How to book a room at a booking. How to book a hotel on your own? Instructions and tips. Disadvantages of booking at Booking

Tatyana Solomatina

Hotels

Traveling on your own is pretty easy now. Progress moves forward and you no longer need to run somewhere to or book a hotel. Everything can be done without leaving your home, via the Internet.

As a rule, experienced travelers do not have difficulty how to book a hotel on their own, but not all are experienced, many tourists are just starting their journey from a package tour to freedom of movement, so this article is for them.

Read below a brief overview of the services for searching and booking hotels, as well as instructions drawn up on a specific example.

Before you start the process of booking a hotel online, you need to understand the principle, the chain of actions that are performed to achieve a result. If you do not book accommodation on the hotel’s official website, the intermediary between you and the hotel is the reservation system - Agoda, Booking, Ostrovok, etc. They are free for you. Hotels and hotels are registered in them and pay a certain percentage for each order.

However, there are many booking systems; prices for the same objects may vary. Iterate through all the services to find the best value, but for a long time and labor.

Search engines - aggregators (Hotellook, Roomguru, Trivago, etc.) come to the rescue, which act as intermediaries between you and the reservation systems. Search engines themselves do not book, they only help to choose the right housing option, relying on the bases of their booking systems. You see the price offered by each, which allows you to compare them, and choose which one is cheaper. Click on the desired option and the search engine will transfer you to the selected service, and there you make a reservation. Search engine services are also free.

Many people do not bother with search engines, but simply work with their usual booking system such as Booking, not taking into account that other services may have different housing options, or the cost there may be lower. In my opinion, it is unreasonable to act like that, but everyone has their own preferences.

I just want to introduce you to the most popular services for finding and booking housing. Having learned the features, you yourself will make the choice of how you will act - use one reservation system or some sort of search engine aggregator.

A brief overview of hotel search and booking services

Hotellook, Roomguru and Trivago

Hotellook, Roomguru and Trivago are search engine aggregators. Very convenient, free tools for finding housing. I repeat, aggregators themselves do not book hotels. They only help you find the right option and show the price of different reservation systems. The booking itself takes place on the website of the service that put up the offer you like. This is where the system redirects after clicking on the "Book" button.

Search engine interfaces are clear and accessible. Roomguru is somewhat reminiscent of Booking. There are many offers, but using convenient filters, you can quickly filter out the excess.

Each aggregator has its own list of partners, works with reservation systems on its own individual conditions, the cost of the same object for all may vary. If your goal is to find the best housing option on your own, then I recommend that you study the offers of all these search engines. Of course, the process will take a little longer, but in this way, experienced tourists can profitably find cheap rooms in expensive hotels.

Agoda or Booking

Most people use Agoda and Booking services. In their functions they are identical - these are reservation systems. Both have a large base of hotels around the world, including. However, if possible, I prefer to independently book the hotel after all through Booking, and here's why:

Booking gives the final price per room. On Agoda, the price does not include taxes, pay attention to this! You can find out the full cost of the reservation only after confirmation. You must admit that it is not a very pleasant prospect to sit with a calculator and add the percentages that make up taxes yourself to understand how much the cost of living is.
Booking has a more convenient and intuitive interface. Compared to Agoda, there are much more options. You can easily filter by star rating, cost, rating, etc.
The map of Booking hotels shows the exact location of the object. On Agoda there are discrepancies, we have to double-check.
Booking has good technical support. I applied several times, issues are resolved promptly. At Agoda, the employees are less welcoming and quick. There was a case when I did not receive a response to my letter at all.

In my opinion, the plus of Agoda is only that they take the payment of the reservation to their account without transferring your information to a third party - hotels. Booking, however, does not deal with finances by redirecting all your credit card information to the hotel, which debts the money. I don’t really like to shine a card in unverified places, so I attach importance to this fact. Although I did not have any unpleasant cases with Booking.

Of course, I also use Agoda’s service, but rarely. If Booking gives the same prices and conditions, I prefer it all the same.

Airbnb

Booking an apartment, room or house is sometimes preferable to a hotel. In this case, it is better to use the Airbnb service. Many property owners display their offers here. The base is quite voluminous, the service is convenient and easy to use.

Airbnb is a private accommodation reservation system. Like in hotels, the principle of daily rent works here. Of course, you can rent a house for a month, but there are not many such offers. I would not say that you can save a lot if you pretend to be a hotel-level apartment, especially in big cities. The daily cost of private traders for such options is not budgetary. However, everything is relative, and of course you can save money, especially if you are traveling for a long period and find offers with monthly rentals, or if you are traveling in a large company, the price for several hotel rooms is likely to be higher than the cost of the apartment. Of course, a lot depends on the location of the housing.

