How to book a hotel online. Is it cheaper to live in a hostel? Hotel Booking Confirmation for Visa

The services of hotels are annually used by thousands of people planning their holidays both abroad and in Russia. Thanks to modern booking systems, today you can book a hotel room in Moscow or any other city in advance. To do this, just choose one of the many services that today offer tourists a wide base. hotel complexes. Usually, the cost of a room booked via the Internet does not exceed the price that the hotel will assign when booking in person.

Besides electronic booking rooms has other significant advantages.

Why is it better to book a hotel room online?

Finding a room on site is only to be preferred if you are planning to stay in one of the inexpensive Asian countries such as in Thailand or Vietnam. If you are going to Europe, Hong Kong or Singapore, then there is a chance to be left without an overnight stay.

Thanks to modern technologies, you can quickly rent a hotel room and save yourself a headache. In addition, thanks to e-booking, You:

get real feedback from guests;
explore available room types ;
save a lot of time, as booking systems provide comprehensive information about most hotels;
you can get a discount, which will be valid only when booking a room via the Internet;
receive a voucher confirming the room reservation (such a document is often required when applying for a visa).

Almost all such services have a convenient form that allows you to choose a hotel according to your parameters.

Healthy! The most popular international services are booking.com, adoga.com and hotels.com.

Let's take a closer look at the registration process.

Online booking and cancellation

To book a room, it is enough to indicate the expected dates of arrival and departure and decide on the city. After that, you will be given complete list hotels, guest houses and apartments that have vacant rooms for a given period of time. You can choose one or more hotels.

Usually, when booking in advance, the tourist can always cancel the room for free. However, if the guest changes his mind 5-10 days before check-in, then a fine will be charged from him (all these conditions are indicated on the website).

Healthy! Some hotels require partial payment, no matter how much you book a room.

You should also look out for discount offers. The fact is that the reservation of such rooms is not “revoked”, so it must be paid for 100%. If the hotel cannot confirm the fact of payment to the consulate, the tourist may be denied a visa.

Therefore, carefully read the terms of the reservation of the chosen hotel and check that you will be able to pay the required amount on time.

Payment

There are several ways to pay for the hotel:

Prepayment. In this case, money is debited from the guest's card immediately upon booking.
Payment upon arrival at the hotel.

It should be noted that payment upon accommodation implies blocking a certain amount of money on the guest's card (equivalent to the full or partial cost of the room). This means that if you are unable to come to your holiday, the hotel will “unfreeze” your money and deduct a maximum cancellation fee. And if you enter the hotel, the amount will be debited during registration at the Reception.

Important! If you make an advance payment, but there are no funds on your account, the hotel can still withdraw the required amount and, in this case, you will become a bank debtor.

If we talk about which method of payment is better, then preference should be given to payment on the fact of residence. If during check-in you are not satisfied with the list of services, the room and the service, then you have the right to refuse the room with a full refund Money. In a situation where accommodation has already been paid via the Internet, no one will compensate you for anything.

Healthy! Before you pay for your room, use Google's Street View service to virtually walk around the hotel.

The only disadvantage of this method of booking is that it will not be possible to pay for accommodation in cash. Therefore, in the absence bank card, it is best to contact the hotel administration by phone or via e-mail, so that the employee can send you an invoice, which you can pay in cash at any bank branch in your city.

When paying by card, inconvenience can also occur, so you need to make sure that your bank card meets the following requirements:

its level must be higher than Maestro and VISA Electron;
the use of a third party bank card is allowed, but in this case you may be required to provide an "authorization" letter.
The validity period of the card must exceed the period of residence.

After all financial transactions, you will receive confirmation of the hotel reservation.

Booking confirmation

Once you have paid part or all of the cost of a room, or have used the pay-as-you-go service, personal account Hotel Voucher will be available to you. This document must be presented at the consulate when applying for a visa, so be sure to check the correctness of all the data indicated in the voucher.

If you find any inaccuracies, please contact support. online service and request a revised document.

It is not necessary to present a voucher upon check-in, since almost all hotels have an electronic database that displays the status of payment and other data. However, it is still better to take it with you, because if, for example, you booked a hotel room in Moscow, then in the confusion the data from the computer may be lost and you will have to prove your involvement in paying for the accommodation.

What to look for when booking a room

Before choosing a hotel according to the parameters, you need to pay attention to the following nuances:

usually check-in at hotels (Check In) is made before 14:00, and check-out (Check Out) until 12:00. If you do not check in before this time, then your room may be given to another guest, and in case of a later check-out, you may be charged additional fee.
If you arrive too late, be sure to check the opening hours of the Reception at the time of booking and notify the hotel administration that you want to check in late at night.
Do not use dubious services, as when booking a room, you will indicate your personal data and bank card number. It is better to give preference to international sites that have proven themselves.
Not all hotels are listed on sites like booking.com, as hotel owners are charged for using the service. Therefore, if you are looking for a cheap hostel, or a hotel that is not yet in demand, then it is better to find information about them on the forum and write to the administration directly.

In custody

Variety of the most different types accommodation allows you to choose the most convenient and comfortable room for rest. You just have to choose the most suitable option and make payment, taking into account all the nuances described above.

Updated: 11/15/2018 Oleg Lazhechnikov

The most important thing to start planning independent travel is buying tickets and booking accommodation. About tickets - a separate conversation. And now let's figure out where to start and how to book online accommodation for your trip, whether it's a hotel (inn), guesthouse (guest house) or hostel. Now there are many booking systems (such as Booking, Agoda, etc.) and services (for example,) where you can search for hotels and compare prices for it in different booking systems.

First, about everything in detail. At the very end of the post I will tell you how I book hotels myself, in what order.

