Online booking system for apartments. The best hotel booking services. What is a booking system

10 tips for those who want to book a cheap hotel room. How to find the best price and special offers? In which system to make a reservation? Book in advance or search on the spot? All answers are in this review.

Friends, we have formulated 10 basic principles for finding hotels at the lowest cost. Learn these rules and take into account when planning your vacation! They will help you save money.

In this post, I share tips on how to book hotels in the best way. on one's own- this is information for those who organize their own trips. If you prefer to rest by ticket, then study my advice, .

1. Compare prices and save!

You can book a room in the same hotel at different prices. The thing is that different booking systems offer different prices (the reason is different agreements with hotels and the size of the commission). How to find the best price? Luckily, it's very easy!

There are special services that compare prices among all the most popular booking systems (such as Booking, Agoda, Ostrovok, Ozon, etc.) and determine where you can book the cheapest hotel. The difference in cost for the same number can be significant: 20%, 30% or more. Why overpay? Let's compare prices in a minute and find the best deal! In addition, each system has its own database of hotels: some are not in one, some are not in the other.

When I'm preparing for my next trip, my usual pattern of finding a hotel always starts with looking at options on price comparison services. This is the first and most important thing to do when looking for and booking accommodation!

Example differences in the price of a room in the same hotel in different booking systems:

2. Take advantage of promotions and great deals

"Profitable proposition" is one of the filters that can be used on Roomguru. By checking the box next to it, we will see all the current promotions that allow you to book a hotel with a significant discount.

For example, a good hotel in the center of Prague can be booked for 4,000 rubles instead of 5,800 rubles. And renting a villa in a luxurious five-star resort in Phuket is only 5,200 rubles instead of 8,000 rubles!

3. Pick the best dates

The cost of booking a room in the same hotel on Monday and Saturday can vary greatly. As a rule, prices in hotels are higher on weekends and holidays. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to shift the dates of your trip and hotel stay and this allows you to save money, use it.

You can also book a hotel at a lower cost during the low tourist season (it has its own for each direction). For example, prices for rooms in April and May are almost half as much as in March - we took advantage of this and did a great job.

4. Book a hotel online

Is it cheaper to look for a hotel on the spot, without pre-booking online? Most often, no.

You will be surprised (I am also surprised by this fact), but in 90% of cases, booking the same room in the same hotel on the online service will be cheaper than at the reception desk! The difference is not too great, but still noticeable - usually 10-20%.

There are other downsides to finding housing locally. You have to waste time and effort (with a suitcase, in the heat or rain, looking for a hotel or guest house is a dubious pleasure). There is also a risk of getting a pig in a poke: they came and looked, it seems that the number is suitable, and then it turns out that in the evening it is very noisy there or the Internet does not work. If you book a room in advance, online, after looking at the reviews of other tourists, such threats are minimized.

I only look for local hotels when I go to the real wilderness, where hotels are simply not represented on the Internet, in online booking systems. So I did, traveling along and. There was no other way out.

5. Book your hotel in advance

The earlier you book a hotel, the better your chances of finding the best hotel, the best room, and the best price. Do not neglect this rule, do not be lazy and do not pull! This is especially true for popular destinations and peak dates. For example, at the height of the season it is quite difficult to book a good hotel at an adequate price in Turkey, Sochi, Crimea, Prague, Paris, Cuba, Cyprus, etc. overpay, and settle in mediocre hotels.

6. Find a place where hotels are cheaper

The cost of hotel rooms depends not only on the star rating, brand, but also on the location.

As a rule, hotels in the very center of the city are the most expensive (although there are exceptions). If there is a need to save money, why not check into a hotel a few kilometers from the center, and get to the sights and places of interest by public transport or on foot? For me, it's even more interesting - you can see the residential areas of the city, and not just the combed and glossy center.

Also, to save money, you can book a hotel even (attention!) in another city. An example from my personal experience: preparing for a trip to , we booked a hotel room Ibis!} in the suburbs of the capital - Zaandam. The room cost half as much as in hotels in the center. The hotel itself is modern, clean, beautiful and comfortable. We spent only 10 minutes on foot and 7 minutes on the train to get to the center of Amsterdam. So we got more comfort at a lower price - beauty!

