Cheap hotels guide discussion area

concrete_kid

Recently I've been working an an upmarket boutique hotel with 12 rooms. One day I was stood next to reception when a customer rang to ask for a room the following week, I heard the receptionist tell him it was £170 per night, a moment later she said "Ok, we can do it for £90"

When she came off the phone I asked what the customer had said, and basically he'd just grumbled he could get a cheaper room elsewhere so she lowered the price, telling me she'd much rather sell a room for £90 or less, than not at all.

Pretty obvious I suppose, but I was surprised how quickly she offered such a massive discount without him even asking.

I'd say this is worth a try!

nitharia

its always good and safe to know where to stay before we go to vacations,isn't it...when ever i plan for a vacation hotelly provide me with best results it saves lots of time money & enegry..

may be this can help u guys too

http://www.hotelly.com

fritteritaway

I saw Lastminute.com 's "secret hotels" are recommended on the site as good deals.

I wanted to let people know that I found what seemed a great 4 star hotel through this, although no amount of "googling" revealed which one it was. I had used the "secret hotel" service before and been happy with that hotel, so I went ahead and booked this one.

When Lastminute told me where I had booked, it was actually only a 3 star hotel (hence not being able to find it on google!). I contacted Lastminute to complain and was told that the star ratings are their own star ratings. They apparently clearly mention this -somewhere in the fine print of the T's and C's.


So be warned - they may be selling you something other than they are describing and you are therefore expecting!

hollydays

fritteritaway wrote: »

I saw Lastminute.com 's "secret hotels" are recommended on the site as good deals.

I wanted to let people know that I found what seemed a great 4 star hotel through this, although no amount of "googling" revealed which one it was. I had used the "secret hotel" service before and been happy with that hotel, so I went ahead and booked this one.

When Lastminute told me where I had booked, it was actually only a 3 star hotel (hence not being able to find it on google!). I contacted Lastminute to complain and was told that the star ratings are their own star ratings. They apparently clearly mention this -somewhere in the fine print of the T's and C's.


So be warned - they may be selling you something other than they are describing and you are therefore expecting!

That's naughty..so it's always worth asking,in the uk at least,what the official rating of the hotel is.Surely they couldn't refuse to tell you that? It doesn't have to give the hotel away.

~Chameleon~

Does anyone know of any cheap B&Bs, Guesthouses or hotels on the north Norfolk coast? Looking to book a couple of nights this week if possible.

MrGumby

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Does anyone know of any cheap B&Bs, Guesthouses or hotels on the north Norfolk coast? Looking to book a couple of nights this week if possible.

Depends what you mean by cheap. You'll find top-quality places at some reasonable prices (from about £60 for a double) here. Click on the yellow 'England' box, then the yellow 'Norfolk' box. Untick the options you aren't interested in, like 'self-catering':

http://www.sawdays.co.uk/maps/Europe/Britain/

runciblespoon

Here's a guide on how to crack LastMinute.com's 'Top Secret' hotels. You have to do a little bit of work, but you can find out the location you're going to be fairly accurately and it's quite likely you'll find the specific hotel.

They've jiggled around with the distances on the LastMinute.com site, so you can't just compare distances any more as suggested by Martin - there are no hotels with exactly the same distance. If you're in a city centre, there can be lots of hotels close together so the distance isn't a good guide. Here's a suggestion on how to use all the distances together.

The 'Old School' way
Here you need a paper map with a scale, pencil, ruler and pair of compasses (remember those from school?). Go to the LastMinute site and find out the distances of your hotel from key landmarks. According to the scale on the map, set your compasses for the distance given (eg 2.2km). Place the point of the compasses on the landmark (eg 'Central Station') - it's important to be as accurate as possible. Draw a circle. Repeat this for lots of landmarks. The hotel can be found in the area that the most circles cross.

If you don't have a pair of compasses you can get by with string and a drawing pin. Use the drawing pin to fix one end to the string to the landmark on the map. Measure out the appropriate distance on the string. Hold the pencil at that length and swing it round to draw a circle.

The Google Earth why-do-things-simply-when-you-can-use-the-internet method

First start Google Earth. Go into Tools->Options and select Show Lat/Long to be Degrees, not Degrees/Minutes/Seconds.

Now put a placemark (yellow pushpin) on the first landmark. Often you can find it because there's a Wikipedia or Panoramio marker (check from the satellite picture that you're in the right place). Stations are easy to find because of the railway lines, or try squares or other landmarks. Smaller landmarks are better for accuracy (eg 'doll museum' better than 'Central park').

Once you've clicked to put a placemark, up comes a box giving the latitude and longitude in degrees (eg 50.1234567)

Now head off to the KML Circle Generator. Copy in the latitude and longitutde into the centre point boxes - without the degree symbol, making sure you get the signs right. Enter the radius that LastMinute tells you the hotel is from the landmark (in metres - eg 2200 for 2.2km). This will now download a KML file to your computer. Cancel the pushpin you just created in Google Earth.

Open the KML file in Google Earth. You should see a circle superimposed on the city.

Repeat this for lots of landmarks. The hotel can be found where the most circles cross.

Now go into the lefthand bar where you can turn on and off various layers. Here you can turn on the 'Primary database->Places of Interest->Lodging->Lodging" layer and see nearby hotels. It's not guaranteed, but your hotel might be one of them. So do a bit of Googling to see whether they match the description given by LastMinute.


Here's some examples for a hotel in Brussels.

LastMinute's description:
Luxurious 5 star hotel, located in an exclusive part of the city centre and close to all the famous attractions of Brussels. Enjoy this beautiful city by day or by night and make sure you visit the beautiful parks that Brussels has to offer. All the rooms are equipped with a private bathroom.

Google doesn't find anything, and the full description is too vague to be helpful.

Distances:
Musical Instrument Museum 1.66km
Grand place 1.73km
Midi station 1.29km

Plug these into Google Earth and I get these circles:


Zooming in:


Looking at those hotels, the Hotel Europa is a 4* Crowne Plaza hotel... (see other postings as to how LastMinute make up their star ratings). I'd guess the promotion is more likely to feature hotel chains than family-run hotels. So that's my best guess. Even if it's not right, I know the area I'm going to be in.

d0ct0r

Has anyone booked hotels with Alpharooms or Quick rooms? How reliable are they? I was directed there from a link from Hotelcomparisons.com. They are significantly cheaper then others.

Looking to book last minute hotel with either of them.

Would be grateful for any info!

Thanks

GlennTheBaker

d0ct0r wrote: »

Has anyone booked hotels with Alpharooms or Quick rooms? How reliable are they? I was directed there from a link from Hotelcomparisons.com. They are significantly cheaper then others.

Looking to book last minute hotel with either of them.

Would be grateful for any info!

Thanks

I've used both with no problems. I used Quickrooms for a hotel stay 2 weeks ago.

kingkano

Mega hotel bargains are available from Lastminute.com* if you use a bit of detective skill. It has a section called ‘top secret hotels’. Here, you don’t know the star level till you’ve paid, and only then are you told the hotel’s name. Yet this means rock-bottom prices, as hotels then needn’t worry it’ll cannibalise their direct trade.

I suspect there is an error in the above text, as bolded. As you DO know the star level. I suspect you meant to write, 'you ONLY know the star level until you've paid'??