What do you need

Booking a hotel on your own takes a little time and three simple things that most people already have:

- Access to the Internet. Now it is almost everywhere: at home, mobile, in a cafe, shopping malls, hotels, etc.
— Bank card (debit or credit) Mastercard, Visa or similar. You need to do it in advance, before the trip, in your hometown
- Email. Her address must be specified when booking, where you will receive a confirmation letter and a booking code.

By the way, some systems now allow you to book a hotel without a card.

What is a booking system

A booking system is a website that allows you to book a hotel, in fact it is a database of hotels around the world. Hotels themselves are added to it in order to be able to rent out their rooms via the Internet. Booking systems do not charge users a commission for using its database, but receive money directly from the hotel. That is, as a rule, the cost of living in a room via the Internet or on the spot (at the reception) does not change for you. But it all depends on the particular hotel, because it is he who sets these prices, for example, he can hold a promotion that when you book in advance you get a discount (but there will be no discount on the spot).

In any booking system, you can select hotels according to different criteria - country, city, dates, number of people, availability of certain services. Payment is made by credit card (). After payment, you will receive an email with your booking details (booking confirmation).

Which booking system to choose? There are no clear rules here, it's a matter of habit, one interface is clear to one, another to other people. However, the number of hotels in different country in booking systems is different. So there is this unspoken rule: more choice specifically Asian hotels, but more suitable for Europe and Russia.

List of hotel booking systems

The most popular booking systems are: , Ostrovok , Hotels.com , Expedia.com . There are also booking systems specializing in hostels, but now Booking and Agoda have become very large services, and they have hostels, apartments, and even houses with villas.

And here are my instructions for each service:

You can search for hotels in different booking engines and compare results. Somewhere the interface is more convenient, and somewhere there is a larger database of hotels. Therefore, it is best to use Hotel search engines who are looking for all booking systems at once. In fact, these services do most work for you. About them in detail below.

Apartment booking system

I want to make a separate point Airbnb. This is a service that offers private accommodation. Mostly there are apartments, rooms in apartments or even houses local residents. This service helps homeowners earn money by being an intermediary between them and you. By the way, you can also rent your apartment in this way, if you wish (any person can participate).

Register using the link and receive apartments all over the world. Valid for the first booking, the booking must be from $70. If you are not yet familiar with the service, then be sure to read about it, where it is told about what it is, how to register correctly, how to book accommodation, etc.

So, Airbnb has some really cool options that are primarily of interest to families with children and companies of several people. Because often the apartment can accommodate not two people, but 4-6 or more. And with this approach (you usually pay for all accommodation at once) it comes out several times cheaper than in a hotel. After all, the hotel would have to take several rooms for such a number of people. Moreover, living conditions in an apartment can be much better than in a hotel. For example, most apartments have kitchens, and many also have a washing machine. These are very relevant points when traveling with children.

What is Hotel Finder

The hotel search engine is a service where you can search for hotels in all popular booking systems at the same time. That is, such a service searches for the hotels you need right away, both in Booking, and in Agoda, and on Ostrovka, and in other systems. They would have been tortured to sort them out manually. Hotel search engines are also called aggregators, metasearch engines. In fact, this is such a hotel Google.

How does this happen? You just set the search criteria you need (country, city, dates, room services) and the search engine gives you the results - a list of hotels. And further, by choosing a specific hotel, you will see the cost of living in this hotel in various booking systems (Booking, Agoda, Ostrovok, etc.), that is, you have the opportunity to compare and choose. When you make your choice, the search engine will redirect you to the site of the selected booking system, where you will make a hotel reservation. That is, the search engine itself does not sell anything, it only searches. No additional or hidden fees No. The principle of operation resembles the already familiar to everyone. You can read more about services in my instructions:

One of the best hotel search engines in my opinion -. It has very good integration with Booking and other systems, it has all the necessary filters, the hotel rating is immediately displayed. I also personally like the display of hotels on the map, as I often look for accommodation in a particular place. And when you move the map, the hotels are shown throughout the territory, even if I originally specified a different city in the search. Thus, it is easy to find hotels between cities or on specific beaches without even knowing their names. You can also try to search yourself using the form below.

Book a hotel in advance or search on the spot

Local search is more relevant for low-cost Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and where there are many small hotels at every turn. But in Hong Kong, Singapore, or Europe, it is cheaper and easier to book everything in advance. However, I still prefer, if possible (when I know the exact dates), to book everything in advance so as not to waste my time searching, there are all the tools for this, it’s foolish to ignore modern technologies.

When booking in advance, you will definitely be sure that you have an overnight stay upon arrival. You can adjust and plan the entire trip at once, and thus the chance of getting off schedule is minimal. This is especially true if you are traveling during the season popular place, you can just stay on the street and not find empty seats.
Again, during preparation, you can read real reviews from guests in booking systems and take into account all your wishes: distance to the beach, air conditioning, pool, WiFi, etc. On the spot, you will have to meddle in all the hotels in a row and ask what is available, and it will also not be entirely clear what service is in fact, do not ask people on the street.
The most important thing in booking in advance is saving time and effort. The fact is that searching on the spot is far from a romantic activity, and even spending 1-2 hours walking around various hotels in the heat and after long flight not everyone will like it. No, of course, if you are here for several months and you need to carefully choose accommodation for this period, then this may be justified.
It often happens that prices when booking online are less than directly on the spot. I remember that I made a reservation right at the hotel reception (it was almost 2 times cheaper), no matter how strange it may sound.
When applying for a visa, printouts from the booking system may be required to confirm that you have a place to live. For example, the French consulate (and many other European countries) accepts printouts from

Despite the fact that the databases of booking systems are huge and include hundreds of thousands of hotels, the smallest and cheapest hotels may not be available (sometimes such hotels do not even have their own website). Therefore, if you have time, and you are running out of money, then it makes sense to go and look for housing directly on the spot.

