How to Book the Right Place to Stay

Start here: the four that matter most

These four make the biggest difference. Get them right and the rest is detail.

Find the hotel first, then compare across sites.

✓Pick the hotel you like on any booking site, then run it through a comparison tool to find the cheapest deal for that exact room.

Start wherever you like browsing: Booking.com, Agoda, Expedia, whichever you're comfortable with. First, find the actual hotel you want to stay at. Get the place right, then worry about what it costs.

Once you've picked a hotel, run it through a tool that checks several booking sites at once and shows the cheapest deal for that exact room. Google Hotels, Trivago, Kayak and Tripadvisor all do this. We ran the test on four real hotels: see which booking site was cheapest, and whether booking direct beat it.

One catch: these comparison tools can't see your loyalty status. If you've got, say, Genius Level 3 on Booking.com, the price you actually pay can be lower than the tool quotes. So when a tool points you to the cheapest site, open that site yourself, log in, and check the real price before you book.

Tools that search across booking sites

Google Hotels The cleanest: every site's price for one hotel on a single screen

Trivago Compares hotel prices across dozens of booking sites

Kayak Metasearch with a handy map view of where each hotel sits

Tripadvisor Reviews and a price comparison across sites in one place

Book refundable and keep an eye on the price.

✓Hotel prices drop, so grab the free-cancellation rate, watch it, and rebook lower if it falls.

Hotel prices aren't like flight prices: they move around and often fall after you book, and you can actually do something about it. Book the rate with free cancellation, even if the non-refundable one is a few dollars less, then keep an eye on it. If the same room drops, book the lower rate and cancel the old one. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing.

Booking sites make this far easier than going direct with the hotel, where changing a rate usually means a phone call and a maybe.

Let it watch the price for you

Don't want to keep checking? On Google Hotels, open the hotel and turn on Track prices. It's free, and it emails you whenever that hotel's rate moves, so you'll know if it drops in time to rebook.

Location matters. Don't pick the wrong neighborhood.

✓A great hotel in the wrong area still ruins the trip. Sort out the neighborhood before you fall for the room.

A brilliant hotel in the wrong part of town is the booking people regret most: an hour in taxis to get anywhere, or a street that never sleeps when you wanted quiet. Sort out the neighborhood before you fall for the room. Our destination guides break down which areas suit which kind of traveler, so start there.

Then open the map and actually zoom in. Is it next to a nightclub, a mosque with a call to prayer at 5am, a busy train line, a building site? None of that is in the listing photos, but it'll be in the reviews if you look. What counts as a dealbreaker is up to you, a lively strip is the whole point for some people and a nightmare for others, so check before you book, not after.

Choose the right type of accommodation.

✓Hostel, hotel or apartment is part budget, part what you want. A known chain means no surprises.

Part of this is money: a hostel dorm and a hotel room aren't competing for the same budget. Part is what you actually want, since adults-only, social and party, and quiet and family-friendly are all different places. Work out which one you are before you filter by price.

The Airbnb-versus-hotel call usually comes down to space. An apartment gives you more room and a kitchen, which matters on a longer stay. But the standard isn't guaranteed, and for a short stay it's rarely cheaper once the cleaning and service fees are added. A hotel, especially a known chain like Hilton or Marriott, means you know exactly what you're getting: a front desk, a real check-in, no hunting for a lockbox, no gamble on a host with two reviews. We usually prefer hotels for that reason. For longer stays, where an apartment can genuinely come out cheaper, we'll look at Airbnb, a serviced apartment or a local rental agency.

Smaller moves that still help

Each one saves you money or a headache. Skip whatever doesn't apply to your trip.

Book direct only when it genuinely wins.

✓The booking site is often cheaper, and gives you someone else to turn to if something goes wrong. Book direct only for a real perk.

The booking site is often the cheaper option for a hotel, and when you ask a hotel to match it plenty won't, or they'll match the rate and add a fee on top. So the direct discount you were promised often isn't really there.