Moreover, it is possible to shift the location in this way when choosing a hotel not only for the sake of economy, but also for pleasure and comfort. If the financial issue is not acute, then, in my opinion, it is better to spend the same amount on staying in a good hotel of a higher standard and with excellent reviews a couple of kilometers from the center than to check into a mediocre hotel in the very center with overpriced prices.

7. Choose the best option for the company

Whether you are traveling as a family, with friends or in a different group of people, look at different types of accommodation to find the best option for comfort and price.

For example, if two couples are going on vacation, then don't rush to follow the obvious path and book two separate hotel rooms. Check alternative options - maybe you can rent a house, villa, apartment with several separate rooms for the same or less money.

Is it difficult to choose the best hotel? Check out ours for popular cities and resorts: , , .

8. Use an All Airlines card

(Photo © Hotel Internazionale Ischia / Flickr.com / Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

9. Is it cheaper to live in a hostel?

If you are traveling alone, then yes, you will save - it is always cheaper than booking a whole room.

If you are traveling as a couple, family or group of friends, staying in a hostel is rarely financially justified. Often, booking a single room costs no more (sometimes even a little cheaper) than two places in a hostel. At the same time, you will get much more comfort.

10. Should I book a hotel directly?

If the hotel has contacts, then you can book the hotel directly. But it doesn't make much sense.

1. Firstly, when booking a hotel on Booking and other systems, you get a defender of your interests in the person of this service. You will have a document (booking) confirming your booking and all its conditions, including the final amount. And if the hotel administration suddenly offers you a different, worse number, you just call (even just threatening it) to the service where you made the reservation, and the hotel will be required to fulfill its obligations.
2. Secondly, booking systems and services for finding cheap hotels allow you to compare many hotels, find out reviews about them and, due to this, choose the best one.
3. Thirdly, very often the hotel offers tourists who contacted it directly to book rooms at an inflated price. When a hotel places its ad in booking systems, it tries to keep the cost down as much as possible due to a lot of competition. After all, booking services offer dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of hotels in one city - you need to stand out and make the best offer to the client.

Intro Image Source: © PortoBay Trade / Flickr.com / Licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

As a rule, the two most significant expenses in travel are the flight and hotel accommodation.

A lot has been written about how to save on flights (), and many already use search aggregators to find good air tickets.

At the same time, for booking hotels, it turns out that the majority, in the old fashioned way, use the usual services, and few people think about the fact that you can also save money on this (well, or find the best option for the same money - it's up to you as you like).

We conducted a small survey among our acquaintances and found out that many people use the booking.com and agoda.com systems for searching, while the second is often argued that this service works better in Asia.

I decided to check whether it is advisable to search for hotels through these booking systems or, nevertheless, it is better to use aggregators and did a little research - I will tell you about its results in this article.

What are search aggregators?

First, a little explanation - what are search aggregators.

There are 3 levels of search:

1. Hotel websites.
2. Booking systems that have contractual relationships with hundreds of thousands of hotels around the world.
3. Search aggregators (metasearch engines) that search for offers among a variety of booking systems.

Each next level covers more hotels than the previous one. There are several dozen booking systems, in addition to the most famous ones, which are well known to everyone, there are many popular in a particular region, but unfamiliar to many in Russia. For example, have you ever heard of such systems as laterooms.com, asiarooms.com, easytobook.com, hotelclub.com, hrs.com, hotel.info, splendia.com, hotelopia.com? So we have not heard =) But they exist, and tens of thousands of people use them.

All of them enter into contracts with certain hotels, and it is clear that each of them individually is not able to cover absolutely all hotels (even such mastodons as booking.com and agoda.com, which have captured the vast majority of the market).

And here search aggregators come into play, which search for most booking systems, and thus provide the end user (i.e. you and me) with the most complete selection of hotels with the greatest variety of prices for the same rooms.

Search aggregators themselves do not process hotel reservations, their only task is to search. Those. as a result of their work, you will see a selection of hotels and for each a list of booking systems in which this hotel is presented.

It is worth noting that for the same hotel, in different booking systems, prices may differ, and not always the same one will be cheaper - it depends on many factors, the main thing is that you can see the prices offered by all booking systems , compare, and choose what you like.