Some nuances when booking

Specify the check-in time (usually around 14:00) and check-out time (about 12:00). Some hotels are very strict with this and may charge you for another night if you are late. You also need to understand that if you arrive earlier, the hotel will only be able to accommodate you if it has such an opportunity, otherwise you will be waiting.
Check the opening hours of the reception, otherwise, if you arrive late in the evening or at night, you can come to the closed doors.
Deducting money for a hotel or the possibility of booking a hotel without payment (with payment at check-in) depends purely on the specific hotel and its policy.
Please read the cancellation policy carefully, especially if there is a possibility that you will need to cancel your booking. Usually the reservation can be canceled without any penalty some time before arrival. In some cases (for example, there was a special offer), the reservation is not canceled and the money is not returned. All this is indicated on the page of a particular hotel. Also, in case of a no-show, they may begin to write off money for accommodation.
Sometimes it is possible to book a hotel not only without prepayment, but even without specifying bank card details. Of course, you can score and not cancel the reservation later, but I would not recommend doing this, there is a risk of getting a fine (the cost of one night). Alternatively, you can register a new account each time, but IMHO it's easier not to bring it to this.
If the type of bed is very important (large double or two singles), it makes sense to contact the hotel or at least read the reviews, since it is not always clear what is meant in the room description. Although personally I have never encountered problems.
It is best to always have a printout of the hotel reservation (voucher) with you or a file with it on your phone to show on the screen. But usually it is enough just to give the surname or the booking number.

How do I book hotels and life hack

Life hack for those who are used to . Look for a hotel on your usual Booking, copy its name and paste it into the search box for the dates you need. Thus, you will find out if the hotel is offered at a cheaper price, for example, on Agoda, Ostrovka and others.

After a little use of various sites, both booking systems and search engines, you yourself will figure it out. There is nothing difficult in finding and paying for any hotel or guesthouse. I am looking for accommodation in the following order:

In Thailand, if I don’t know exactly when and where I’m going to stay (for example, I’m driving 800 km by car), then I’m looking for housing right in the direction of the service. But again, not without the help of services. I'm worth mobile app by Hotellook (Android, iOS, Windows Phone), which has the convenience of being able to show hotels right next to your location. Sometimes it is enough to walk 100-200 meters and there will be desired hotel. Actually, these are not all the possibilities, there you can search and book hotels in advance, which I also do.

But in general it is better to book in advance, during the peak season in Thailand it happens that everything suitable hotels on the day of the appeal, they are already completely occupied and they have to settle where, in other scenarios, they would not.

P.S. Please add if you forgot :)

Life hack 1 - how to buy good insurance

It is unrealistically difficult to choose insurance now, therefore, to help all travelers, I am compiling a rating. To do this, I constantly monitor forums, study insurance contracts I use insurance myself.

Life hack 2 - how to find a hotel for 20% cheaper

Thank you for reading

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Are you going to book a hotel online for the first time? Don't hesitate - it's very easy! And much more convenient and cheaper than looking for a hotel upon arrival.
More recently, I urgently needed a hotel near. I was driving lil pouring rain and I didn't book anything in advance. Tired, I wanted to go to bed as soon as possible, so I stopped at the first hotel I came across. The guy at the reception creatively broke the price of $150 for me! Immediately on my smartphone, I found this hotel on Booking, where the price was $ 99. Looking at my smartphone, the young “hotelier” said that this price is only for online booking. In the end, I spent a couple more minutes and booked a room, saving myself $51! And this is not an isolated case. That's why,

Life hack number 1
Even if you have not booked a hotel in advance, check the price on the Internet upon arrival at the hotel.

Sometimes it is enough to show the reception how much a room in their hotel costs on the Internet, and they immediately reduce the price. But sometimes this price can only work if you book online. In my experience, the price on the Internet is always lower. And if this turned out not to be the case, then we complain to the support service - that is, there is a guarantee of a low price. But first things first.

Sites where it is best to book a hotel on the Internet

Many still believe that it is better to look for vacation rentals by looking for ads in social networks or forums. This has not been the case for a long time! According to the ads, now only those options that receive bad reviews on booking services - here (most of all people are deceived in the Crimea and Sochi). All high-quality apartments and hotels have long been “moved” to proven services. Why? Yes, because the placement of ads is free for owners, and they pay a small commission only in case of an order. It is convenient for owners - it quickly pays off big amount guests. This is even more convenient for guests - the service guarantees the security of payments and the fact that all reviews are only real, from those who have already rented accommodation, which means that you will receive exactly the accommodation, as in the photo and in the reviews.

According to the ads, now only those owners who, due to bad reviews cannot rent out housing through popular services. Or fraudulent options where published fake photo. Therefore, when you meet an ad somewhere on a social network or on forums, the first thing to do is ask for a link to the same option in a popular service (Booking, etc.) in order to read real reviews:
- If they answer that they do not place housing there, because it is expensive, etc., then this is a deception and you should not continue further communication.
- If the link was given, but the price on the service differs from the ad by more than 15%, then the ad on the forum is from a scammer who is trying to pass off other people's photos as his own.

What is the best site to shoot? There are many sites for booking and searching for hotels on the Internet. It is important to choose reliable and proven ones so as not to stumble upon scammers - like. In order not to be mistaken, choose services verified by tourists. Also those where low price guarantee, - this means that you will not find cheaper even on the hotel website or at the reception.

The big three sites where you can safely book a hotel anywhere in the world are Agoda, Booking, Expedia.

I tried many different ones, but as a result I settled on Booking.com. It has a lot of advantages, which I have already written about in detail.

In addition, on Booking you can now book not only hotels, but also villas and even apartments daily - very convenient. Next, I’ll tell you in detail how to book a hotel on your own on Booking - in the same way it will be possible to book both apartments and villas.

Instructions on how to book a hotel or apartment

We can book a hotel anywhere in the world. For example, let's book an inexpensive, but good hotel for two in Moscow.

