No matter how you travel, booking accommodation is important. Sometimes there are just so many options, so how do you choose? Today, Giulia and Darek, from the Travelling Sunglasses travel blog shares some great tips on exactly how to book the right accommodation for you.

 

Booking the right travel accommodation

Accommodation is a crucial part of traveling. Feeling safe and able to rest can make your trips wonderful, while a dodgy place can turn them into a nightmare.

Even when you know what you are looking for, there are tons of ways to make the reservation and believe me, they are not all equal.

 

Let me give you some tips on how to choose the right way to book your accommodation.

I’m going to assume that you do not use travel agencies. Therefore, your choices are:

1. Booking directly with the property, or

2. Booking through a third party. Such as Booking.com or Hostelworld.

Booking directly with the property means on the official website, by email or by phone. The contract is between you and the property.

Booking through a third party means making your reservation on Booking, Expedia, Agoda, Airbnb etc. The contract is between you and the website. This means that even though you stay at the accommodation, the third party is involved and must be taken into consideration when it comes to payment, cancellations, modifications, etc.

 

Both methods have pros and cons that depends on many factors: the spoken languages (by you and by the property), the terms and conditions of the property and of the third party, the local laws, and many more.

 

The guidelines that you should keep in mind all boil down to one key element: trust.

1. If the property looks trustworthy, (e.g. a decent website, decent reviews, good translations, accurate Google Maps location) then consider booking directly with them. They will be happy to earn 100% of the revenue and will provide the best service they can. For example, when we went to Tapolca, a beautiful town in Hungary, we booked directly with the property after a few emails.
2. If the property does not look fantastic, but you still want to book there, consider booking through a third party that will take care of you in case of any issue. The accommodation is paying a commission to the third party: these services are what the commission is paying for. Remember that the third party may help you with some matters, but make others more complicated.
3. Do your research about the third party. Is there a toll-free customer service number? Are the payment conditions written clearly? Do they offer support in your language? If you ever need assistance, you will need to talk to their customer service team, and you will be already stressed out. Establish if you can trust them before you make the reservation. When we went to Japan (check out our itinerary here)  we booked most accommodations directly, but in a couple of occasions the property redirected us to local agencies that managed many inns and small hotels: they were very helpful and knowledgeable.
4. If you find an amazing deal at a price lower than the lowest of the official website, there’s a strong chance that it’s a scam. In the best-case scenario, the third party website is breaking the rules and undercutting their own commission in order to steal bookings from the property’s official website: the property probably knows, and they may give you a not-so-nice room. In the worst-case scenario, the website is booking you in another property and blaming it on overbooking, or not making the reservation at all and keeping your money. These websites do not deserve your trust. Saving some money won’t make you sleep any better. Do not book it, it’s not worth it.
5. Now that you made your reservation with a property/third-party website you trust, remember that a reservation can go wrong in multiple ways: the accommodation may go out of business (e.g. because of new Airbnb regulations), but also the third party website may close down or go bankrupt (e.g. Thomas Cook or Amoma in Sept. 2019). Check again the property (and the third-party website, if you used one) shortly before your trip.
6. No matter how you book, double-check with the property that everything is ok. Many booking systems do not work seamlessly with each other: software is not perfect, and the humans who insert reservations into the local systems also make mistakes. Even though your email confirmation says July, the hotel clerk may have inserted it in the system for June. Your first name and last name could be swapped, or the bed type could be missing. This is the occasion to inform the property about your arrival time (helps schedule housekeeping), ask info about currencies accepted (saves time at check-in and check-out), ask about attractions in the surrounding area (Reception could sell you tours). Just like you are entrusting your trip to the accommodation managers, make them trust that you will be a good guest.

To sum up, as a frequent traveler, I would book directly on most occasions. If I had to choose a third party, I would use only Booking.com or Expedia, established giants in the business who care about their own reputation and build solid relationships with the properties. But most of all, I would always travel with a plan B and some extra money for emergencies.

 

About Travelling Sunglasses Blog

Giulia and Darek are the writers and photographers behind Travelling Sunglasses. Avid travelers with corporate jobs, they explore Europe and far-away places from their home base in Budapest, Hungary. They love to share tricks and itineraries, provide useful advice, and taste exotic foods. Thanks to Giulia’s planned efficiency and Darek’s creative spontaneity, they manage to find a balance wherever they go. Find more on their blog and Youtube channel!

 

About this Travel Tip Tuesday series

Each week, on Tuesday, another voice is added to the Tuesday Travel Tip series, giving valuable travel tips on how to travel better we can all grow from. I’d love to hear your thoughts from this post and the series as a whole – leave a comment below!

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Thanks for reading!

Happy and safe travels.