There are many online resources for travel needs. It is always a good idea to research as much as you can before making decisions.
After a while, we found that we always ended up going with a hand-full of websites. Here is our list.
Search for Accommodations
Looking for accommodations is always a lot of fun. It gets us to imagine the style of travel that we want to experience. Do we want to feel the luxury of being a tourist? Do we want to be part of local community? How much do we want to know about the local living? Depending on our mood and the purpose of the travel, we have stayed in a 5-star hotel, a bed & breakfast, an apartment, or a farm house.
Airbnb: There is large variation in the style of accommodations on Airbnb. We frequently find nice and sweet local homes or apartments. We sometimes find accommodations managed by local management companies. We also find extremely luxurious units for people who want to experiment with royal life.
After deciding on an area to stay, how do we choose the one accommodation that fits us best?
First, read the description of the accommodations and the reviews carefully, especially looking for potential issues that are hidden between words. For example, a lively neighborhood could mean that it would be loud late into the night. It won’t be a good choice for a family, especially with young children. We had this experience in Prague. We stayed in an Airbnb stating that it was located in the ‘heart of Old Town”. This was true and you knew it at two in the morning.
Some people don’t like to leave bad reviews, especially if the host also lives in the house. Think twice if all the reviews are all about how nice the host is, but nothing about the accommodation itself. Read the house rules and treat them seriously. It is very important to respect the host’s house rules. If we don’t think we can meet certain house rules, it is better to keep away.
Second, the more specific description of the accommodation the host provides the better. For example, the chance is higher that the host takes good care of the accommodation and would be responsive when we need help, if he/she posts many pictures of various rooms and even several maps or pictures to just point out where the accommodation is.
Third, count the bedrooms and bathrooms. This is not a big deal for solo travelers, but this is a great big deal for a family. Everyone in a family has different habits and only the members of the family know. There are only three in our family, but we know that we need at least need two beds and prefer two bedrooms and two bathrooms if possible.
Finally, without being to these places in person, our rule of thumb is that we will only choose an Airbnb that is a Superhost, has received reviews from at least 10 people, and all ratings are 5 stars.
TripAdvisor: If we are thinking about a hotel or similar, we always start with TripAdvisor. After deciding on an area to stay, just like how we choose an Airbnb, we read the description of the accommodations and the reviews carefully. We use the travelers’ ranking to help us narrow down the selections. It is very handy that TripAdvisor also shows the price from various online booking agents if rooms are available for the travel dates. Once we know which hotel we want to stay, we usually use whichever booking agent that shows the lowest price on TripAdvisor.
Sometimes, we find better deals if we book directly from a hotel’s official website. Not only the price is better, but also some room types are only offered on the hotels’ website. For example, Suminoe Ryokan only offers a room with private bath on their official website, but not on online booking agents.
I hope these tips help you to choose your best vacation accommodation. Let me know your comments.
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