1. Go to booking.com
Enter where you are going and dates.

2. Choose from general list desired hotels
To quickly find inexpensive hotel, set the following filters:

Show only hotels with high reviews from those who have already stayed there.
Avoid sharing the same room with other guests (as in a hostel).
The price is not higher than 3100 rubles per night

3. Find the best budget hotel

Lifehack #2
Do not be fooled by the star rating of the hotel!
The number of hotel stars is not an indicator of quality!“Stars” is just the presence of additional services in the hotel: swimming pool, restaurants, fitness, etc. A hotel can be “5 stars”, but with a dirty pool, bad food, etc. Therefore, you should always choose a hotel not by “stars”, but by real reviews (rating)! For example, a five-star hotel with a 6.3 review rating will be far worse than a non-star hotel with a 9.7 review rating.

By scrolling the page, in the left column you can set any additional filters that you need (see photo below, see 5) - the presence of a kitchen or washing machine in the room, location, pool and other amenities.

Lifehack #3
In the filters, you can set “Booking without credit card” and get a list of all hotels and apartments available book without prepayment and credit card.

Look at the list and choose best hotel in terms of price-quality ratio.

First of all, we carefully review the following parameters:

The overall rating of the hotel is not less than 8, the location is not less than 9.
The number of reviews is at least 10.
Price and cancellation policy.
Room type, size. Do I need a credit card to book.

Thus, for 1800 rubles, an apartment was found in the center of Moscow - a great option! Click and see the details.

4. Find out the details
We look at the address and location of the hotel on the map, and carefully read the reviews:

Hotel location on the map
Click on the rating - the reviews page will open. Read the reviews of other guests about this hotel. You can find out a lot of interesting details!
Scroll through the photos of the rooms and interiors of the hotel

Be sure to scroll down the page below and see the details for the selected room type:

Click on the type of room - see what it has. For example, here you will find whether the room will have a kettle, refrigerator, kitchen, slippers, bathrobe, etc.
How many people can stay in the room and total price for all (in this example, 1800 for two).
Payment and cancellation terms.
If everything suits you, proceed to booking - choose one room.
Click "I'm booking".

Let's move on to booking.

5. Book a hotel

Check dates (1) and fill in your details (2). First and last name must be written Latin.
We enter a real e-mail - a booking confirmation will be sent to it - this is important!

6. Hotel payment

In this example, we booked a hotel without a credit card, without prepayment- such hotels are paid upon arrival directly at the hotel, most often in cash. It is enough to indicate the country of residence (1), your phone number (2), the method of communication (3).

Click "Complete booking" (4).

If the booking requires a credit card– do not be paranoid and refuse such hotels. Good large hotels they always require prepayment, especially on holidays - this is normal and safe. Moreover, Booking is a reliable system and I do not know of a single case of problems with credit cards.
It is not necessary to enter credit card details, a debit card is also suitable.

For safety, do not forget to set limits on bank cards. In case you are still terrified of entering card details on the Internet, use this life hack:

Lifehack #4
Enter in your Internet bank virtual card with an amount exactly corresponding to the price of the hotel. Thus, no one will be able to withdraw excess amounts from your account. And if you cancel the hotel, you can immediately block the virtual card, the money will remain in your account.

Payment for hotels abroad. It's important to know!
Keep in mind that hotels in other countries always ask for payment in their own currency, sometimes in dollars or euros (for example, this is often the case in Turkey). In Booking you can choose any currency FOR VIEWING, but when booking, the amount will still be in the currency of the hotel. Also keep in mind that the exchange rate may change and, accordingly, the price in rubles, hryvnias and other tugriks changes, but the price in the hotel currency does not change - as booked, it is fixed.
When paying, an invoice in the hotel currency will go to your bank, and the bank will recalculate this amount at its current rate.

Life hack number 5.
When booking accommodation abroad, ALWAYS set a price in hotel currency, so you can avoid conversion fees. This applies to any service. It's good that Booking issues an invoice in the hotel's currency automatically when paying, saving the client from extra commissions. Unlike .
Some unknowingly are indignant: “Why did I book a hotel in Europe in rubles, but write off in euros?” - but this is done in the interests of the client, eliminating conversion fees, and the price in another currency is given only for orientation (although in my opinion, this is only confusing - I always view the price only in the currency of the hotel).

Example. We book a room at the Waree’s mini-hotel in Phuket, Thailand. If we look at prices in rubles, then for a double room per night we get 1,371 rubles. We reach the payment and Booking once again reminds: “This is an approximate price calculated in rubles. You will pay in THB. On the day of payment, the exchange rate may be different.” In the screenshot, see the “currency of the property”:

This hotel does not require payment in advance, we pay upon check-in, but at the time of check-in, the exchange rate in your country may change. The price in the hotel currency is fixed at the time of booking and WILL NOT CHANGE - 690 THB, no additional payments will be made. Even if the prices at the hotel rise, you will be charged as when booking - 690 baht. But what will be the exchange rate in your country on the day of payment and at what rate your bank will recalculate - it's impossible to guess. The total amount in rubles can be more or less than 1,371 rubles. Therefore, always remember the price not in rubles, but in the CURRENCY of the HOTEL.

In this example, we paid upon check-in, but in other hotels they can take payment immediately upon booking - sometimes this is more convenient, because. do not be afraid that by the time you check into the hotel, the currency of your country will fall and the rest will become unbearable. This makes planning easier. Remember 2014 in Russia, when the ruble fell. Those Russians who booked their winter holidays in the summer and paid for everything at once, in the winter they enjoyed their vacation, and those who postponed the payment either canceled the vacation or paid double the price in rubles. Therefore, it is more profitable to pay everything in advance and not change anything later.

To the attention of those who are going to book a hotel for a Schengen visa.
More and more information from tourists began to appear on the forums that hotels in Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Spain, Germany and Austria transmit information about cancellations of reservations by tourists to the embassy. This leads to a refusal at the next application or cancellation of an already received Schengen visa.

Therefore, immediately book only those hotels in Europe in which you are going to stay later!

