We are not all used to book hotels online. Older people still do it by calling the establishment in question, or at most writing an email to the address that appears on the website.
The best is not that, since it is not the most practical, but it is an option at least respectable. Ideally, visit hotel booking portals like Booking or comparators like Trivago. Of course, there are a number of issues to consider in order to find the best hotel at the best price and without surprises.
The decalogue of the good search engine
1- Enter all data of what you are looking for: city, date of entry, date of departure and number of people who will sleep in the room. That is the basics. From there you can play with the filters to sharpen your aim.
2- The filters The most commonly used are those of price (you can set a limit depending on what you want to spend), distance (not to be too far from the city center or the beach), stars (measures the quality of the establishment) and valuation (better or worse depending on the experiences of other clients.
3- With all this we can already click on "search" knowing that there is more filters. For example, if it has a spa or not, if the beach is nearby, if there is a pool, if it includes breakfast, if it has parking, if there is an elevator, if pets are allowed ... I always recommend not to opt for these filters unless it is an essential requirement. Otherwise we will be narrowing the search too much and less results will be shown.
4- Once the results, it is a matter of ordering them by popularity order (the search engine decides which are the most popular according to their criteria), by price (from low to high or high to low) or by distance (high to low or low to high). greater distance than we have considered key when establishing the filters).
5- If you searched for Trivago, you will see that there are usually several options. The rooms of the same hotel may be available through different portals, such as Expedia or Catch it. Click on the cheapest option (or the cheapest option with breakfast and free cancellation if that is important to you) and you will be redirected to the portal in question. That is if you have not done the search through a portal, I repeat. In this portal all the characteristics of the room that you are about to hire will be shown. Look closely at everything, because sometimes they even cheat with the price that appears in the comparator results. You can take a unpleasant surprise if you do not even stop to look at the price, although luckily it is not the most common.
6- Keep in mind the maximum number of people per room and see if the payment is made at the moment or at the hotel. You should also bear in mind that some hotels offer you the possibility of cancel booking until a few days before the date of entry. That is very positive, since there can always be a last minute unforeseen event.
7- The most important factor, in my opinion, is the one that has to do with other people's opinions that have already been there. If there is a considerable amount of comments, you can get an idea of the good and the bad that the hotel has. You will know if the employees are friendly, if the location is good, if the rooms are clean ... It is something that goes wonderfully.
8- When you go to pay, if it is the hotel of a country where the euro is not the official currency, take a look at the payment conditions. The price may appear in euros, but they can charge you with the currency there if they specify it. In that case, if the payment is made before arriving at the hotel, the bank will charge you a commission for the currency exchange. In addition, the amount paid may not coincide with the contracted amount, since they sometimes refer to the exchange rate on the day of payment and it always fluctuates.
9- When you have read all the conditions of the reservation and make the payment, do not forget print the reservation. The most normal thing is that they send it to the email address that you have provided, so it is not something you should do at the same time, although it is highly recommended in case you fly. In certain portals such as Booking they allow you to always carry your reservation thanks to their application, where all reservations are stored and they even send you guides to the cities you are going to visit (only major cities).
10- It should not be compulsory because today everything is computerized, but it never hurts to take the printed paper from the reservation. That or use the application that I mentioned earlier if booked by Booking, although it is always better to carry the paper in case the mobile runs out of battery.
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