I was unable to use this reservation system. I considered the options several times, but according to my requests, the cost of private housing was comparable to the price of a hotel room, so I always booked it. Plus, I do not really like private housing, but these are my “cockroaches” in my head, you should not focus on them.

Which service to choose?

So how to book a hotel on your own? Which service to use largely depends on personal preferences. All reservation systems or search engines have their own disadvantages and advantages.

There are services that are better to use in a particular country. For example, experienced travelers believe that Agoda has more offers in Asia, and Booking - in Russia and Europe.

Almost every country has local reservation systems, they are less known on a global scale, but are popular in their country because they specialize in a particular area. But their bases are more focused not on popular hotels, but on simpler options in the form of guesthouses or apartments. The data of such services can be searched on the forums.

Of course, all of the above should be taken into account, but we will not forget about the price. It is unlikely that anyone will want to overpay, just because the service interface is more convenient and the search process takes less time. I think that for many, it is the cost of housing that plays a decisive role in where and how to book a hotel.

Experienced travelers are well aware that the days have gone by when a single reservation system was used to select a hotel. Indeed, now, there is a much greater chance of finding the best option through search aggregators. Moreover, the most advanced tourists use not one, but several search engines at once. Thus, getting a complete picture of the market offers.

Should I book a hotel on the official website?

Booking a hotel on the official website is of course possible, but it is only worth it if you are fluent in English, the hotel is already selected, and the room price is much lower than on search aggregators.

Otherwise, you will have to shovel many hotel sites on your own, spending a lot of time and effort on this. There is a chance to skip more interesting options, because not all hotels have a website. Most guesthouses do not have their own resources. If we are talking about hotels abroad, then units of them have the Russian version. As a rule, booking a hotel is in English, which is a serious test for people who do not speak it. In addition, do not forget that sometimes correspondence is required, which will also have to be conducted in a language other than one's own. Any misunderstanding can lead to loss of money. After the incident in Sri Lanka, I try to avoid direct bookings. If you are interested in the details, about how I lost $ 1,400 when I booked the hotel on the official website on my own, read.

Visual instruction

It is difficult enough to make instructions for all occasions. Beginners do not have the experience of experienced travelers, so I recommend that they do not go to the official websites of hotels or little-known services that specialize in a particular area.

Use trusted search engines - Hotellook, Roomguru or Trivago. Even a novice can easily navigate these resources, if only because they are in Russian. These search engines have many hotel offers all over the world, you are sure to find the right one and easily book a hotel at the best price.

How to book a hotel on my own, I will show you an example of the aggregator that will give us the best option, but first you need to find a hotel and compare the cost of reservation on all three aggregators.

Why such difficulties? Isn't a single search engine enough? - you will probably think. I will answer. If you want to save money, choose the best option, then focusing on the offers of one aggregator, you will not achieve this goal. Now I will prove with an example.

Suppose you are planning to go to Phuket, you are interested in a 4-5 star hotel near the sea on Nai Yang Beach. We open sites of aggregators. We fill in the conditions. Click "Search". See what picture is emerging.

Roomguru offers only 1 hotel upon our request, Trivago - 9, and Hotellook - 12 hotels. Moreover, these data do not mean that Hotellook is better, because in a different locality, or with different search conditions, the result may be the opposite.

The only hotel - that Roomguru showed is on other search engines, but if the cost of booking Roomguru and Hotellook (1728 rubles) is the same, then Trivago this hotel gives out 1697 rubles. You say - what little things, the difference is small. But firstly, the difference is often greater, secondly - this is the price per day, thirdly, as they say - "a chicken by the grain ..".

Therefore, it is better to search on several aggregators. Be sure to use a card in the process. She is everywhere. Thus, you can clearly see the location of the object, because the description does not always give an accurate picture.

Narrow your search, remove unnecessary offers by ticking the opposite of the desired parameters - star rating, rating, type of housing, etc. This will help reduce time.

I hope I convinced you that when booking a hotel, you need to use several search engines. You managed to choose a hotel. Move on. I’ll show you how to book a hotel using the hotel’s example, since it was the only one to appear on all three search engines.

Open the desired hotel on each aggregator, click "View" or the name of the hotel. You will be transferred to the hotel page, where there will be a list of offers from different reservation systems with prices. True Trivago shows this list on the main page, in other services you need to click "View".

Compare prices and choose the best option. Click "Book". The search engine will redirect you to the website of the reservation system that made this offer. In my case, this is a Hotelbook.

Actually that's all. An e-mail will be sent to confirm your reservation. Usually a file with the reservation itself is attached to the letter. Just in case, print it.

