Accommodations

These would include names you are probably familiar with, such as:

Holiday Inn

Hyatt

Best Western

Travel Inn

Thistle

These types of hotels are pretty much the same as you would find here in the States. Though probably not as spacious, especially in Europe. The rooms there tend to be rather small.

The hotels are run pretty much like the larger hotels only on a much smaller scale. They will have less rooms and may or may not have an elevator or restaurant.

Bed & breakfasts are like staying with family. They often look like someone’s house. They will only have a few rooms and a full breakfast is included with the price. Most, if not all, of the rooms will not have a bathroom in them. If you absolutely want your own bathroom make sure you ask for an en-suite room. It will cost you a little more so if you are on a really tight budget you want to opt for the shared bathroom.

The first time I stayed at a bed & breakfast, it was in London and I was on a seriously tight budget so I did not have an en-suite room. I was a little nervous about sharing a bathroom. I just keep imagining this long line for the bathroom but it wasn’t like that at all. There are usually only a few rooms per bathroom and they may not all be full. I have stayed in bed & breakfasts several times and only once did I have to wait a few minutes for the bathroom. Most of the time the shower area is separated from the toilet so if someone is taking a shower you don’t have to wait for them to finish before you can use the toilet. I like the homey feel to bed & breakfasts.

Bed & breakfasts do not have elevators so keep this in mind when packing. You may have to drag your suitcases up several flights of stairs.

Guest Hotels (sometimes called guest houses)

Guest hotels are very similar to bed & breakfasts with the only real difference being in the number of rooms. They most likely will not have an elevator and usually include a full breakfast with the price of the room. Some rooms will be en-suite while others will have to share a bathroom. So if you definitely want your own in room bathroom make sure you ask for an en-suite room.

“Apartments” sort of speaks for itself. Many people don’t realize that tourist can rent an apartment for on a short term basis, a few days, a week or a month. Most people assume renting an apartment would be too expensive but you shouldn’t automatically rule them out. Sometimes you can find really good deals on them and they are great to stay in. You will also save money on your food expenses since you will have a kitchen you can get some groceries and have your meals at the apartment.

When searching for a place to stay there are 3 things you should look for, it needs to be

Safe, clean and in a good location. Always check the accommodation location to make sure its close to the things you want to see and close to public transportation - if you will be using it.

You do not want it to be a major ordeal every time you want to do something. If you have to walk 6 blocks to the bus stop to catch the bus to the subway, then take the subway to the train station to catch a train to go sightseeing, its going to really take away from your experience. Plus it will take up so much time that you could be using sightseeing.

When looking at prices make sure you know if the price is per person, per night or just per night. Also make sure which currency it is in. Some places will list prices in the local currency so you will need to convert that into dollars so you know exactly how much you will be paying.

A good place to start your search is on a 3^rd party travel site such as Expedia, Hotels.com and Kayak. These sites are great if you are looking for a hotel however, if you want a bed & breakfast or guest hotel one of the best sites to look on is smoothhound.com. Some of the other accommodation search like Expedia and Travelocity will list the larger hotels but smoothhound will list bed & breakfast, guest hotels, private hotels and some apartments. They have a great variety of budget accommodations.

If you are looking for an apartment do a internet search for vacation apartment rentals (and the city you are going to). No matter what type of accommodations you are looking for you should search a few different sites. If you are looking at a particular property, don’t assume every site will have the same price because prices can vary between the sites.

As an example, I search for The Tulip Inn Hotel in Amsterdam. I searched 5 different sites. The most expensive price I found was $125 a night. The cheapest price was $85 a night and keep in mind this is for the exact same hotel on the exact same dates. There was a $40 a night difference in price. Multiply that by several nights and that’s a big different in price. So you can see why it pays to do your research.

Some hotels have "family rooms."  Usually this means they have a little more room for the kids.  If you will be traveling with younger children ask about the family room. 

As a rule, the closer to the city center the accommodation is the more expensive it will be. You can save money by finding a place just outside the city center. Sometimes only a few blocks makes a big difference. Just make sure its near public transportation so you can easily get into the city center.

There are tons of accommodation search sites out there. Checkout several of them but don’t try to look at every one or you’ll drive yourself crazy. Try doing a specific search like bed & breakfast’s in Paris or vacation apartment rentals London. It takes time to go through all this information so give yourself plenty of time by starting to search for your accommodations as early as possible.

Keep detailed notes of what you found and where you found it. All this information can easily get mixed up and forgotten. You’ll go crazy it you can’t remember where you saw something so write down.

When you find a place you are considering then do a little more research to make sure its fits your needs. Look a little deeper at the property, see what other travelers thought about. The establishment is going to show you only the best pictures of the place and the best reviews so you should get some unbiased reviews. A few sites where you can do this is:

Hotelicopter.com

Seeyourhotel.com

Tripadvisor.com

independent travelers.com

Frommers.com

To see travelers pictures of the accommodation you can do a search at webshots.com or other photo hosting sites. I never assume I can’t find a picture of something or some place. These days travelers are really good about taking detailed pictures and posting them online to share with other travelers.

As an example, when we were going to Barcelona I was researching hotels when I found one that looked pretty good. On the hotel website it said they have a free all day buffet and free drinks. It sounded to good to be true so I went to Webshots and looked for pictures of the buffet and sure enough there they were. I could se for my self exactly what the buffet looked like and what kind of drinks they had.

A free meal - some hotels will offer a free meal, usually breakfast. Sometimes it’s a continental breakfast which can be kind of skimpy but sometimes they are petty nice. Check out the message boards and travel review sites and try to find someone who has stayed there and ask them how good the free breakfast was. Every once in a while you will find a hotel that offers a really nice free breakfast buffet. While we were in Cairo, Egypt the hotel we stayed at had a breakfast buffet that was included in the price of the room and it was a very nice buffet. Probably the best buffet I have seen.

Hotels usually don’t give free lunch or dinners but they will sometimes have a meal program where you pay a flat discounted fee to eat breakfast or dinner in their restaurant each day of your stay. What you need to consider with these meal plans is really look at how much you will be paying for each meal per person and see if that sounds like a reasonable amount. I usually compare the price against what I would pay for a meal here at home. If its too high I opt out of the pre-paid meal plan. The food itself is also important as to whether or not I will buy the meal plan. Sometimes its hard to research food but it can be done.

Getting a free meal will save on you food bill so even if its not all that great it might be worth putting up with in order to save some money. Snacks - the cost of snacks can add up fast. I always take snacks with me so when we’re sitting around our room at night and get the munchies we don’t have to go and search out a vending machine or run up to the store. I always keep something in my purse so if we are out and about, get hunger but can’t stop and eat something right away, I’ll have snacks for everyone to hold us over. This is especially important if you will be traveling with children. When kids are hungry they get cranky. Having a little snack for them will keep them happy.