What's your goto site for booking hotels in Europe?

[sparky08]

We have an 11 day trip to France/Switzerland coming up. We're staying with a group for most of the trip, but have three days on our own.

How do you find accomodations for European hotels? Hotels.com? Or are there better options?

 

[njhowie]

If you're thinking about the major hotel chains like Marriott/Hilton, etc. I'd just go and book it on their own website and then periodically search around for a better price - generally, they have a lowest price guarantee that the price you get on their own site will be the best for the same accommodations/parameters. If you find lower, they will match it, and sometimes give an additional discount.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I use various sources to FIND the hotels -- Expedia, TripAdvisor, Google Maps, travel forum recommendations, etc. Then I track down the hotel's own website for actual bookings. I prefer to book directly rather than via a third party to minimize any issues.

 

[Aerides]

I'd start with looking exactly where I want to be - a map. Then drill down from there and find the best choice. Then book however is easiest and most direct.

 

[sengsational]

If you are not too particular, you can use Hotwire or Priceline, but do not depend on the price matching guarantees. I often go on those, and they'll say you can get a hotel in a certain geography for $X, but won't tell you exactly the hotel (just the star rating). You can then shop that area with a price in hand, and book direct if you can find a similar price. Watch out on those sites, though, because they'll expand the geography on you without making it obvious. The next town over might be cheap, but there's probably a reason for that.

Sometimes those sites do have better prices in the same geography than direct booking, and I've done that before. One time, I got a price $12 or $15 a night more than a later price I found. Tried the low price guarantee, with a screen shot of the lower price, and they denied it saying it was a "member price", even though I wasn't a member. But if you don't presume there is any low price guarantee, those kinds of sites can save a buck.

 

[Rianne]

My goto is hotels.com because I'm a gold member ) We went through Eastern Europe and I planned all of it through that site. They gave me a full refund when we didn't like one of the hotels in Budapest. Also signed up ahead of time for tours, Prague beer tour, day cruise on the Danube, museum tours etc. All went well and I paid ahead for them. Just a suggestion. There are many good booking sites.

 

[OldShooter]

AirBnB. To stay in a hotel is, for us, a planning failure.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I used both hotels.com and booking.com. I booked some really nice places at good prices. Of course that was before the pandemic.

 

[LiveBelowMeans]

I've been very happy with Booking.com

 

[Chuckanut]

I often use the 3rd party booking sites to find the names of hotels and do a basic check.

If it’s a mom-n-pop hotel I try to reserve directly to save them the fees of the 3rd party site. Sometimes, i can get the same room for less via a booking site. But, you have to be careful. For example, Booking.com had the same room for $15 less, but the cancellation policy was three days instead of one day when booked direct with the hotel. Since our trip plans were fluid, I chose to pay the extra $15.

If it’s a chain hotel, I book through their website to get the points. It adds up. On a one trip in the last few years, I got four out of five nights for free. That doesn’t happen often, but when it does the feeling is good.

Airbnb, I check that to see if I can get a better accommodation in a better location for the same or less money. Lately, I have found that is harder to do, often due to fees. But, I will go back to Airbnb if the prices become more reasonable.

 

[audreyh1]

I always go to a hotel website to book directly. Google Maps can give you a very good idea of prices versus location for hotels at any given destination. I have accounts at a couple of European hotel chains that have come in handy.

 

[jpeter1093]

I look on TripAdvisor; who will consolidate offers from Booking.com, hotels.com; etc. as well as see reviews from fellow travelers. I see the prices from those sites and then check the hotels' own sites (which usually match the offers). I like to book direct to reduce any issues; plus they sometimes give perks if you book direct. For example, we're getting a free bottle of wine from Hotel Rott in Prague.

 

[NW-Bound]

I used both hotels.com and booking.com. I booked some really nice places at good prices. Of course that was before the pandemic.

I use the above, plus Airbnb.

Strangely, last year for my trip to the Dolomites, booking.com showed many listings while hotels.com did not have much in that area.

 

[Pointby2]

As a European travel Rookie, I used Hotels.com. It was nice to have all the information for the trip organized and in one place. We are traveling in a group of four with two families. We were able to book nice two bedroom apartments for Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. That was enough work without doing it twice and chasing down the hotels websites.

 

[audreyh1]

I should add that I used to use Trip Advisor very heavily for initial review of Europe hotels. What matters to us most is location (walking distance) and comfort. It’s been 4 years ago now. It’s amazing how online travel research has changed over that period. I feel like I’m relearning a lot of stuff. It’s OK - keeps me on my toes, just like travel does.

 

[Drake3287]

As someone whose wife worked 30+ years with various international travel wholesalers, I would never book with a third party vender. Even the larger one's that are well known. I could write a book regarding the stories I've heard over the years.

We've visited Europe yearly for many years and alway book directly with the hotel itself. We also join the reward program which the hotel belongs to if possible. This in itself gives you a slight discount on rates not to mention they realize you're a member once you check-in.

 

[Route246]

Same here. booking.com has a better user interface when using an overlay map but they offer comparable prices and and are often exactly the same.

Advanced tips:

First, try doing your searches logged off in a different browser without any history or cache. Chrome incognito mode works well for this. You can sometimes, more often than you might think, get a better rate for the same hotel on the same nights because they don't know who you are and sometimes offer a slightly better teaser rate to get you to sign up. It's not perfect but it works sometimes.