Comparison of search aggregators and booking systems

For comparison, I chose 2 booking systems - booking.com and agoda.com, as well as 2 aggregators - the largest international aggregator roomguru.ru (aka roomguru.ru) and the Russian project hotellook.ru (daughter of the Russian airline tickets aggregator aviasales.ru). As regions - several popular destinations in Asia, Europe and the USA.

I will not bore you with screenshots, I will give you just one, for example

Hotellook does not show how many hotels are available, it gives them out in one list, and places the busy ones at the very end, so there is a dash in the corresponding columns.

What conclusion can be drawn from these comparisons?
Firstly, agoda in Asia, indeed, most often produces more results than booking.com, but not always - for example, in Ubud, it turned out that booking’s database is larger.

Secondly, in Europe and the US booking.com overtakes Agoda.

Third, it is pretty obvious that in all cases, without exception, aggregators find more hotels than booking engines. Actually, what was required to prove =)

Hotel Booking Tips

1. If you book an expensive hotel (from $100 per day and more), then after you have chosen the right one, check out their official website. Sometimes, on the hotel website, you can find good discounts and offers - for example, we booked our “wedding room” in this way for a promotion of 3 nights for the price of two. Some hotels offer free shuttle service when booked directly on the hotel website. But sometimes it happens the other way around - on the official website, the discounts provided by the booking system may not be visible.

1. Agoda.com and roomguru.com offer a "Best Price Guarantee". Those. if you found a hotel through roomguru and booked it for $50 per night, and then saw it for about $45, then they promise to refund the difference ($5 in this case) - we never used this option, though.

1. Rates on agoda.com are tax-free, so it may seem cheaper there, but usually you need to add about 17% to the price (the exact amount is indicated in the room description)

1. Please read the cancellation policy carefully. On agoda.com, as a rule, you can only cancel a reservation with a loss of some amount (from $15 and above). On booking.com, cancellation is often free of charge if you do it no later than 3-7 days before arrival. Not always, of course, there are areas in which free cancellation is also impossible.

1. Booking systems often use the strikethrough price trick - "special offer, 50% off, last 2 rooms left." Don't rush to grab such a "hot offer" without thinking - it's often just a gimmick to get attention. But, however, sometimes there are discounts, just study carefully.

1. It is also worth considering that in addition to hotel search and booking systems, there is also a service for booking private accommodation airbnb.com - and this is from hundreds to several thousand offers in each city (I talk about this service in more detail in separate articles about and about ). By the way, they also have hotels in their database, for example, we somehow booked through them nice villa on the island Lembongan(in Indonesia), and also booked an apartment through them for a month in Phuket. And considering what you can get bonus when registering (here) - in general it turns out very profitable.

That's all for me. I wish you to find a great accommodation and spend your vacation unforgettable!

How are you looking for housing? Write your choice in the comments!
P.S. Please note that the links to booking systems and aggregators in the article are partner links, which means that if you follow them and make a booking, we will receive a partner reward (the price for you will not change). We use these systems ourselves and recommend them because we find them useful and trustworthy.

Overview of the most popular hotel booking systems

updated 09/20/18. We have expanded the overview and added 3 times more online services where you can book a hotel, and at the end of the bonus - how to search all booking systems at once. If you are too lazy to read a lot of letters, go straight to the last two paragraphs.

agoda.com

Surprisingly, such a developed online booking system has a few disadvantages.

Descriptions of hotels and rooms are not all translated into Russian, which is a difficulty for some.
Subjectivity in descriptions and different understanding of comfort for different people. When someone describes a “luxury” stay on an amazing virgin beach, for others this very beach will not seem interesting at all: it is without entertainment facilities. As they say in taste and color ...

HRS

HRS (Hotel Reservation Service) is the oldest travel company offering services on the market since 1972. The HRS online portal allows you to book hotels in more than 190 countries around the world. The service database contains detailed information about 250,000 hotels.

The HRS hotels service offers its clients to book with the following advantages.