Important! Before you click the Book Now button, always read the cancellation policy! Everything happens in life, you need to understand that the penalties for cancellation, or not arrival, can make up the entire amount of the stay. Be sure to pay attention to this!

By the way, for comparison, I looked at the same hotel on Booking, the cost is much higher. Here is the last proof - it’s not worth using the service out of habit.

Perhaps now, for a novice traveler it will seem difficult to choose and book a hotel on their own. But believe me, this feeling will pass after the first perfect operation. Experienced for a long time do everything quickly, on the machine. But they were once new. So do not be scared, you need to start acting, move forward, and you will surely succeed.

If you decide to go on vacation yourself, then do not forget to see information on how to buy and. These are no less important issues when organizing a vacation.

Tatyana Solomatina

Booking a hotel would seem like a pretty simple task, right? And in most cases, it involves choosing the destination, departure date, filling out the appropriate forms and ... voila! Happy Travel!
But! There are some aspects that can cause problems when booking your chosen hotel. Firstly, not all sites can be booked. Secondly, every mistake in filling out the form may have consequences.
Read on what you should not allow when booking a hotel room on your own.

1. The reserved room did not live up to expectations

On the Internet, hotel administrators share information on how hotel rooms are allocated at check-in. It is curious that, in most cases, the best numbers do not get by accident. The scheme is as follows: the one who booked the room directly on the hotel’s website and paid in advance, as a rule, gets the room in the most quiet place and with the best view from the window. Tourists who book a hotel room through travel agency sites often get run of the house rooms (all that’s left). This is a fairly common practice. More lucky in this regard are visitors to hotel sites that do not resort to the services of intermediaries, oriented to regular prices and not looking for hot offers.

Attention:

2. Satisfaction of wishes is not guaranteed.

Large bed or double? Ground floor or higher? Is smoking allowed? Is there a view of the water? When booking a hotel, most reservation systems allow you to formulate an exact request or add comments regarding your wishes. However, pay attention to the inscriptions in small print: in most hotel descriptions, the amendment “satisfaction of your wishes is not guaranteed” is indicated.

Attention:

3. Indication of incorrect arrival and departure dates

To avoid this error, double-check the arrival and departure dates so as not to overpay for an extra day or night at the hotel. Also consider the difference in time zones. Keep in mind the fact that crossing the border with motor vehicles may take longer than you expect. Therefore, the date of arrival may be different. Everything should be checked carefully. You can ask someone to look at your order before clicking the “confirm” or “pay” button. A look from the side will help you make sure that the dates are selected correctly.

4. Booking without a credit card

When booking a hotel, credit cards are very important. Sometimes they help to get pleasant bonuses in the form of rewards, such as free flight miles from the airline, free nights at the hotel, and other discounts. They also offer more guarantees than debit cards and cash (fraud protection or immediate refund for an erroneous transaction). This is a significant advantage.
One more tip: many travelers do not know that most hotels require a deposit in case you use a debit card. So they strive to protect themselves in the event that your account does not have enough funds.

Attention:

5. Room reservation at the wrong hotel

Travelers, be careful when choosing a hotel room. The name of the hotel and the description of its location can be misleading. After all, there are many synonymous names for hotels located in completely different places. You would be surprised if you knew how often travelers make mistakes when booking rooms. Indeed, some hotels describe their location with the characteristic “located near the city center”, however a quick search can show that it is located at the airport ... two hours from the center.

Attention:

6. Forgot to take into account taxes and resort tax

You can refuse some services and, accordingly, fees for them. For example, from cleaning or delivering newspapers if you do not need them. A resort fee is required in some countries, so you must consider the additional costs when booking the hotel. As a rule, their presence in hotels is described by the fuzzy phrase "additional charges are possible." As for taxes, they cannot be avoided.

7. Did not read reviews

Please note that for the sake of advertising, hotels go a lot. Therefore, their descriptions are always embellished. In fact, it turns out that the chic pool in the photo from the site is the size of a postage stamp, and on “luxurious bedding” you feel like on sandpaper.

Attention:

8. Traveling at the wrong time

Be prepared for circumstances to change. Sometimes you should wait until the last minute to make a profitable order. On the contrary, sometimes waiting can have sad consequences for credit card balance. Prices can take off a few days before the date of booking, and you can stay without a room or agree to a much more modest option within the remaining budget. Be careful: of course, you want your trip to be carefully planned, but sometimes rushing can cost money.

Attention:

9. Did not compare prices

Seeing the attractive advertisement “great price!” Next to the name of the hotel, you bought an urgent hot offer and rushed to immediately place an order. It is not right. You can’t rush and place an order without proper study of this issue. Otherwise, you may miss the opportunity for significant savings.