Second, I use a consolidator, in my case I use trivago (not logged in) and sometimes it quotes booking.com and hotels.com at even cheaper rates. Click over to the quote and start booking the room and once you have the rate locked in you can then login the site and get the better rate. NOTE: I have had trivago redirect me to booking.com in a browser where I was logged on and it defaulted to a higher rate. Multiple click-throughs continued to quote me the higher price. If I do this from incognito mode it will redirect to where I'm not logged on and give me the cheaper quoted rate.

Lastly, as a cheapskate I continuously query for better rates up until I'm ready to depart. Sometimes I can find a better rate. Don't use the "match" policy as your better rate may be a one shot deal that they cannot replicate and they won't give it to you, even if you have a screenshot. Just double-book and make sure everything is the same or better and then cancel your more costly booking. Both booking.com and hotels.com allow you to double-book and triple-book, it is not a problem. Customer service on the phone has told me it is OK to do this as they cannot always match because they don't see the same rate as you might.

I used both hotels.com and booking.com. I booked some really nice places at good prices. Of course that was before the pandemic.

 

[DrRoy]

I use various sources to FIND the hotels -- Expedia, TripAdvisor, Google Maps, travel forum recommendations, etc. Then I track down the hotel's own website for actual bookings. I prefer to book directly rather than via a third party to minimize any issues.

DW prefers this, although it can bee pretty handy to have all the reservations in one place, like Booking.com.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

While I've done this much more domestically than internationally, JPeter and PaunchyPirate both seem to have developed the exact same approach that I use.

I find that I like the Booking.com interface, but unless it gives me a significantly better rate than the hotel website, I book direct. Ten bucks a night is not worth my peace of mind. I did find a new consolidator on TripAdvisor on my last trip to NYC, and since I was there for 10 days, it saved me a few hundred dollars, so I took a risk. Time between the booking and the trip was only about a month, so I wouldn't have had any problem disputing it on my credit card, but there were no issues.

I believe when we were in Europe 10 years ago i found our hotels via Booking.com, and we were very happy with them. The little B&B in Bruges was run by an artist, who made us breakfast in his studio. The hotel in Copenhagen is the same one my travel veteran MIL wound up staying at just a month ago! I also like that Booking.com gives you a table of the available room types and rates that's standardized, it feels easier to compare rooms.

I look on TripAdvisor; who will consolidate offers from Booking.com, hotels.com; etc. as well as see reviews from fellow travelers. I see the prices from those sites and then check the hotels' own sites (which usually match the offers). I like to book direct to reduce any issues; plus they sometimes give perks if you book direct. For example, we're getting a free bottle of wine from Hotel Rott in Prague.

I use various sources to FIND the hotels -- Expedia, TripAdvisor, Google Maps, travel forum recommendations, etc. Then I track down the hotel's own website for actual bookings. I prefer to book directly rather than via a third party to minimize any issues.

 

[sparky08]

Thanks for the tips everyone! What led me to ask here was that I noticed Bookings.com showed fewer hotels than Hotels.com (for a touristy town on a busy weekend).

I didn't know about searching for hotels on Google Maps. That worked great! I was able to put in dates and a price range and find a couple winners near the train station. And from there, it will take you to the hotel's booking page (or Expedia or Bookings or Hotels.com).

 

[Unpaintedhuffhines]

I look on TripAdvisor; who will consolidate offers from Booking.com, hotels.com; etc. as well as see reviews from fellow travelers. I see the prices from those sites and then check the hotels' own sites (which usually match the offers). I like to book direct to reduce any issues; plus they sometimes give perks if you book direct. For example, we're getting a free bottle of wine from Hotel Rott in Prague.

Exactly. Booking via a consolidator has benefits, and if everything goes well, it's fine. But friends of mine have had issues (incorrect room type, missing reservation), and the hotel just says "dunno, contact [consolidator] to work it out." Booking directly is the way to go for me.

And I've soured on AirBnB just due to the fees. The nightly rate may look fine, but the fees can get ridiculous. It is convenient when traveling with a family though.

 

[Ian S]

I didn't know about searching for hotels on Google Maps. That worked great! I was able to put in dates and a price range and find a couple winners near the train station. And from there, it will take you to the hotel's booking page (or Expedia or Bookings or Hotels.com).

On our recent trip to Rome and London, I also used Google maps. Since we knew roughly where in each city we wanted to stay and the price range and dates we needed, Google maps worked well in providing hotels with pricing from aggregators and the hotels themselves. Usually most of the pricing would be fairly similar but occasionally there would be an outlier price that we found could disappear quickly so a case of you snooze you lose. Anyway it worked well for us.

 

[Ian S]

Exactly. Booking via a consolidator has benefits, and if everything goes well, it's fine. But friends of mine have had issues (incorrect room type, missing reservation), and the hotel just says "dunno, contact [consolidator] to work it out." Booking directly is the way to go for me.

I make sure to contact the hotel directly well prior to traveling to ensure all is well with our reservation regardless of how it was booked.

 

[Rianne]

As a European travel Rookie, I used Hotels.com. It was nice to have all the information for the trip organized and in one place. We are traveling in a group of four with two families. We were able to book nice two bedroom apartments for Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. That was enough work without doing it twice and chasing down the hotels websites.

I forgot to add, 3 of the places we stayed in Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary (I think I booked over 5 traveling around) were apartments with W/Ds, lots of room, and good locations. I specifically wanted washer-dryers so we could pack light. We did all this with carry-on luggage. Thus, many YouTube video visits to travel light hacks. The one we got a refund for, was an outright lie with fake reviews. Their customer service did not question my complaint and refunded me.

 

[brett]

We use many but always try to book direct. Booking.com, Agoda.com, tui uk, expedia, hotels.com (not our favorite), accor, riu, melia (mas), orbitz etc .

too many to list.