The bigger reason to stay on the booking site is what happens when something goes wrong. Book through Booking.com and you've got another company involved, so if there's a problem you're not left arguing with the front desk alone. Refunds and changes can be easier to sort that way too, though it varies by site. Book direct only when there's a genuine perk or a clearly better price.

Watch the total, not the nightly rate.

✓Taxes and mandatory fees hide behind the nightly rate. Judge on the number at checkout.

The nightly rate is only part of what you pay. Depending on the hotel and the site, it may or may not include local taxes, a city or tourist tax, or a mandatory property fee. Two hotels at the same headline price can be twenty percent apart once everything's added.

The number that matters is the one at checkout, with your dates and taxes in. Take each option to that final screen before you compare, and judge on the total for the whole stay, not the price per night on the results page.

Compare the room, not just the hotel.

✓Within one hotel the rates differ. Check what each includes before you take the cheapest line.

Once you've picked the hotel, the rates within it differ too, and not just on price. The same room can come as a non-refundable rate or a flexible one, with breakfast or without, with parking or without. Look at what each rate actually includes before you grab the cheapest line.

Sometimes adding breakfast is worth it, especially where eating out is a hassle or the hotel is the only option nearby; sometimes you'd rather keep the flexibility and eat out. Same with paying a little more for a flexible rate over a locked-in one. Run down the checklist below, and always read the cancellation rules before you click, not after.

Check before you pick a rate

Breakfast included or worth adding, or skip it and eat out
Free cancellation and the exact deadline it flips to non-refundable
Room size and whether the bed and view match the photos
Parking free, paid, or none at all
Airport transfer some rates bundle it, some charge a lot
Air conditioning not standard everywhere, especially in Europe
Wi-Fi check it's free, not a paid add-on

Don't always book the cheapest room.

✓On a longer stay, a bit more for a bigger room, a better view or a balcony is often worth it.

Your room is one of the few things you pay for and then use every single day of the trip. For a one-night stopover, book the cheapest bed and don't think about it. But if you're somewhere for a week, another ten or twenty a night for more space, a better view or a balcony usually pays you back in how much you enjoy being there. Spend where you'll actually spend time.

Read the reviews properly.

✓Read past the score. Recent reviews, your kind of traveler, and the words that keep repeating.

Scores are inflated, so read past the number. As a rough guide, we'd think twice before booking somewhere below about 8.0 on Booking.com unless the reviews explain why. Sort to the most recent reviews, since a place can slide fast after a change of management, and filter by your kind of traveler, because a solo backpacker and a family of four aren't rating the same things.

Look for repeated words rather than individual rants. One angry review is just one person's bad trip; ten people mentioning thin walls, weak water pressure or a smell in the corridor is a pattern. Ignore the lone furious one-star over a checkout time, and pay attention to what keeps coming up, including anything about the location you spotted on the map.

Join the free loyalty programs, but be realistic.

✓Free to join and worth the member rate and free Wi-Fi. Just don't expect free nights unless you stay with one chain a lot.

Most travelers won't earn hotel status or free nights unless you stay with the same chain like Hilton or Marriott, or put heavy spend on a co-branded card. If that's not you, don't reorganize your trips chasing points.

The programs are still free and signing up takes two minutes, and the perks that don't need status are real: a member-only rate that beats the public one, free in-room Wi-Fi where it's otherwise paid, sometimes a late checkout. If you don't join, you don't get those. So sign up before you book, take the member rate, and treat any free night that shows up as a bonus rather than the plan.

A few myths to ignore

The booking tricks that get shared the most and save you the least. None of these move the price.

✕Airbnb is always cheaper than a hotel

Not once the cleaning and service fees are added. Often pricier for a short stay.

✕The booking site always beats booking direct

Sometimes the site wins, sometimes the hotel does. Always compare both.

✕Incognito or clearing cookies gets cheaper rooms

No. Same folklore as with flights.

✕More stars means a better stay

Stars measure amenities, not location or how clean it is.

✕Book last-minute for the best deal

Only in cities with spare rooms. For anything popular it backfires.

✕One bad review means skip it

Read the pattern, not the one furious outlier.

How to book the right place to stay.