Attention:

www.hotellook.ru

10. Reservation without the possibility of a refund

Every traveler probably wondered: why are non-refundable offers cheaper than regular offers, even if the room is the same? You were "hooked" by the fact that the money can no longer be returned. The hotel owner makes a profit, regardless of whether you check into the room or not. Of course, trying to save money, in the end you risk losing more (the entire cost of booking a room) if circumstances change and the trip has to be canceled.

Attention:

Today, many travelers refuse the services of travel agencies, preferring to reserve their own housing through numerous Internet services. Booking.com has become one of the most popular in this area, offering the largest database of hotels, hostels, apartments and guesthouses worldwide. If you have never used this site, but want to finally master it, we recommend that you carefully study our article. Here you will receive detailed instructions on how to book a hotel for booking, and learn about all the nuances of the service.

Step No. 1. Registration

In order to make a reservation at the booking, you do not have to register. However, we recommend creating your own account on the site: it will take only a few minutes, and registration will greatly simplify the management of further bookings.

After you have entered all the necessary data, click on the "Start" button.

In the following windows, you can specify the phone number and select your preferences. It is not necessary to enter this information, so while boldly click on the “Skip” button in the lower right corner.

At the final stage of registration, you need to go to your mail indicated at registration and confirm the information is correct. In a matter of seconds, your mailbox should receive a notification with the headline “Confirm with one click”, in which you only need to click on the blue bar “Confirm”. Now you have your account at the booking.

Note!

When registering, be sure to provide a REAL email address. Upon completion of any reservation, a code will be sent to it, which you will need when checking into the hotel!
When setting up the profile, we recommend that you specify the phone number and address, which in the future, if necessary, the administration of the property will be able to contact you with. It is worth considering that many (but not all) hotels require an advance payment, and in order to book a hotel through booking, you may need to use your bank card details. Therefore, you can pre-assign the card data to your account at the registration stage.
In order to select the currency in which prices will be displayed at the booking, go to the icon with the image of the currency in the top center. Here you will find a flag in the form of a flag, with which you can change the language of the site.

Step No. 2. Search for a hotel

The second step is the most time-consuming, but also the most exciting, in the process of which you have to choose a hotel that meets all your requirements. To search for a hotel, you need to turn to the search blocks located on both the main,

In the first line of the search you need to specify the destination: the name of the hotel, country, island, city, resort, etc. Here you must select the dates for which the trip is planned. If you haven’t set your travel time yet, enter the approximate numbers to find the approximate cost of your stay and check the availability of rooms at the hotel. It is important to indicate the number of expected guests, because the price directly depends on this factor.

After you have entered all the data, click on the "Check Prices" or "Find" button. You will see a list of different accommodation options, next to which the cost of booking for the entire period of your stay at the hotel will be displayed. See the list of search criteria on the left. Using these parameters, you will filter your search and be able to book a hotel on booking com that best meets your needs.

Apply filters on the left side of the page: here you can mark the criteria you are interested in, such as hotel star rating, type of accommodation, attractions, your budget, food, etc.

At the top of the list of hotels there is also a filter that sorts options by stars, prices, proximity to the city center, ratings and recommendations of the service.

If you liked a hotel from the list and want to find out more about it, simply click on the photo or hotel name or on the “View our latest available rooms” tab below.

To find out detailed information about accommodation, go to the table with the types of rooms (on the same page below), in which you will see the parameters of the rooms and what they are equipped with, as well as the price for accommodation in different room classes.

And to clarify information about meals and cancellation, hover over the question mark in a blue circle. Here you will find out whether it is possible to book a hotel without payment. To go to the photo gallery, just click on the name of the room type.

Note!

Step number 3. Hotel reservation

In this part of our instructions you will learn how to pay for a booked hotel reservation. Having studied all the accommodation options on the site and choosing the hotel you like, you proceed to the third and final stage - booking a hotel room. To do this, in the table you need to indicate the number of rooms and click on the "I reserve" button.

Next, you go to the page where you need to enter personal data in a special block. Here you must indicate your name and surname, email address, the number of guests and their name, your wishes and preferences (optional).

You can also ask questions to hotel representatives by writing a letter in the form below. It is also advisable to indicate the approximate time of arrival: in this case, the hotel will meet you on time and register without any problems. After entering the necessary data, click on the tab “Next: final data”.

Then a new page will open before you, where you will be asked to indicate the country, phone number and information on the card (if you have not assigned it to your account yet).

