Soon it is starting the new hotel search tool, created by Google, namely "Hotel Finder." If you are a fan of Google Maps, as I am, you will surely become a fan of this searching machine too! Users enter here the most preferred criteria like location, dates, price, and rating, and Hotel Finder delivers its top recommendations on a list or on the Google map.
The new and interesting thing about this search engine is, that Google provides you a list of the quarters and well-known areas of the destination, and interesting information and details about them.
Tripadvisor
The advantage of the Tripadvisor Hotels' searching machine is, that it is full with fascinating opinions and comments from real people, who have already visited these places.
Bonuses and loyalty programs:
Another way to save an Euro: Become a client of the program for often flying passengers of your favorite air company. All programs have in their partner network famous hotels and network hotels. By this way you can accumulate points, not only while flying, but also during your stay in the hotels. On reservation websites there are bonus programs, for example, you can earn points on agoda.com and after that expend them on the next reservation. Hotels.com has a nice bonus. In 10 nights they give you one free night. In fact this is a 10% discount, if you use it constantly.
Trivago.de is the undisputed leader in searching for hotels around the world. More and more people start to have trust in Trivago, because of the functionality of the website and the safeness of the reservations, which it offers. I like its design and approach to booking, so I'm going to use it a little bit more. Trivago.de is a company established 8 years ago and is currently the world's largest information search website for hotels. Every month, 20 million consumers have trust in Trivago in planning their trip. The site compares prices of more than 600,000 hotels to more than 140 booking sites, such as Expedia and Priceline. Their website offers more free help in finding the perfect hotel and booking it at the lowest possible price by comparing prices from over 100 booking websites. Site navigation and search filters are very easy for using, even for people who have no experience with electronic searching machines. The results’s map gives you a clear idea about that, where the hotels are located. This function suggests you great advantages to your initial orientation in unknown cities and saves you the risk to book a cheap hotel in a quarter, away from the centre and the city's main attractions. Trivago also offers an extremely useful mobile application for Android, Iphone and Ipad.
BOOKING.COM
Booking.comis one of the most popular searching machines and world leader in hotel reservations. The site's design is functional and easy to use.
How to book a hotel on this website?
Find the required room.
Enter all necessary personal data.
Enter your credit card number: Here are two options. If you are 100% sure, that you will be staying at this hotel, now is the high season and you book day to day, you can enter your actual card number. If you make a reservation for the Embassy, book an ordinary room with a return and enter an old expired card.
Regardless of the previous step, you receive confirmation of the reservation.
Here are the further possible options:
1. If you choose a room without a return, within 1-2 days, the system will turn to your card with an attempt to block the amount you need. If the attempt is unsuccessful, you will receive a message: "You have indicated an incorrect card number, repeat the attempt or within 24 hours your reservation will be canceled. "
2. The system will just try to authorize your card, try to block the first day's amount. This is fair in the case of a "return" rate. It happens rarely (I think).
3. Nothing is happening. But your reservation is still in your system and you can always check this out.
Sincerely and personally: I would like to tell you that I very rarely use my actual booking card on booking.com.
Cancellation Policy !!!
Be sure to read these rules carefully! If you have changed your plans or made a reservation for an expensive or cheap hotel, which you will not need in future, you have to cancel it in order not to fall into the system block. The cancellation always is free before more than 1 day, but sometimes it takes 5-10 days, especially during the season.
If you keep a hotel, which doesn't allow cancellation, you will not be able to give up, so you need to be sure before making your reservation.
If you have too many requirements, don't forget to mention them when you make an online reservation. Usually there is a form about adding of such information.
When we speak about the budget hotels, it is better to make a reservation directly in the hotel. Typically, such hotels are not included on reservation websites, anyway.
And finally.There is no matter how you have made the reservation. Please send an email to the hotel one day before you arrive. This is an extra effort, but it's worth it. If you show, that you are interested in your reservation, your room, your staying in the hotel, then the hotel will respond on your expectation with the same.
HOTELS – WHERE AND HOW TO SEARCH AND BOOK?
Hotels are perfect place for relaxing. They have pools, restaurants, bars, and chambermaids, who clean your room every day, but the price they offer per night, can sometimes desist you from luxury and comfort. In this article I would like to give you some secrets about searching for cheap hotels around the world, starting with one advice. ALWAYS make inquiries about the hotel accommodation rates and REMEMBER, that ALWAYS you can find a cheaper hotel, which doesn't mean, that it will be worse.
ONLINE SEARCHING WEBSITES FOR HOTELS
WORLDWIDE
http://www.booking.com/
http://www.trivago.com/
http://www.hotels.com/
http://www.laterooms.com/ ( searching in the last moment )
In the United States and also in South and North America:
http://www.priceline.com/ (for USA)
http://www.expedia.com/
http://www.travelocity.com/
http:/www.homeaway.com/– searching for vacational rentals.
In Asia:
http://www.agoda.com/
http://www.asiahotels.com/
http://www.asiarooms.com/
http://www.latestays.com/
http://www.sawadee.com/ (it is very well for Thailand)
http://www.ibilik.com/– Аsia Minor analogue of airbnb
http://www.tunehotels.com/– by the best uncle Toni Fernandes (CEO AirAsia)
http://www.elong.net/-China
http://www.skyscanner.com/
http://www.priceline.com/
http://www.hipmunk.com/
This are things, to which I have to pay attention. I will be happy with your complements, especially by regions, where and what is the best.
Also, every self-respecting flight ticket's seeker has a page ,,HOTELS’’ and often ,,RENT A CAR.’’