• Suitable language. On the online portal, you can choose one of 32 different languages, while the information content of the site will not suffer at all.
• Mobile app. To use HRS, all you need is a smartphone at hand: the mobile application works in 14 languages.
• A huge number of partners and regular customers among companies. About 40,000 legal entities regularly use HRS services.
• 24/7 customer hotline. You can always clarify the question you are interested in by calling the toll-free number.
• Best price guarantee. The portal guarantees that if you can find better conditions for booking a hotel on another site, it will refund you the difference in funds.
• Cancellation without penalty. If for some reason you decide not to use the services of the hotel, the room of which you booked before, you can cancel the reservation without commissions and penalties and return the money on the same day until 18:00
• Business rates from HRS. The new business rate booking service allows you to save up to 30% on business trips and business trips. You can use the relevant offer in your My HRS account.

hotels.com

Hotels L.P was founded in 2002. The first office was opened in Texas. The company began its activities on the Internet two years after its foundation. Today Hotels is a branch of the large holding company Expedia, Inc. For more than 12 years of existence, many offices have been opened throughout Europe. Russia is no exception.

The project database contains information about 240,000 hotels, the rooms of which are available for booking. Due to the fact that the resource is multilingual, it will be possible to pay for the order in almost any known currency. You can contact the company's consultants using a special form or by calling the phone number listed in the contact information section. On hotels.com, hotel reservations can be made for one or two adults, as well as for families with children. The company offers users information not only about the availability of rooms, but also about their cost, services provided in hotels, worthy alternatives if the hotel does not have rooms.

Welcome Rewards Program

Separately, it is worth noting the Welcome Rewards program offered by the Hotels project. The discount, which is provided to customers as part of the use of the program, is expressed in additional free nights for staying at the hotel. To receive this bonus, a person must stay in one of the 65,000 hotels listed in the program database for 10 days. If these conditions are met, he will receive another night in the same hotel.

Welcome Rewards also provides for an accumulative point system. Everything is simple here. When booking a room through the resource, the client receives 1 point for every day that he spends at the hotel. The accumulated ten points are automatically converted into an additional free day of stay. At the same time, it is not necessary to spend them immediately upon reaching the required amount of points. This system makes it possible to slightly extend your rest. So far, absolutely all the company's customers liked it.

Discounts and codes on hotels.com

For most users of hotels.com, the Special Offers section is of particular interest. It is in it that the most attractive last-minute tours, information about discounts and various coupons appear. Save up to 50% on hotel bookings with our Deal of the Day. You can book a hot tour in a matter of minutes. The resource always offers tours with good discounts, the main thing is not to miss them.

Most often, special offers are valid for the most popular destinations. These are Paris, Rome, Barcelona, ​​Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Istanbul, London and Milan. Cheap and short trips are also available, sometimes up to 60% off. The site has information about the most popular destinations viewed by other Hotels users. This makes it possible to understand where it is most interesting to go at the moment.

Ozon.travel

Yes, yes, the Russian company ozon.travel, which you know well for booking air tickets, is one of the portals where you can still book a hotel. The service partner base includes over 270,000 hotels around the world.

Benefits of ozon.travel

• Customer support via hotline number. ozon.travel will not leave the client who has made an order with questions - the portal consultants are ready to clarify any detail of the order around the clock and daily.
• Special offers. Such offers, launched, for example, as part of the development of one or another brand partner of the ozon.travel portal, can significantly save customers, because the cost of tickets or hotel reservations can be reduced by up to 50%.
• Bonuses for using the services. Offers of bonuses with which you can later pay for part of the purchase are not new. Such a marketing tool to attract customers is used by a large number of well-known retail chains. However, ozon.travel went further - now you can pay with bonuses not for part of the purchase, but for all 100% of its cost. This opportunity is offered by the Travelmania program, recently launched by the service.

Island

It is possible to list the regalia of the Ostrovok.ru portal for a very long time. The authority of this site is given by the fact that it is recognized by the famous National Geographic as the best service for travelers. The portal database stores detailed information about more than 500,000 different hotels around the world, including in the most modest cities.

Benefits of Ostrovok

Portal Ostrovok.ru has several advantages over other travel services.

24/7 customer support. The portal has a "hot line" number, which is available at any time of the day or night. At the moment, the excellent work of the portal is guaranteed by more than 130 professionals in their field, for whom a satisfied client is the main priority.

Huge number of partners. Ostovok.ru cooperates with almost all major travel services.

