Cheap hotels guide discussion

[MSE Jenny]

Hi all, we've written a Cheap Hotels guide to help you find cheap rooms worldwide, and we'd love your feedback.

If you've tried the techniques mentioned in the guide, were you successful? Are there any tips or hotel booking sites you'd add, or if you work for a hotel, have you any insider tips?

Thanks for your help!

MSE Jenny

[Mr Wang]

Originally Posted by MSE Jenny

Hi all, we've written a Cheap Hotels guide to help you find cheap rooms worldwide, and we'd love your feedback.

If you've tried the techniques mentioned in the guide, were you successful? Are there any tips or hotel booking sites you'd add, or if you work for a hotel, have you any insider tips?

Thanks for your help!

MSE Jenny

You forgot the obvious:

If you are backpacking during the off season turn up on the last bus/train of the day. Usually around 6pm, no other tourists will be arriving and so hotels will be rock bottom prices.

In Asia, across the whole of it (for low end accommodation), never ever ever pre book unless it's likely there'll be no hotels. Turn up for the best rate. This is usually the same for the whole of the USA (outside major cities)

In most tourist places in Asia/USA you will find more rooms than tourists and so really bargaining is key. In the USA arrive before 10pm as usually this is when the nightshift start, and to be fair - If you owned a hotel you wouldn't work the nightshift would you...

Avoid hotels listed in Lonely Planet and stick to local places. In many instances you can pretty much name your own price.

If all else fails then couchsurf: http://www.couchsurfing.org/

[PaulMurph1]

I am looking to book a weekend away for myself and my Fianc!e, I have flights prepared and was wondering what time would be best to book a hotel, does the price increase/decrease closer to arrival date? (Departing Late September)

Hopefully somebody can advise me on this.

Thanks,
Paul

[memosoft]

if you are looking for cheap hotels you might use travelfox.com/hotels it is a travel search engine where you can search and compare tons of travel sites for the cheapest hotels deals in just very few mouse clicks.

[formidible]

It depends on what time of year you go and your destination. I find these two sites are best and, unless you go Travelodge, are the best two sites to find the cheapest deals:-

www.trivago.com
www.booking.com

[darkdoodle]

I found that for Thailand in particular agoda.com was really helpful. We used it the night before we wanted anywhere, never in advance and got some really good deals in some really nice hotels. They have a useful reviews section as well which helps you to make a decision and the booking process is simple and really quick

[mawcraw]

For good quality budget accommodation throughout Scotland there are 130 independently owned hostels affiliated with Scottish Independent Hostels (SIH) The owners/managers are all knowledgable about the area where they are located and full of helpful advice. Most hostels are located in the most scenic parts of Scotland (great for outdoor enthusiasts) or near to City Centres. There is a wide variety of accommodation on offer from ensuite private rooms to bunks - but all offer shared facilities which keeps costs down, especially kitchen and dining. As a new user I cant put in the website link - its hostel-scotland.uk with the www at the front!

[Bob the Saver]

Originally Posted by mawcraw

For good quality budget accommodation throughout Scotland there are 130 independently owned hostels affiliated with Scottish Independent Hostels (SIH) The owners/managers are all knowledgable about the area where they are located and full of helpful advice. Most hostels are located in the most scenic parts of Scotland (great for outdoor enthusiasts) or near to City Centres. There is a wide variety of accommodation on offer from ensuite private rooms to bunks - but all offer shared facilities which keeps costs down, especially kitchen and dining. As a new user I cant put in the website link - its hostel-scotland.uk with the www at the front!

Does Scotland count as Overseas Holidays & Travel Planning
or is there no forum for cold, damp midge infested destinations?
Seems like spam to me anyway.

[budgetflyer]

Hopefully next year Bob. Then we can introduce "Visa On Arrival". £20 should stop you spoiling our countryside with views of your ugly mug and polluting our fresh, clean air with corny jokes

[Bob the Saver]

Originally Posted by budgetflyer

Hopefully next year Bob. Then we can introduce "Visa On Arrival". £20 should stop you spoiling our countryside with views of your ugly mug and polluting our fresh, clean air with corny jokes

Have to say, I spent toooo long in Furry Boots Toon for my liking and have frozen to death on Skye visiting friends so I've served my time. I'd rather do 6 months in Peterhead than go through it again.
Many years ago I did have a strange experience in a hotel in Sauchiehall Street was it called the Royal or something like that. It involved a semi-naked woman and a box of soft centres - it's a long story.

Two of the three other things I remember about working in Glasgow was a meal at a restaurant, I think it wast called after a make of car where we spend the too much on food that didn't agree with us, the other was how attractive the young ladies were at the time, pity we couldn't understand a bl**dy word they said.
The one thing I used to love about the frozen north was the view of Dyce,
from about 1000 feet as I was leaving.