Sometimes it can feel completely hopeless to find the perfect hotel. Your hotel search resulted in over a thousand hotels and you have no idea what you really want. But don't despair! Here are my top tips for what you need to consider when booking a hotel – everything from check-in times to parking.
1. Service – check-in times?
Are you landing at the airport late at night? Be extra vigilant about your hotel's check-in times. Hotels with fewer than five stars rarely have 24-hour check-in, so it can be a race against time to get your room key if your flight is delayed. Always let the hotel know if you expect to arrive late.
2. Service – wifi?
Our daughter still talks about the terrible hotel we stayed at in Austria, which had no wifi in the room. How COULD I book such a bad hotel? If there is a service at the hotel that is important to you – take another look at the hotel description. If it doesn’t say it, it probably doesn’t exist. I’ve learned the hard way that it must say “free wifi” in our hotels.
3. The location?
When you book a hotel, make it a habit to always click on the hotel in the map view. Here you can see which other hotels are nearby and you can get a feel for whether the hotel is centrally located, near the sea, on a major road or near the city's attractions. A very good help!
4. Cancellable or not?
I usually find it nice to know that you can cancel a hotel reservation. Maybe you want to change your original plan for your road trip, or you simply get sick and can’t go on vacation. I usually cancel hotels because I find a better hotel, or because the trip doesn’t happen at all. The prices can be a few hundred kroner different between cancelable and non-cancellable. If you, like me, think it’s worth it – book the cancelable option.
NOTE: Check the fine print to see which date and time really applies for cancellation, it can differ a lot between hotels!
5. Possibility of extra beds?
As a family with children, it is nice to be able to stay with the whole family in one and the same room and only add an extra bed to the booked room. However, there are very many hotels that do not allow anything other than cots. Read carefully both on the booking page and on the hotel's own page if they allow extra beds and/or cots or if they have a sofa bed in the room. Otherwise, it can easily become a very snobbish (and expensive) hotel visit.
6. Do you have a car? Do you need parking?
Do you have a car? Then your hotel needs to have a garage or parking. Hotels in the city center usually charge a lot for both their rooms and their parking, while hotels on the outskirts of the cities may even have free parking. What is more important to you? The convenience of parking or the convenience of the perfect city location? Always contact the hotel if you need a parking space, it often happens that they are full before you check in.
7. Difference between the rooms – size and view
It can often be difficult to see any difference between the different rooms in a hotel. They often look exactly the same in the pictures. But why are some rooms more expensive than others? I almost always go in and read the hotel's own website or email the hotel with my questions. What usually differentiates between the rooms is the view, the size of the room, how high up in the building the room is, the size of the bed and when the room was last renovated. If you need an extra bed, you usually can't book the smallest room.
8. How many stars?
Through all the hotels we have stayed at and in all these countries, I can probably say that the star classification is not completely standardized between countries. Don't blindly trust the number of stars at the smaller hotels abroad, but read carefully what the hotel offers and make your own assessment. The larger hotel chains almost always maintain consistent quality – there you know (most of the time) what you are getting – even if it may not always be so exciting.
Read more about the star ratings here: What do hotel stars really mean?
9. Facilities – swimming pool, restaurant, safe, kids club?
If you are going to Greece, you may want to make sure that the hotel has a children's pool. If the hotel is located on a remote paradise beach, it may be important to know that there are several different restaurants in the hotel. If the hotel is located in a big city, you may want a safe that is large enough for your laptop. Facilities are probably the requirements that differ the most between different travelers. Make a short list of your most important requirements and check them against the hotel description before you book.
10. Last – but not least – Read what others think!
Before I press the book button, I always check the hotel’s ratings from previous guests. If there are over 1000 guests who have written reviews and everyone thought it was good, then I have probably found a really good hotel. If I find a hotel with only three lukewarm reviews, I would probably put the hotel on my “maybe” list instead and search further. But one thing is important to remember. Always read what travelers have written before looking at the stars – quite often it is completely irrelevant comments that have caused the review.
What are your best tips for booking hotels?