7. Check your mail
Print the booking confirmation you received. Usually this is a pdf file. To be sure, you can save such a confirmation to your smartphone.
Check your email a couple of days before your trip for any changes - especially if you're booking without a credit card. It happens that the owner of the hotel clarifies whether you really intend to come or are joking. It is enough to answer the letter and confirm the booking. Sometimes you can immediately clarify something with the owners of the hotel (how to get to the hotel, how much transport costs, etc.).

Now that you have learned how to easily book hotels, I recommend that you remember and apply the most important life hack of advanced travelers everywhere. This life hack will help make your travels brighter and more exciting:

Life hack number 6.
How to save up to 50% and get vivid impressions.
If you are driving to popular resort and are going to visit interesting places, act like experienced traveler: instead of booking one hotel and then taking excursions, develop independent route and book several hotels in different places you want to see. This way you will get more impressions and save money on excursions and hotels.

For example, you go to Spain by the sea for 10 days, to a resort and want to see the magnificent, and also visit the places that inspired him.
In this case, it is better to start from Tossa, book a hotel for 3 days (no less), then move to Lloret for 3 days and book the same hotel a day later for another 3 days. And for the day go to the Dali Museum,

Tatyana Solomatina

Hotels

It's pretty easy to travel on your own these days. Progress is moving forward and you no longer need to run somewhere to book a hotel. Everything can be done without leaving home, via the Internet.

As a rule, seasoned travelers do not experience difficulties how to book a hotel on their own, but not everyone is experienced, many tourists are just starting their journey from package tour to freedom of movement, so this article is for them.

Read below short review services for searching and booking hotels, as well as instructions drawn up on a specific example.

Before starting the process of booking a hotel online, you need to understand the principle, the chain of actions that are performed to achieve a result. If you do not book accommodation on the official website of the hotel, then the booking systems - Agoda, Booking, Ostrovok, etc. - act as an intermediary between you and the hotel. They are free for you. Hotels and inns register with them and pay a certain percentage for each booking.

However, there are many booking systems, prices for the same objects may be different. It is possible to sort through all the services to find the best cost, but it is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Search engines come to the rescue - aggregators (Hotellook, Roomguru, Trivago, etc.), which act as intermediaries between you and booking systems. Search engines do not book themselves, they only help you choose the right accommodation option based on the databases of their booking systems. You see the price offered by each, which allows you to compare them, and choose through which one is cheaper. Click on the desired option and the search engine will redirect you to the selected service, and make a reservation there. Search engine services are also free.

Many people do not bother with search engines, but simply work with their usual booking system such as Booking, not taking into account that other services may have other housing options, or the cost there may be lower. In my opinion, it is unwise to act this way, but everyone has their own preferences.

I just want to introduce you to the most popular services for finding and booking accommodation. Having learned the features, you yourself will make a choice how you will act - you will use one booking system or some kind of search aggregator.

Brief overview of hotel search and booking services

Hotellook, Roomguru and Trivago

Hotellook, Roomguru and Trivago are search aggregators. Very convenient, free tools for finding accommodation. Again, aggregators do not book hotels themselves. They only help you find the right option and show the price of different booking systems. The booking itself takes place on the website of the service that put up the offer you like. This is where the system redirects after clicking on the "Book" button.

Search engine interfaces are clear and accessible. Roomguru is a bit like Booking. There are a lot of offers, but using convenient filters, you can quickly weed out the excess.

Each aggregator has its own list of partners, works with booking systems on its own, individual conditions, the cost of the same object for everyone may differ. If your goal is to find the most the best option housing, I recommend studying the offers of all these search engines. Of course, the process will take a little longer, but this is how experienced tourists manage to profitably find cheap rooms in expensive hotels.

Agoda or Booking

Most people use Agoda and Booking. In terms of their functions, they are identical - these are booking systems. Both have a large base of hotels around the world, including. However, if possible, I prefer to book a hotel on my own through Booking, and here's why:

Booking gives the final price per room. At Agoda, the price does not include taxes, pay attention to this! You can find out the full cost of the reservation only after confirmation. Agree, it’s not a very pleasant prospect to sit with a calculator and add the interest that taxes make up yourself in order to understand how much the accommodation will cost.
Booking has a more convenient and understandable interface. Compared to Agoda, there are many more options. You can easily filter by star rating, cost, rating, etc.
Booking hotel map shows exact location object. There are discrepancies on Agoda, you have to double-check.
Booking has good technical support. Called several times, issues are resolved quickly. At Agoda, the employees are less friendly and efficient. There was a case when the answer to my letter was not received at all.

In my opinion, the only advantage of Agoda is that they take the payment for the reservation to their account without transferring your information to a third party - hotels. Booking, on the other hand, does not deal with finances itself, redirecting all your credit card details to the hotel, which writes off the money. I don’t really like to shine a map in unverified places, so I attach importance to this fact. Although I did not have any unpleasant cases with Booking.

Of course, I also use the Agoda service, but rarely. If Booking gives the same prices and conditions, I still prefer it.

Airbnb

Booking an apartment, room or house is sometimes preferable to a hotel. In this case, it is better to use the Airbnb service. Many property owners post their offers here. The database is quite voluminous, the service is convenient and easy to use.

Airbnb is a private accommodation booking system. As in hotels, the principle works here daily rent. Of course, you can rent a house for a month, but there are few such offers. I would not say that you can save a lot if you apply for a hotel-level apartment, especially in big cities. The daily cost of private traders for such options is not budgetary. However, everything is relative, and of course you can save money, especially if you are traveling for a long time and find offers with monthly rentals, or if you are traveling with a large group - the price for several hotel rooms is likely to be higher than the cost of an apartment. Of course, a lot depends on the location of the property.

I was unable to use this booking system. I considered options several times, but according to my requests, the cost of private housing was comparable to the price of a hotel room, so I always booked it. Plus, I don’t really like private housing, but these are my “cockroaches” in my head, you should not focus on them.