Examples for so-called "mixed searching machines" are http://www.kayak.com/
Attention by searching for a cheap hotel: Availability or absence of a free airport shuttle bus, in case you are searching for a cheaper hotel next to the villages to the airport. By this way a cheap hotel accommodation can be lowered by the value of the taxi.
Universal shuttle bus or shuttle bus for the hotel staff? For example, special buses are travelling between special hotel villages to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. You can also take rides in them for an hour. So, it's better for me to choose a hotel, more expensive with 5-10 euros, but with an individual transfer, desirably free of charge. By this way you can save a lot of time.
Free or paid car parking. Is there any parking at all? Typically, it has been announced. For example: ,,Parking for a common use 1 km from the hotel.” Be interested in this parking, if there is a discount for the visitors of this hotel.
You always can desist from your reservation and book another hotel.
Confirm direktly with the hotel, when You make an online reservation through Print zourwebsites ( for example: BOOKING.COM ).
Print your e-mail address, which You have reiceved for the confirmed reservation.
Try to book a hotel according to the most profitable data.
Check more places before making of your reservation
Visit direktly the website of the hotel and see for special offers and services.
If You have too many requirements, don't forget to mention them, when You make your reservation.
These are checked advices for a profitable hotel's booking online.
Important! Similar to airline tickets, hotel prices move up and down too. But in contrast to airline tickets, you can (usually) cancel a hotel reservation and save another hotel or you could even keep the same hotel, but through another website. So if you find a bargain offer, save it. At the same time, keep looking for an better offer.
Important! Confirm directly with the hotel, that you have made an online reservation (for example: booking.com). This is easy, and it's worth the effort. Sometimes, you could even become a better room than if you hadn't connect to the hotel. For example, you can send an e-mail similar to the following: "Hello, I just wanted to confirm my reservation in your hotel. We are a family with two small children and we really would like everything to be without problems. Greetings. At least, the staff will know, that you need a larger room. Perhaps, it will not change anything, but sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised.
Print the email, which you have received for the confirmed reservation, in order to show it on reception (or be ready to find it quickly on your phone). In nine of ten cases, it is not necessary to show it, but by this way you will be able to prove your reservation sometimes, if the hotel accidentally didn't receive it.
If you have the precise dates, in which you would like to keep a hotel, you are already at a disadvantage. Naturally, sometimes you have to travel on exactly fixed dates, but if you can do it by the opposite way. First, try to keep your hotel аccording to the most profitable dates.
Check several websites before booking: the hotel's website and at least two websites for online hotel reservations.
If you would like to stay in a specific hotel, but the places are completely occupied, check it out on a second or on a third website. Probably the rooms, that the hotel has reserved for sale through the first website, could be occupied, which doesn't mean, that the whole hotel is full.
If it is possible, check directly in the hotel for offers or special bonuses. This is becoming more and more inefficient, because the websites for online reservations are becoming more competitive, but why don't try. Especially, if your stay will be for a week or even more.
The biggest risk of keeping a hotel through an online reservation website does not mean, that you can be deceived (all of the websites, which we mention here, are with impeccable reputation) and that it is possible to appear duplication of the reservations. It happens very seldom, but sometimes it can happen. If, after you have made an online reservation, contact directly with the hotel. (This is the second time we mention it, because it is very important). This scenario becomes much less likely.
IN WHICH DAY OF THE WEEK THERE ARE THE MOST PROFITABLE HOTEL OFFERS?
It depends on the hotel’s type.
Business hotels usually offer bigger discounts in the weekends. (When business customers are at home). Budget hotels will have empty rooms (and discounts) in the week, because the people, who stay in them, (weekend shopping, students are going to concerts) come on weekends and leave on Sunday night.
WHY DO THE HOTELS USE BOOKING SYSTEMS LIKE BOOKING.COM?
It's a little complicated here for the hotels. Yes, they would like to fill their capacity. Even, if the guest pays only the half of the usual price, then it is better than nothing. On the other site, the hotels don't want to become the practice, guests, who usually wait until the last minute, to get the best. Then, everyone would wait until the last minute and expect discounts.
The hotels offer these rooms on booking websites so that the discounts don't reflect directly on the hotel's image. If a guest learns from another guest, that he has received a 50% discount through a reservation from Booking.com, he will probably only shrug his shoulders and will try to remember the name of the website. But if the same guest learned, that his acquaintance had just received this discount through the hotel's website, he would be upset and disappointed with the unstable hotel's pricing policy.
Also, when someone makes a reservation through a third party, foreign travel products (travel insurance, airline tickets, rent a car) are often bought at the same time. They help to "blur" the real price of the hotel's room and it is more difficult to make a direct comparison by another guest.
What is included in the price and are there any additional charges?
When you compare different prices from different websites, check what is included in the given price.
Are there additional fees and surplus charges? Additional charges may be any of the following:
Urban, resort or state fees
Reservation fees ( very often disguised as hotel charges)
Resort fee
Fee for swimming pool or spa
Internet consumption fee
Short-term overcharge or room cleaning
Parking and more.
Obviously, it is not easy to compare two prices, taking into account all these additional charges.
But the price of the room is the biggest item, so focus on it.
If you are staying in a large resort, it is advisable to check in the hotel's official website for any additional charges (for example: using of spa).
The most websites have searching filters. By this way you can check, if they have, for example:
1. Swimming pool (indoor and / or outdoor swimming pool)
2. Spacentre
3. Fitness centre
4. Kitchen utensils
5. Wi-fi (Wireless Internet)
6. Parking
7. Location (near to the airport)
8. Transport to the airport.
9. Rooms for disabled persons
One last advice is to check, if the breakfast is also included. When you arrive at the hotel, you can even ask (with a tone of the voice, like a person, expecting breakfast to be included).