Ostrovok.ru bonus program

Ostrovok offers its customers participation in the Bank of Dreams bonus program. When booking accommodation in certain hotels (not all!, you will immediately see in which ones it works) Ostrovok will charge 2% of the cost in the form of "dreams" (well, like bonus points). 4% can be obtained if you book and pay 90 days before your stay or through a mobile application. You can pay with "sleep" for hotel accommodation.

The travel service elvoline.com was created specifically for those who love to travel but cannot spend time visiting specialized agencies. More than 4 years ago this project was put into operation and very soon became very popular.

Another hotel booking system created in 2012. The site and booking are in Russian, but the support service is in English, there are no Russian phone numbers, and if you have questions, you will have to call international lines.

The cost of rooms in hotels is different. Sometimes there are interesting discounts and offers for accommodation in popular tourist destinations.

Amoma

Popular in Europe, but little known to Russian users, Amoma hotel booking system, headquartered in Switzerland.

The reputation of the Amoma agency fully justifies its slogan: "Sleep well and save money."

Amoma.com hotel booking means:

• 170 countries, 19,000 destinations, 230,000 customer accommodation options in all corners of the globe;
• user support in 17 languages, including Russian;
• the ability to choose the most convenient payment option (from full prepayment online to payment upon departure from the hotel);
• the safety of the reservation until 5:00 the next morning in the event that your plane lands late;

Thanks to the excellent reputation of the amoma.com agency, many of the leading tourism projects around the world seek to establish partnerships with it.

Hotel.Info

Hotel.info is one of the most popular international hotel booking services. Hotel.info is one of the world's leading online services, founded in 2001 and today has about 400 employees and works with more than 250,000 hotels from around the world.

Russian site. Here you can book a room by phone. Well, if you don't have internet. Not every booking system offers this. Toll-free number in Russia - 8 800 112 112 00. Support around the clock. Free cancellation. Various discounts and promotions.

HostelWorld

Especially for budget travelers in 1999 a unique project called hostelworld.com was created. This is a real-time booking service for hostels around the world. The project base includes more than 30 thousand excellent hostels in 180 countries of the world. All budget hotels have detailed descriptions and photos. So it will not be difficult to decide on the optimal place to live. The head office of the company is located in Dublin. There are also additional branches in European countries.

There is an app for smartphones. Site in Russian. But the support service is only in English.

Payment for booking with a bank card. The service charges a small prepayment of 10% of the total amount of the reservation. The rest of the money is debited from the card after checking into the room. If the client changes their mind and wants to cancel the booking after paying the first installment, they will not be charged a penalty. Reservation and voucher immediately after prepayment. If there are any problems, the administration of the service will not only return the money, but also pay an additional $50.

was created about 10 years ago specifically to enable budget travelers to book hotel rooms at competitive prices. The office of this British discounter is located in Brighton. The company does not work quite like other services. The operation of the project is based on the acquisition of hotel rooms from wholesalers and their resale to tourists at competitive prices. Often the cost of rooms is the lowest on the market. Therefore, many tourists prefer to work with this service.

The database now contains more than 80 thousand different hotels - from budget to five-star. Reservations must be paid in advance. There is no postpaid system. But it is possible to change the terms of the reservation or even cancel it 3 days before entering the hotel. In this case, no penalties are imposed on the client.

For registered users of skoosh.com, hotel bookings are available at even lower rates. There are additional discounts for booking rooms in hotels of certain countries.

The site is in Russian, but the round-the-clock support service will answer all questions about the service, but only in English.

hotel.com

Otel.com is one of the leading services on the market. The agency is popular due to the variety of offers and flexible conditions for clients. I is a structure of the MetGlobal company. Today it is one of the leading tour operators in the world. Recently, the dhr.com booking system has also joined the service.

Benefits of hotel.com

Five Plus Loyalty Program. Users of the service, regardless of the chosen hotel, get the opportunity to receive at least 5% discount on the amount spent on previous bookings. Clients have the right to independently dispose of earned credits. The equivalent of each loan is one US dollar.

The company often has discounts and promo codes for hotels in popular cities.

Low Price Guarantee - If you find the same room on another booking engine, otel.com will refund the difference and give you a discount on your next booking.

Disadvantages

The site is in Russian, but the support service is only in English. If you have problems, you can contact her by email, chat or by calling the Turkish number.