Which service to choose?

So how do you book a hotel yourself? Which service to use largely depends on personal preference. All booking systems or search engines have their own advantages and disadvantages.

There are services that are better to use in a particular country. For example, experienced travelers believe that Agoda has more offers for Asia, and Booking has more offers for Russia and Europe.

Almost every country has local reservation systems, they are less known globally, but popular in their country because they specialize in a certain area. But their bases are more focused not on popular hotels, but on simpler options in the form of guesthouses or apartments. Data of such services can be searched on the forums.

Of course, all of the above must be taken into account, but let's not forget about the price. It is unlikely that anyone will want to overpay, just because the service interface is more convenient and the search process takes less time. I think that the cost of housing plays a decisive role in where and how to book a hotel for many.

Experienced travelers are well aware that the days when a single booking system was used to select a hotel are over. For now, much more chances find the best option through search aggregators. Moreover, the most advanced tourists use not one, but several search engines at once. Thus, getting a complete picture of the supply market.

Should I book a hotel on the official website?

Of course, you can book a hotel on the official website, but it’s only worth it if you speak English well, the hotel has already been selected, and the price of the room is much lower than on search aggregators.

Otherwise, you will have to shovel many hotel sites on your own, spending a lot of time and effort on this. There is a chance to miss more interesting options because not all hotels have a website. Most guesthouses do not have their own resource. If we are talking about hotels abroad, then only a few of them have a Russian version. As a rule, you have to book a hotel on English language, which is a serious test for people who do not own it. In addition, do not forget that sometimes correspondence is required, which will also have to be conducted not on mother tongue. Any misunderstanding can lead to loss of money. After the incident in Sri Lanka, I try to avoid direct bookings. If you are interested in the details about how I lost $ 1400 when I booked a hotel on the official website on my own, read.

Visual instruction

It is quite difficult to write instructions for all occasions. Beginners do not have the experience of seasoned travelers, so I recommend that they do not go to official hotel websites or little-known services that specialize in a particular area yet.

Use trusted search engines like Hotellook, Roomguru or Trivago. These resources are easy to navigate even for a beginner, if only because they are in Russian. These search engines have many offers of hotels around the world, you will definitely find the right one and easily book a hotel at the best price.

How to book a hotel on your own, I will show you using the example of the aggregator that will give us the best option, but first you need to find a hotel and compare the cost of the reservation on all three aggregators.

Why such difficulties? Is one search engine not enough? - you probably think. I will answer. If you want to save money, choose the best option, then focusing on the offers of one aggregator, you will not achieve this goal. Now I will prove it with an example.

Let's say you are planning to go to Phuket, you are interested in a 4-5 star hotel near the sea on Nai Yang Beach. We open aggregator sites. We fill in the conditions. We press "Search". See what picture emerges.

Roomguru offers just 1 hotel for our request, Trivago offers 9, and Hotellook offers 12 hotels. Moreover, these data do not say that Hotellook is better, because in a different area, or with different search conditions, the result may be the opposite.

The only hotel that Roomguru showed is also on other search engines, but if the cost of booking Roomguru and Hotellook (1728 rubles) is the same, then this hotel issues Trivago for 1697 rubles. You say - what little things, the difference is small. But firstly, the difference is often greater, secondly, it is the price per day, and thirdly, as they say, “chicken by grain ..”.

Therefore, it is better to search on several aggregators. Be sure to use the map during the process. She is everywhere. Thus, you can clearly see the location of the object, because the description does not always give an accurate picture.

Narrow your search, remove unnecessary offers by checking the boxes next to the desired parameters - star rating, rating, type of housing, etc. This will help save time.

I hope I convinced you that when booking a hotel, you need to use several search engines. You managed to choose a hotel. Go ahead. I will show how to book a hotel using the example of a hotel, since it is the only one that came out on all three search engines.

Open the desired hotel on each aggregator, click "View" or on the name of the hotel. You will be transferred to the hotel page, where there will be a list of offers from different booking systems with prices. True, Trivago shows this list on the main page, in other services you need to click "View".

Compare prices and choose the best option. Click "Book". The search engine will redirect you to the website of the booking engine that made the offer. In my case, this is Hotelbook.

Actually, that's all. An email will be sent to you confirming your booking. Usually a file with the reservation itself is attached to the letter. Print it out just in case.

Important! Always read the cancellation policy before clicking the "Book" button! Anything happens in life, you need to understand that penalties for cancellation, or no arrival, can be the entire amount of the stay. Be sure to pay attention to this!

By the way, for comparison, I looked at the same hotel on Booking, the cost is much higher. Here is the last proof for you - you should not use the service out of habit.

Perhaps now, it will seem to a novice traveler that it is difficult to choose and book a hotel on their own. But believe me, this feeling will pass after the very first operation. Experienced people do everything quickly, automatically. But they were once newbies too. So you should not be afraid, you need to start acting, move forward, and you will definitely succeed.

If you decide to go on vacation on your own, then do not forget to look at the information on how to buy and. These are no less important issues in the organization of recreation.

Tatyana Solomatina

Publication date: 2013-07-05

The information in the article is periodically updated, now it is relevant as of August 2016

Greetings tourists and travelers! In this article, we will dwell on the question of how to book a hotel on your own. There is nothing difficult in this. First, it is important to decide what type of number you want to receive. Next, you need to learn the difference between booking systems and hotel search engines.

Hotel booking systems- Huge catalogs containing hundreds of thousands of hotels. There are at least a few dozen such systems. The largest brands in the Russian-speaking market are such brands as booking.com, ostrovok.ru and agoda.com, and the leader of the international market is the same booking.com (expedia.com, hotels.com and venere.com are close to it). As you can see, we have already counted six systems, although there are others that are not so popular, but this does not mean that they do not have interesting proposals. Therefore, in order not to visit every booking system (in the hope of finding the best price), special hotel search engines appeared.

