15 Best tips for finding accommodation deals

Many times I’ve ended up wasting way too much time comparing accommodations and reading reviews in Booking, Google reviews and Agoda, as I have not beforehand decided what are my main criteria for the trip.

Sometimes it’s important to choose the budget friendliest option, whereas sometimes you really want a great place to stay, including breakfast, spa and gym.

So if you don’t have clarity what you want, it’s much harder to find it. (Works in general in life as well, but let’s not get too existential right now.) (More on existentialism in these blog posts: Posts about personal growth).

Sometimes you may have set clear intention on your accommodation wishes and budget, but somehow you can’t find it.

For example, Northern Spain is much pricier than Costa Blanca for accommodation, and therefore in Santiago de Compostela we ended up staying in hostel, because average-looking hotels were not worth the pirce, considering what you get with that.

Also there’s no point looking for an Airbnb in Marrakech, when the most awesome accommodations with good prices are riads.

This should not come as a surprise that hotel prices are much higher during high seasons, and during low-seasons you can get bargain deals in awesome hotels.

We tend to travel during low-season, as we don’t like too crowded, touristy spots. Sure, then many times the weather in the destination is a bit worse, but prices are lower, there are less tourists, and you can get awesome pics of the famous Instagram spots without hour-long queues.

I know many people work in professions where you can’t just suddenly choose to travel for two weeks whenever you feel like, but you are tied to certain times of the year to keep your holidays.

If you need to travel during high season, then it is better for you to book your accommodation early, rather than leaving it to last minute. During high season there aren’t that many last minute deals and the best hotels sell out.

So here applies the early bird catches the worm.

I know many people work in professions where you can’t just suddenly choose to travel for two weeks whenever you feel like, but you are tied to certain times of the year to keep your holidays.

If you need to travel during high season, then it is better for you to book your accommodation early, rather than leaving it to last minute.

During high season there aren’t that many last minute deals and the best hotels sell out.

So here applies the early bird catches the worm.

Hotel booking sites do use your data you give consent to, and therefore they can show increased prices the next time you check the same hotel you were intending to book.

To avoid this, I recommend using incognito tab and clearing cache on your device.

One trick that works at least with booking: sometimes they show lower prices on their mobile app compared to their desktop version of the site. I believe they do this to make as many people as possible to download their app, but I think it’s worth it if you can get better deals.

To improve the price-quality ratio, Booking's own "deals" filter works actually quite well. Maybe it's not always showing the kinds of options that fit to your criteria, but it's worth checking.

Booking uses for example deals: mobile-only deal (as discussed above), limited time deal, late escape deal (aka last minute holiday).

Below examples of these deals

You would assume all extra charges and taxes are included at the hotel prices, but quite often this is actually not the case. In many cities the hotel charges daily city tax of all guests. It’s no problem when it’s in some destinations just 2 euros, but for example in Amsterdam top-spot hotels charge 20€+ per night/guest, so it can turn out to be very annoying extra cost upon arrival if you’re not aware of it.

This should be informed on the booking platform, and if not, I recommend contacting them and asking about it to know the fees.

Nowadays there are only few large booking platforms, so comparing prices isn’t so much of a thing anymore. This is because many booking platforms don’t allow the hotels to offer rooms on cheaper prices on their own platforms, if they want to be listed in Booking, for example.

However, sometimes there are differences, and I would do the price comparison at the moment when you have already chosen the hotel you are about to book, and you take a last-minute look of the same hotel in other platforms. (Remember to use incognito and clear cache!).

Many booking platforms actually promise the best price, so you may not need to even switch the platform, just inform the one you’re using and they will price-match.

You can read more about Booking’s price matching here: Price matching at Booking.com

Related to the previous point, even if you find the stay cheaper somewhere else, rather ask your booking platform to price match than booking your stays everytime in different platforms to save a few euros.

For example Booking offers great loyalty discounts, it’s called Genius level 1 and level 2 discounts.

Once you have levelled up to 1st or 2nd level, you can even filter to show onl hotels that give these genius disconts.

As discussed above, timing is everything. If you can travel off-season, you should check also last minute deals. You can find great deals and discounts.

However, when booking last minute, you need to be aware that there won’t be some big event happening at the destination just then: for example if there’s a huge artist performing in the city or some big conference, that can raise the prices even during otherwise low-season.

Booking early is safer option, if you know well beforehand when you are going to travel and where. I hope to become more like this in the future, as currently I’m quite spontaneous and can’t plan where I will travel a year from now.

I recommend booking all holidays during high season or famous destinations rather early than last minute, as the best accommodations tend to sell out and don’t offer last-minute deals.

If it’s 4 or more people going on holidays, it’s many times a better deal to book an apartment for your group than separate hotel rooms.

For booking apartments, I use Airbnb and booking. It’s also nice because then you’ll also have access to kitchen and common living room/outdoor space to spend time together with your group, instead of lounging in hotel lobby.

Instead of Airbnb or booking you might think booking directly from the owner. There are people in Airbnb who might even suggest you that when you’re about to book via Airbnb. The truth is, you might get slightly better deal booking directly, yet if something goes wrong, you do not have any security.

Nowadays there’s so many scams online, that I’ve stopped booking accommodations directly, and I’d rather have some third party in between making sure I will actually get the key and my stay.

Especially if you need to pay the accommodation beforehand, I recommend using a platform.

In cases where you can pay upon arrival, the risk is not that big, and can be a good option.

But then again, if something goes wrong, you are at your destination with the trouble of fiding a deal then and there. (If you end up in this situation, I recommend just walking in to the hotels and getting deal directly from them, rather than browsing and booking online via any platfrom.)

In Airbnb and Booking you can easily chat with the hosts, and if you are about to book for 10+ days, you can simply ask for a discount. Many hosts prefer renting for longer term, rather than cleaning the room every other day for next people for 2 nights.

You might have seen very good looking accommodations with great prices, which don’t have any reviews yet. This may sound too good to be true, and sometimes it is.

Personally I don’t often choose these great deals, as without any reviews it is tricky to know if the place is legit.

I would consider doing this, if there are few well-rated written reviews existing already, as then it’s probably a sign it’s actually a new accommodation that is trying to do their best to get great reviews and get more bookings.