do not allow late check-in.
- Do you need breakfast?
- Do you need wireless internet?
3. Book accommodation with free cancellation
One important thing I would insist on is to always book accommodations with free cancellation.
Even if it seems more convenient to book a non-refundable accommodation, due to price difference, my advice is to go for the free cancellation option as much as possible.
Unforeseen events can occur at any time, and it would be a shame to lose all the money if you fail to show up at the accommodation.
4. Check the reviews
Always read the reviews before booking an accommodation (on Booking.com or Google Maps). From my point of view, reviews represent the best label that an accommodation unit can have, you can find out relevant information from the experiences of other people who have already slept there: how clean it is, if it is quiet, if the hosts behaved politely, what you can find around the building (shops, restaurants, means of transport), etc. It is important that the accommodation has a sufficiently number of reviews, to be as conclusive as possible.
5. Look for accommodation as close to the center as possible
I recommend that you book accommodation as close to the center as possible, or at least near the means of public transport or the train station. Even if the price of an accommodation in the center can be higher than in the outskirts or outside the city, my opinion is that the time and money saved on the transport to the center is worth the money difference. Moreover, you will have a good atmosphere and you will enjoy the experience much more if you stay in the center of all the tourist places. Also, in the area you will not lack grocery stores or restaurants.
6. Set the filters and choose the best accommodation
- Free cancellation
- Score 8+
- Less than 1km from the center
And then, depending on our needs, I also tick other options: breakfast, front-desk reception for the situation in which I arrive late for check in, parking if I travel by car, swimming pool, etc.
I sort the results by increasing price and I always look only at the accommodations with at least 20 reviews. For me it is also important to find grocery stores in the area, but with an accommodation in the central area, this aspect is usually not a problem. From this ordered list, I choose the most convenient accommodation at the price, and with the conditions that I want.
7. Compare the price on mobile
Before booking the accommodation, I compare the price on the web browser with that of the mobile application. Many times it happened that other prices were displayed on the mobile phone, sometimes much lower.
8. Book in advance
Similar to the process of buying plane tickets, if you book your accommodation in advance, you will definitely find better and cheaper options.
9. Cheap does not mean the best
In the end, I want to draw attention to one thing, namely that a cheap accommodation is not always the best for you. Do not run after the cheapest accommodations, because they often hide some problems: cleanliness, heat, building construction, maybe problems with inhospitable owners.
Always search for the most suitable accommodation for your needs, and use the filter options of the booking platforms. Always read the reviews of the accommodation units, to know what to expect when you get there.