Hotel finders- aggregators that search for hotels by booking systems, compare and choose best deals so that the tourist can quickly make the final choice. That is, search engines are not engaged in the provision of booking services - their job is to search and compare hotels. The booking procedure itself takes place on the corresponding website of the booking system. There are only two similar Russian-language hotel search engines - roomguru.ru and hotellook.ru. Naturally, their use allows not only to significantly save time, but also to book hotels cheaper.

Room rate

When looking for a hotel room, pay attention to any information, especially the text in small print. Be careful, some online hotel booking systems indicate the cost of rooms without taxes and fees. Such tricky rates are very common with agoda.com and hotels.com. To find out the real cost of the room, you need to start the booking procedure, but stop at the stage of entering bank card details (if you need personal data, you can enter obviously incorrect ones).

Cancellation of hotel reservation

Booking a hotel online does not exclude the possibility of refusing a room. If canceled in advance, the service is free of charge. However, if there is little time left before check-in (usually 5-10 days before check-in), then the tourist must pay a cancellation fee. There are options when the date is set on the penultimate day of arrival. It is these booking conditions that are most in demand among experienced tourists. The amount of the fine, as a rule, is equal to the cost of one night's stay at the hotel.

Booking special offers for a discount or promotion

Such offers are always attractive in terms of cost, however, they include two serious drawbacks - the need for full payment at the time of booking and the inability to refuse booked room. What is the risk? You may be denied a visa, you may cancel your vacation, or other circumstances will arise that are beyond your control, which means that the reservation will turn into money down the drain. By agreeing to a special offer, you must be 100% sure that the trip will take place.

Separately, we draw the attention of novice tourists, who, as a rule, do not distinguish a special offer from a regular one. You can regularly come across topics on travel forums where one or another booking system is condemned for refusing to cancel a booking. We explain. Even if you read NNNNN.com does not charge any change or cancellation fees", this does not mean that the rules of the reservation system do not state the following " the cost of the reservation is refundable if you cancel it no later than X days before the date of arrival, provided that your reservation is not marked PREPAID / NOT REFUNDABLE (Prepaid / Non-Refundable)". The term "PREPAID / NOT REFUNDABLE" is the nuance.

Hotel booking payment

When paying for the booked room, two options are possible: prepayment (that is, payment at the time of booking) and payment upon accommodation (on the day of arrival or on the day of departure). At the same time, for a booking that is paid upon the fact of accommodation, such a forced measure is applied as blocking a certain amount of money on a bank card (in order to verify the intentions of the tourist, as well as guarantee payment for a possible cancellation of the booking). Once again, we remind you that prepayment and blocking are two different things. Prepayment is the debiting of funds from the tourist card, and blocking is the “freezing” of funds, which will later be “unfrozen” and returned to the account within 5-30 days (depending on the bank). The conditions and amount of the blocking amount are determined by each hotel individually (as a rule, the amount is equal to the cost of one night's stay). Blocking times also vary - sometimes it falls on the day of booking, and sometimes it happens 5-10 days before arrival. In some cases, the hotel may block a symbolic amount (for example, 1 euro), just to check if the bank card of the future guest is valid.

booking.com - booking system, payment in which takes place upon accommodation;
agoda.com and hotels.com - booking systems that require prepayment;
ostrovok.ru is a booking system in which the client can independently choose one of two options (the difference in price is 3-15%).

Of course, experienced tourists prefer to pay for hotel services upon accommodation. This gives much more freedom, and most importantly, the opportunity to leave the hotel or get a discount if the living conditions and service do not meet the declared level. What awaits a tourist who has already paid for accommodation? Maximum - cordial and sincere apologies for the inconvenience. There is no question of any compensation or the possibility of returning your money in order to settle in another place. The hotel staff is well aware that a tourist flying away in 7-10 days simply will not sue. Having made an advance payment, you will have to be content with what you have chosen. Although, there is a remedy for this - do not take the time to study the reviews and comments about the hotel on the Internet. Look at the search results for photos of the hotel and its rooms. Some tourists even use the Street View service from Google Maps to "wander" around the hotel. .

Important! Prepayment does not affect the right of the tourist to use the cancellation of the room reservation. The conclusion from the conditions of prepayment, payment and blocking funds on a bank card is as follows - carefully read the conditions for booking a hotel online (if you don’t know well foreign language, use only Russian-language services).

How is payment on the fact of residence

You can pay for hotel services in cash or by credit card. However, there is a nuance here regarding the part of the funds that were blocked (frozen) as a guarantee. Sometimes this is a relatively small amount, and sometimes it is a very solid one. The inconvenience lies in the fact that you need to pay for accommodation services in full immediately, and the blocked amount will be returned only after a few weeks. For a tourist who often has a shortage of funds at the end of his vacation, this can become a serious problem.

An excellent way out of this situation is to write off the blocked amount in favor of the hotel with an additional payment of the remaining part. However, be aware that hotel employees are absolutely not obliged to do this. You can only ask for it in the hope that they will come into your position. In rare cases similar situations can go to extremes. For example, when the full amount for accommodation has been blocked and is waiting to be unlocked (according to the rules of your booking), and you must pay for the room separately. Of course, the blocked amount will be returned sooner or later, but how inconvenient it is to feel “no money with money”.

Russian-speaking support service

For novice travelers, we strongly advise you to book hotels only on Russian-language sites. This way you can significantly reduce the chance of missing important details. Even more significant is the presence of a round-the-clock Russian-speaking support service, which you can call not only while at home, but also Abroad. As a rule, if a tourist has real difficulties, then this happens at the time of arrival / departure. That is why we recommend booking.com , ostrovok.ru and agoda.com . With them, you can always tell about what happened in your native language and not worry about solving the problem that has arisen.

