Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Hassle-free Bookings to Stay Within Budget

Once your itinerary is ready, it is time to tackle the next task - booking your place of stay.

Booking the rooms can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. You will find a decent room as long as you book it well in advance. On the other hand, you can spend a great deal of time on the quest for an ideal stay. How much effort you want to put in and how particular you are about the rooms would decide your strategy.

But irrespective of your plans, you should book early. I started booking the rooms over 5 months in advance. In spite of that, I felt that I could have got a better deal if I had started earlier.


Deploy Your Safety Net

Why? Though booking the rooms well in advance is preferable, any change of plans, or finding a better place to stay, would lead to losing money as room cancellation fees. On the other hand, all the good stays may be gone by the time your plans are confirmed. So it is important that you start booking your rooms early, but without the risk or liability. This "safety net" gives you the assurance that decent and reasonably priced rooms are booked for the entire duration of the holiday.

How? To setup your safety net, go to booking.com. Specify the place and dates and go through the search results; look for listings which say "Free Cancellation, Pay Later". Find the ones which meet your requirement, don't seem too expensive - and just book it without a second thought. As it implies, you don't have to pay anything now, or on cancellation. You do, however, need to give your credit card details. But it is perfectly safe. I have made over 30 bookings and cancellations, and have never had a problem. My credit card was charged only once, for Rs 1, for checking its validity and the same was duly returned. If you do not find anything suitable on booking.com, you can also try hotels.com. The tags to lookout for are "Free Cancellation" and "Pay Now or at Hotel". I have booked and canceled a few rooms on this site too without any problems.



What Next?

Once you have done all the bookings, you have your safety net in place. You are free to proceed to other planning tasks (or work, if the boss insists). The total expenditure on stay may presently be on the higher side. But you can now search for better deals and get the costs down without any stress. Every time your itinerary changes - which may happen many times, over the next few months - just change your bookings too.

Booking.com The Booking.com website offers great filters for you to narrow down your search to whatever you want. You can filter the search results by price, rating, location and even facilities provided. So if you have to soak in a hot tub at the end of the day, you can search for just that.



Airbnb.com This website is a great place to book apartments, homestays and B&Bs. It lists lovely houses and rooms for extremely reasonable prices. However, you have to pay while booking and there is a fee for every cancellation. So only book a place which you really like. Once you have booked here, you need not waste your time searching for any other deals.



Further Search Options

However, if you do not find what you want in Booking and Airbnb, here are a few other resources which you may explore :-

Wimdu.com - Apartments on hire.
Roomorama.com - Short term vacation rentals.
Homestay.com - Stay with a local in his house.
VRBO.com - Homestays.
Homeaway.com - Homestays again.
Venere.com - Book Hotels, B&Bs and apartments.
Trivago.com - Hotel rooms.
Expedia.com - More Hotel rooms.
Orbitz.com - Even more Hotel rooms.
Kayak.com - An aggregator of other search engines.
Travelocity.com ........ And many many more.

Google Hotels    And then there is Google Hotels. How could they not be involved any search? The site combines the best results from other websites like expedia, hotels, booking, etc. I did not use it as I was not aware of it then. You can give it a try and let me know how it is.

Couchsurfing     And then there are the budget backpacker fads like 'Couchsurfing'. It refers to enjoying the hospitality of a friendly host. You can find free accomodation ranging from a simple couch in the living room to a spare bedroom. Definitely not an option for a family, but interesting nevertheless.


Google Maps and Streetview

During the booking process, google can be invaluable in many ways. You can find the closest supermarket, fast food joint, bus stand, metro station, etc, on Google Maps. You can also check out the neighbourhood using Google Streetview - Just find your hotel on google maps; Look for the 'little yellow man' on the bottom right corner; Pick him up by clicking; and drag and drop him on your hotel location. This should open the Google Streetview  from that position on the map. It gives you a useful view of the neighbourhood. In fact, if you are a compulsive planner, or scared of getting lost, you can 'virtually' walk from the nearest station to your apartment.






Final Thoughts

Here are a few final thoughts on choosing your place of stay.

  • It is worth staying in the city centre. If it is too costly, stay close to it. Walking around the old city at night, without worrying about how to get back to the room is worth the extra cost.

  • In Venice, you must stay on the island. The early morning and late nights are the best time to wander around the city.
  • Check that you are not staying in the seedy neighborhoods or red light district of the city.
  • Check that public transportation will be available nearby. 700-800 metres may not seem like much when sitting in front of the PC, but it can be a pain when dragging your luggage or when walking back after a long tiring day.
  • If they do not serve breakfast, check with them if there is a budget eatery nearby.
  • It is good to have a supermarket nearby for buying food and supplies.
  • Check what amenities are provided free of charge, and what you have to pay for. 
  • Though most places provide free wifi, toileteries, towels, ironing board, coffee maker, etc, confirm that it is not a chargeable extra.


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