7 Rules of Choosing a Hotel

How many times we find ourselves in the situation of staying in a hotel which happens to be worse that many others in the same resort and in the same price range? This can be avoided by following the 7 simple rules of choosing a hotel which will let you enjoy the cheap vacations benefits:

1. Consider going online. Many hotels have special discounts for those who book online. Most of them have a thorough description of the hotel services and pictures of most important areas in the hotel. Be careful, though, they will always post their best pictures there and sometimes they use wide angle cameras and all kind of lenses to make a small room look big.
2. Ask other people who visited the area you want to go to which hotel did they stay in and if they would recommend it. Ask specific questions, such as: did the hotel have a laundry service? Was this good? How fast did they return your clothes cleaned? Were they properly cleaned. If you ask only “How was it?” you might get the information that it was nice, which actually means nothing.
3. After you have a shortlist of hotels, go online and check them with others. There are many sites with travellers reviews, some of them being really helpful, offering details that can spoil your stay if not known from before. When you return from a trip, take some time and write a review yourself. It will help many others and will help us all make the web a better place
4. Don’t postpone your booking for the last minute. You might find some last minute offers, but as a general rule, those are desperate trials to sell, signaling there might be some hidden things not going so well. Many hotels give discounted price for early booking.
5. Make sure you specify in your request to the hotel your special requirements such as: ground floor excluded, or room with a sea view, or room with balcony. Otherwise, as Murphy’s rules say, there is a huge probability that you will get exactly what you hate and it will be too late to change anything.
6. If you plan to arrive at the hotel in the late afternoon or in the evening, always make this specification. Otherwise, many hotels give away the booked rooms if the guests do not arrive before 4pm. This actually happened to me once, after a 15 hours travel, I got to the hotel and just found out that I’d have to sleep in my car, as the gave away my reservation and they had no spare rooms left.
7. If you travel by plane, ask the hotel if the have airport transfer. It can be useful, as it is more convenient to have somebody waiting for you instead of having to find a cab, while carrying your luggage with you. For such situations, sports bags can be easier to carry, therefore you could consider buying one and using it as your hand luggage in the plane.