A good support service is also the main argument in the age-old dilemma (but only for novice tourists) of how best to book hotels - using the booking system or on the hotel's official website. At the same time, keep in mind that the second option can only occasionally cost you less, since almost all hotels sign agreements with booking systems, according to which they are required to adhere to a common pricing policy.

Regionality of different hotel booking systems

Some online hotel booking systems differ in that they focus on one of the geographical regions. It is from them that you can find the largest database of hotels in a particular country. For example, venere.com specializes in Italy, hrs.com in the Benelux countries, agoda.com in Asia, sawadee.ru.com in Thailand, expedia.com and hotels.com in the United States.

Hotel Booking Confirmation for Visa

Confirmation of the booked hotel room is necessary first of all for issuing a visa (if the country has visa regime). It may also come in handy to explain the purpose of your visit when crossing the border.

For an embassy (consulate or visa application center) Booking confirmation is best received by fax, since not all such representations trust to accept e-mails. It is recommended to first enter the names of all persons requiring a visa on the hotel voucher, and then ask the hotel to send a fax on company letterhead. In rare cases, the embassy may request confirmation of the prepaid hotel room.

Booking confirmation for hotel check-in

After booking a hotel room, the tourist receives a special hotel voucher(hotel voucher). It is available in your personal account on the website of the booking system, and is also sent by e-mail. Be sure to check every item on your hotel voucher. If you find any inaccuracies, please contact support. Some experienced tourists advise to write a letter to the hotel 7-10 days before the trip to clarify whether everything is in order with your booking.

When checking into a hotel, only the booking code is important. It is not at all necessary to print the hotel voucher, but to have access to it in in electronic format necessary. If the room is not paid for, and you plan to check in late, notify the hotel manager about this (otherwise your absence may be mistaken for a no-show, and the room can be given to another client). To do this, write a letter, or even better - make a change to your booking (there is a corresponding field). The length of time during which the tourist is obliged to check into the hotel is indicated in the hotel voucher (for example, "Check-in YYYY-MM-DD from 14:00 - 00:00").

Best Price Guarantee

The realities of the modern struggle for a client are such that almost all hotel booking systems provide a guarantee service the best price. Of course, it has a lot of conditions and different “ifs”, but they are quite feasible. The standard sentence goes like this: if you have booked a hotel room through our website and then show us that you could book the same room, for the same dates, but at a lower rate that is available to view and book on another website, then we. ..

...we will provide the same price» writes booking.com;
...we will offer you the same price or lower» lures agoda.com ;
...we will pay you triple the difference in the cost of the room or provide this room at the lowest price» ostrovok.ru promises.

Bank card security when booking

Passing your bank card number and CVV code from the online booking system to the hotel makes your card vulnerable. It is a fact. As an example, here is an excerpt from the booking.com rules. What does it threaten? - in hotels, especially mid-level ones, information can easily leak. Therefore, we advise you to open a separate card for bookings, and transfer funds to it only as needed.

Another important nuance. In those rare cases when the client has indicated an erroneous card number or CVV code, the hotel, not worrying much about the safety of the tourist, informs about the incident in a regular letter and asks for the correct card number and code in the response letter. You shouldn't do this. Reply that you would like to be sent a special secure link for entering data and transferring them over the secure HTTPS protocol.

Credit card requirements when booking a hotel

the card must be a higher level than VISA Electron or Maestro;
A prepaid or blocked card may be asked to be shown at the hotel. This rule has long been outdated and rarely used, but in theory it is still in force, so be sure to take the card with you (even if you expect to pay for your hotel stay in cash);
it is allowed to use a third-party bank card (for example, when booking several rooms at once with one card), but read how to do it correctly (otherwise you may violate the previous paragraph). Previously, in such a situation, it was necessary to present an “authorization letter” (a simple formality);
you must use a card that expires after your stay (even if the terms and conditions clearly state that there will be no prepayment or hold). An expired (not valid) card may be the reason for the cancellation of the reservation.

Financial responsibility of the tourist after booking a hotel

On travel forums, you can regularly come across interesting questions about what threatens to provide an “empty” bank card in cases where a hotel must write off money. Without going into the ethical side of the issue, we will answer that, at the request of the hotel, the bank can write off the payment even from a debit card with a zero balance. After the card goes negative, the bank will make a claim personally to the client. In practice, such a development of events occurs extremely rarely, only in cases of penalty payments (for example, for not showing up at the hotel). As a rule, if the booking system was unable to write off or block funds, this turns into a nuisance for the tourist - the reservation for a hotel room can be canceled.

How to book a hotel yourself

So, finally, we come to the most important thing - independent online hotel booking. You have long decided on the type of hotel room and know what to look for when choosing a hotel and booking conditions. Now open both hotel search engines at once - roomguru.ru and hotellook.ru to compare the current offers of all major booking systems. Then proceed as follows:

Fill in the hotel search form (indicate the city, number of guests, dates of arrival and departure).
Refine the search result by adding sorting by different categories (price, star rating, area, type).
Carefully examine the search results after entering different categories. For convenience of perception, they can be sorted. The hotels that you liked the most, check the reviews on the Internet. Be sure to pay attention to whether the number is subject to cancellation and under what conditions.
Choose a room and start the booking process. Fill in your personal data in English (full name, email address, phone number), and also indicate your bank card number and CVV code (sometimes not required).
Check for confirmation by e-mail. Also, a hotel voucher becomes available in the personal account of the booking system. Check in detail the accuracy of filling out the voucher.

Useful resources for tourists

roomguru.ru and hotellook.ru - hotel search engines, search through different booking systems and compare results, helping to find the best deal

aviasales.ru and skyscanner.ru - air ticket search engines, free from the need to view the site of each airline separately

tripadvisor.ru - resource with the largest number useful and relevant reviews about tourist sites

booking.com is a world leader in hotel booking, distinguished by high quality of services, transparent prices and prompt support service

Comparison of prices for tourist tours