The service offers to book rooms in hotels in more than 180 countries of the world. The portal cooperates with 40,000 establishments, as well as with many other major travel services. IN belongs to the largest group of companies TUI Travel, operating on the market for over 40 years

Of the advantages of the system, it is worth noting the possibility of booking without prepayment. Site in Russian. Of the minuses - the support service is located in the United States, so only in English and not around the clock, only during business hours and Orlando time.

A truly luxurious vacation awaits those tourists who choose the best hotels as their place of residence. A unique service was created in 2004 specifically for people who are not accustomed to compromise. This project was developed taking into account the needs of the most demanding travelers. The company offers to book rooms in exclusive, luxury design hotels.

This is a service for demanding customers. More than 5 thousand hotels in 130 countries of the world are collected on the splendia.com portal. The development of the design of the tourist portal was clearly done by professionals. Large colorful photos of hotel rooms and a detailed description help to form an idea about all the hotels and make the right choice.

In order to book a room in one of the exclusive hotels, you will need to make a deposit, which is equal to 25% of the total amount. The remaining amount will be debited from the credit card within 48 hours of booking. It is also possible to pay directly at the hotel during check-in. With the splendia.com service, hotel reservations can be made according to a special loyalty program. Its meaning lies in the gradual accumulation of bonuses that can be exchanged for discounts. With each subsequent booking, the client will receive more and more benefits. So being a regular customer of the service is very profitable.

Chic boutique hotels and luxury villas can be selected according to certain criteria - the presence of a restaurant, spa, swimming pool and others. Currently, the service's customers are about 500 thousand tourists.

The call center works around the clock, which allows you to resolve the problem associated with the reservation at any time, if it arises. But only in English, as well as the site

Updated: 03/13/2019

Oleg Lazhechnikov

The most important thing to start planning an independent trip 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 cafes, shopping centers, 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 countries in booking systems is different. Therefore, there is such an unspoken rule: there is more choice of Asian hotels, and 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, such services do most of the 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. For the most part, there are apartments, rooms in apartments, or even houses of 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).

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. There are no additional or hidden fees. 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 going to a popular place during the season, 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 not everyone will like spending even 1-2 hours walking around various hotels in the heat and after a long flight. 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

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 have a mobile app from Hotellook (Android, iOS, Windows Phone) that 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 the right 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’s better to book in advance, during the peak season in Thailand it happens that all the suitable hotels are already completely occupied on the day of the call and you have to settle where you would not have done in other scenarios.

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 and use insurance myself.

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

Thank you for reading

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Gathered in one place links to all sites for booking travel accommodation that I know. Here you will find out how easy it is to spend the night in almost any city in the world at an adequate price or even for free! Or find a really unusual place where you will remember your stay for a long time.

In the post, the largest base of hostels in the world, the largest hostel rental service, websites for booking unusual designer hotels, accommodation in exchange for help around the house or looking after a pet - in general, options for every taste. Choose!

Classic: hotel aggregator sites

Personally, I open these sites first of all when I am going somewhere on a trip. As the name implies, they combine information from various booking systems, such as: booking, hotels, ostrovok (one of the best prices in Russia), agoda (good for traveling in Asia), trivago, expedia and many others.

Aggregators compare prices, look for discounts and special offers, where you can also find not only hotels, but also hostels, guest houses – it’s very convenient when everything is in one place.

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Free accommodation

The best way to understand a country and its people is to get to know the locals, and even better, live with them for a while. Such opportunities are given by international hospitality sites, when people invite guests to their homes. Just don’t see them as just a free overnight stay, rather it’s a cultural exchange, interesting communication, an opportunity to improve your languages ​​and find new friends around the world.



Source: instagram: @myinterior

Accommodation in exchange for housework

These sites should not be considered only as a way for a free overnight stay, but as a new unusual experience and an opportunity to help people and the ecology of the planet for a week, a month, or maybe more. The bottom line is that you work several hours a day, and in return you get room and board.



Source: GettyImages

Cool and unusual hotel rental services

If you want to live in a lighthouse, in a treehouse, visit eco-friendly or vegetarian-only hotels, try out glamping (glamorous camping) or just show off, then there are special sites for this.

✔ and - here you can buy someone else's reservation at a discount. Someone could not go and sells their reservation on the site. You get a good discount, and the person gets money for a non-refundable number.