It’s been a while since I last wrote about Top 5 tips for travel. This is something popped up in my mind and experienced when I tried to book for our accommodation on our Europe tour next next month in May. Let’s put aside other accommodation option like home exchange, residential room to let, or sleep on train. When you need a proper accommodation to stay on your travel, there are still some tips for you to book them cheaper. If money is not your concern when booking hotels, don’t waste your time here. You can’t get what you want and you can leave this blog NOW and search for hotel websites instead. I’m the advocate of budget travel and what I’m writing here is all about saving money on your travel, not spending! How to save money on travel? Ok, you may read on…

How to get cheap accommodation on your travel? There are many ways and what I list out here are the Top 5 tips to get them cheap (I’m not giving away discount coupon please), not free. If you want free accommodation, consider to join home exchange network, or, start praying…

Here are the top 5:

1. Location from travel destination. General rules of thumb off course is the further away from town, the cheaper the accommodation cost. However, accommodation in some cities like those London hotels are much cheaper away from city center but much nearer to train station. If you plan to go to and from there by train, and those travel sites you planned to visit are quite scattered, you may be wiser to book further away since cheaper and grab a daily  ticket to travel around travel sites by tram, underground as well as buses. This way your overall cost would still be cheaper since you still need to take an underground to wander around even though staying in city center. So, check your places to go before you book a hotel!
2. Facilities of accommodation. Well, logic tells us that the more facilities you need, the more you need to pay. This relates back to the type of accommodation you are after. They are few type of accommodation in general, from campsite, Bed and Breakfast, hostel, boutique to star rated hotel. In terms of facilities, campsites have the least facilities while 5-star-hotels have the most. From sharing bathroom for campsite and B&B to attached bathroom for hostel and hotel. Also to consider is the number of people in a room. Whether it is a 10-people-dorm or a double bed ensuite. Another factor to consider is which city you are booking for? You could expect bar facilities from Barcelona hotels while foot reflexology service from Phuket hotels. What’s the tips? Ask yourself these questions: “Can you sleep with strangers?” “Can you share bathroom with others?” “Can you sleep if someone snore?” “Can you sleep without lights?” “Do you like chatting with other travellers?” “Do you surf net on travel?” “How much time you’re going to spend in your hotel?” “How about your partner if you are travelling with companion?” Then next step is to pick the least facilitated accommodation you can accept to book it cheaper or nearer to town center.
3. Which Day / Season to stay. Which day of week to stay in that accommodation would cost differently. Don’t mention about which season of year. Accommodation cost would be doubled during weekend and halved during weekday. New York hotels would cost more in July due to its Independence Day and summer while you could expect much cheaper during Winter. Check if there is any special day in that city on which particular day and plan you itinerary or travel to avoid that festive seasons, unless visiting the OctoberFest of Munich is your purpose then booking more expensive accommodation would be unavoidable. The only option left is to book it online as early as you can! The tips is to stay in expensive Paris hotels during weekday and move to Amsterdam hotels during weekend.
4. Book online in advance. Nowadays, most travelers are booking accommodation in advance. These can be done online. Even B&B could be booked online. Why? You can get online rate which is much cheaper than walk-in rate normally. Unless you are backpacking where no definite time or date to stay in one place, travelers should book your hotels in advance to have it cheaper than published rate. Especially booking accommodation in Europe online where you need to pay only 10% deposit normally, you won’t lose much on paying money in advance!
5. Number of days to stay. If you are planning to stay in a city for few days, check the rate for multiple day stay of your hotel. Be slightly flexible to your itinerary and you might be able to stay one more night for FREE! Another instances to consider would be staying one more night in Florence hotels and travel to Pisa for a day trip is much cheaper than traveling and staying in Pisa! Tips? Do the simple math to calculate which city or hotel is cheaper to stay more days instead of spending unnecessary money by checking in and out different hotels!

By using these guidelines, I’m now assessing accommodation cost in London, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome before confirming my online booking as well as my Europe tour itinerary. No time to do all these homework? My last tips for those who have limited lead time to plan is to wait until last minute to get some last minute offers from certain online agents who offer last minute best rate within 30 days from your check-in date! – Travel Feeder, the ultimate travel blog