Staying a the best accommodations
Whatever it is, we will show you the best way to find your ideal accommodation
Finding the best accommodation comes down to your personal preference. Each traveler has their own comfort level and budget when they travel. Let’s explore the different budget levels and how to book them.
The Different Types of Hotels
Hostels
These are the types of accommodation that I have the most experience with. This is perfect for young travelers on a tight budget. Hostels may seem intimidating at first, but I assure you that they will enhance your travel, especially if you are traveling alone.
My go-to platform is Hostelworld. This can be downloaded as an app or found online. I would highly recommend downloading the app because most of the time, you’ll probably be making hostel reservations on your phone. Hostelworld is the #1 platform to find and book hostels. Hostelworld has accommodations all around the world that fit any traveler’s budget. If you are a very sporadic traveler like I am, Hostelworld is perfect for you because they always have options to book the same night. Sometimes, hostels are even cheaper when booked the same day.
Shown above are snips from Hostelworld when I searched for a hostel in Barcelona, Spain. The main aspects I look at when picking a hostel are its rating, distance from the city center, price, and room sizes. For women, most hostels offer women-only dorms as an option. Most locations have numerous options to choose from. Large cities like Barcelona probably have hundreds of options. It’s because of this, that I like to only stay at Hostels that are 8 stars or higher. Yes, some of these higher-rated hostels might be more expensive, but in big cities, you have so many other options that you are bound to find other hostels that more like your price.
When it comes to distance from the city center, that is up to personal preference. How much are you willing to walk to save a few bucks? Does this location have good public transport? My personal preference is to stay relatively close to the city center. I enjoy staying in the more touristy sections of town and close to many of the attractions I want to see. As for price, not much advice I can give on this one. Comes down to a personal choice.
Room sizes might not seem important until you stay in a room where you realize it is important. The smaller the room, the better. However, the smaller the room, the higher the price. I like to limit the rooms I stay in to have no more than 8 beds. Everyone who is staying at these hostels has different styles of traveling. Some might stay out late at the bars and come walking around the room at 4 am. Other people might try to catch the sunrise and set an alarm for 4 am. Don’t worry though, they will sleep through the first ten minutes of their alarm so you get a chance to wake up for the sunrise! When booking a room, just think, the larger the room, the more likely there is going to be a noisy person.
Shown above is a snip from the CITAN Hostel in Tokyo, Japan. As mentioned earlier, this hostel has a female-only dorm option. They also offer an 8-bed mixed dorm and a 4-bed mixed dorm for slightly more. If it were me, I’d pay the little bit extra for half the occupants.
There you go! There is your breakdown on how to find the best hostels. I hope I didn’t scare you away from hostels by giving you all those warnings about bed situations. These are great for young travelers who are on a budget and want to meet new people. Some of my best travel experiences where activities that I did with people that I met in my hostel.
Guest Houses and Local Hotels
Guest houses and local hotels are another great accommodation option for budget travelers. These are great if you are visiting more rural locations. A guest house is when you stay in a local’s home, in either an extra house or an extra room. Guest houses may sound a bit daunting, but one of my best travel experiences came from staying in a local’s extra bedroom. It is also a great way to support the local community.
The best places to find guest houses are in small rural towns where hostels and hotels are limited. The platform that I like to use for finding guest homes is Google Maps, sounds pretty simple, right? For this discussion, let’s jump back to a previous trip where I stayed at a guest home in Mesita, Georgia. Go onto Google Maps and zoom into whatever area you are planning on staying. Keep in mind, if you are staying in a rural area, you will probably want a car. If that is the case, the distance that your accommodation is away from the town center can be up to your discretion. For this example, Google Maps is showing Mestia, Georgia. In the top left corner of the map, there is a tab that says “Hotels”. Click on that tab and you will get a view similar to what is shown below.
As you can see, this small town has tons of different hotel and guest house options. Prices stretch to fit all kinds of budgets. There are a few guest houses listed in the teens and other hotels listed over $100. Let’s pick a guest house at random, Guest House Seti. As you can see below, Guest House Seti is only $20 a night and has an average rating of 4.7 stars. Pretty good! I like to look at the number of reviews the hotel has. I like to pick accommodations with a larger number of reviews. This tells me that many people have stayed here and, on average, they enjoyed it. For Mestia, Georgia, 31 reviews are pretty good. Let’s continue with our booking.
When we continue and press “Check Availability”, it gives us the option to continue to a third-party booking site. In this case, it is Priceline. After being taken to Priceline, we finish up are reservation just like any other.
Major Hotels
These are the more typical hotels that you imagine when you hear the word “hotel”. These can range from local hotel brands to large international brands such as IMG Hotel & Resorts, Hilton, Hyatt…. you get the point. These are primarily found in large cities with a large tourism industry. Booking these hotels is pretty straightforward and can be done on either third-party websites like Google, Expedia, Kayak, and others, or directly through the website of the hotel brand.
