When planning a trip, you are sure to come across an urgent question - how to choose a hotel, hotel or hostel? After all, many factors depend on the place of residence: comfort, peace of mind for the safety of things in the room, as well as cost savings. Experienced travelers will tell you with complete confidence that not every flight (especially when it comes to domestic flights or low-cost airlines) can be tracked on such Internet resources as Travelocity or Expedia. Fortunately, you can always rely on the locals to use these companies to guide you in your search for a nearby airport or the destinations these companies have to offer.
But if the lack of information on the services of low-cost airlines and local airlines on the mentioned Internet resources is more likely an exception to the rule, then in relation to hotels, unfortunately, this is slowly becoming the rule. Regardless of the reason - the cost of rent or utilities, the technical base, the high resource consumption - which determines whether all these places will be included in the database of booking sites, the fact remains: thousands of hotels remain beyond the reach of tourists, because they are simply No one knows. This category most often includes bed-and-breakfast hotels (bed and breakfast), small private hotels, cottage complexes and even hostels. Moreover, they make up a significant percentage of the modern service market.
Travelers who choose ready-made tours are a little more lucky in this regard: the hotel is booked by an operator who may be well aware of such "hidden" places. But if you do not want to use the services of a travel agency and prefer to plan your trip yourself? In this case, you are simply not able to choose an inexpensive local hotel with good service, since you are not given an alternative. Is it worth it to worry about this, you ask? Why not use the beaten track and choose from what the site offers? Our answer is simple: choosing a place to live gives you more options to meet your individual needs; in other words, you have one of the most valuable things for any person - a choice. When buying a ticket and getting on a plane, you know exactly which direction you are flying (all expectations boil down to "get from point A to point B as quickly as possible") and do not expect anything special from your vehicle (the whole choice boils down to "I want a seat by the window - I want rice for lunch ") Choosing a hotel is a completely different matter. Here you have the opportunity to take into account dozens of factors influencing your choice as a result: location, cuisine, year of opening, advice from friends, etc. At the same time, the approach to assessment will also be extremely individual: someone will gladly exchange a huge bed for a beautiful view from the window; there are those who are in dire need of a gym or spa; Gourmets will love the hearty breakfast, which gives them the opportunity to appreciate all the delights of the local cuisine, while lovers of antiquity will be interested in Victorian candelabra or copper valves - and so on ad infinitum.
All this can be found in any of the offered hotels, but is your choice wide? If you need to take your pet with you or want to sleep in silence away from the tourist-packed streets? Maybe you love everything original and are looking for unusual hotel rooms . In this case, it is worth taking a closer look at the less popular options. Imagine a person who flies at the same time every year, for example, to Boston in order to participate in a sports competition. He is booking a room in the same small hotel, which is located near the venue. At some point, the administration changes its pricing policy, raising the cost several times (as the main argument - the seasonal increase in demand due to the competition). In this case, you will naturally go to the Internet and search through all known booking sites, but nearby hotels will be completely packed, and miraculously, the vacant rooms found will make you cry after you see their cost. But work a little harder and drop the bait at some local site - or use the phone book:
Where do you start? Since we are talking about the Internet, first of all, you will grab the mouse and start actively wading through the thickness of commercial sites, as well as pages of travel agencies and local press. But if you simply don’t have the time and desire to rummage through a huge pile of information that you should filter out on your own, try to formulate your request more or less clearly and throw it ... into any Internet search engine! Trust me, the result may surprise you - a random search can provide you with very interesting options. The same results will be given by inquiries in the chat rooms of different countries and cities. Not everyone wants to interact with tourists, but you will find many friendly people ready to help with practical advice. Local residents know for sure about small but cozy hotels, and besides, they will help with renting housing and, on occasion, will conduct free excursions for you.
Online Maps
For this purpose, such a tool as a free program for viewing three-dimensional maps of Google Earth is optimal. You need to download it to your PC - but if for some reason you can't, use the online version. You just need to set the "hotels" filter and the program itself will designate them for you in a given location. Yahoo! Maps - at least the search base of this service is much more extensive than that of most booking sites.
Review sites for travelers
By choosing Yahoo! Maps or Google Maps any hotel and by clicking on it in the list, you will receive full information including routes, visitor reviews, photos and a link to the website for booking. If you want to focus specifically on the reviews of those who have used the services of the hotel, feel free to go to TripAdvisor: this is a whole "warehouse" of opinions and reviews, thanks to which you will not lose sight of more than one important detail and will be able to quickly make your choice. But be careful: not all reviews can be objective - weed out the unnecessary and focus on specific aspects. Even if you love risk and never think over your travels to the last detail, we advise you to approach the selection of a hotel a little more carefully than the selection of wardrobe or companions. We also advise you to study in advancemistakes during check-in and check-out from hotels , so as not to repeat them and not spoil your vacation. We wish you extremely pleasant and informative trips!