You must enter the owner’s name, card type, card number, expiration date and CVC code. Then click on the “Complete Booking” tab.

Now you can be congratulated on your first booking reservation! After you complete the reservation, a confirmation email will be sent to your email inbox. In the letter you can once again check all the data and save with it the reservation in electronic form on the phone. From here, you can proceed to cancel the reservation.

When booking, pay attention to the following details:

You can always manage your reservation through your booking account. By going to your profile, you gain the opportunity to book another object, change the number of trips, request breakfast, increase / decrease the number of guests, cancel your reservation, etc. (if this does not contradict the terms and conditions of the hotel).
If you have booked a room, but your plans have changed, you must notify the hotel in advance. As a rule, you need to remove your reservation at least one day before the expected check-in. Some hotels in such cases require a two-day notice. You can send a request to cancel the reservation from your personal account. After that, a confirmation email will be sent to your email inbox about the cancellation of the reservation.
In some cases it is impossible to book a hotel without a card: this happens when the property wants to guarantee timely payment. To do this, it sometimes blocks some of the funds on your card. This amount may be equal to the cost of one day of stay at the hotel, and the price for the entire booking period. If you cancel your reservation following the rules established by the hotel, then no fines will be imposed on you. If your card does not have enough funds, the object has the right to independently cancel the reservation.

How to book a hotel without a credit card

The service offers enough hotels in different parts of the world for reserving rooms in which a credit card is not required. How to book a hotel at a booking without payment? In order to display only such options in the list in the direction you specified, you need to turn to the filter on the left, where in the column “Free cancellation and other”, check the box “Booking without credit card”.

Note! This option will be available only if you specify the travel dates.

Of course, there may be situations when you like a hotel that does not require prepayment, but you can’t book it without a card in any way. And if you are also afraid to leave such important information on the site, then there is only one way out - to try to indicate the data of a valid card, which stores only a small amount or no funds at all. Often this option works well.

Output

We hope that we were able to give you a clear idea of \u200b\u200bhow to book a hotel for booking. If you have never used the service before, then guided by our instructions, you will quickly figure out all the options and controls on the site. And if you have additional questions, we will always be happy to answer them in the comments.

Similar entries:

If you are going on vacation, you can save a lot if you book a hotel yourself without resorting to the services of travel agencies. In addition, due to the fact that recently there have been frequent cases of bankruptcy of companies involved in organizing leisure, it is much more reliable to book a hotel on your own.

In addition, you can slowly choose a hotel, read reviews about it, compare it with other options, and only then make a decision.

Where is better to book a hotel

If you decide to book a hotel yourself, then the easiest and most convenient way is to do it via the Internet. Today there are many sites for booking hotels in all countries of the world. When searching for a hotel, it is best to use several sites. Since the cost of the same placement on different resources can vary significantly.

You can also book a room on the official website of the hotel itself. But you need to keep in mind that the price may be higher. Since hotel booking sites offer discounts.

Most popular booking sites

There are a lot of resources through which you can reserve a hotel, but in order not to fall for fraud, it is best to use the services of trusted companies. The best-known booking sites are Booking.com, HotelsCombined.com and

HotelsCombined.com is the site from which to start your hotel search. It is not possible to book a hotel directly on this resource, since its job is to find offers for a given hotel and compare prices on all booking resources. In addition, here you can see all the promotions that are currently available on one or another hotel booking site. If you are lucky, then the hotel can cost 50 or even 80 percent cheaper.

Booking.com is the best known hotel booking site. It is used by people living in Russia and abroad. Since this is the largest site, you can almost always find decent discounts here. The main advantage of this resource is that many hotels can be booked without prepayment or with a deposit of 10% of the cost of the stay. In addition, if you change your mind, most hotels will not charge you for canceling your reservation.

Ostrovok.ru is the largest Russian hotel online reservation service that provides customers with more than 1 million accommodation options in hotels, hostels and apartments. Due to work with 78 world suppliers of hotel equipment and 28,000 hotels connected under direct contracts, in 60% of cases the prices of Ostrovok.ru are lower than the retail prices for similar rooms by 5-15%. The main advantages of this service: a wide selection of equipment, its own loyalty program "Dream Bank", low prices and a large number of traveler reviews.

Self-booking hotels

We open the booking site and enter the country, city or resort place where you want to go in the search box. After the system produces the results, we study the proposed options.

To facilitate the selection, the results found can be sorted by price, star rating, and visitor reviews. In addition, the system allows you to immediately set the necessary conditions in the search, as well as select a hotel by location on the map.

Having decided on the choice of hotel, click "Book". A window will open in which the prices for this hotel and booking options will be indicated. By choosing the appropriate option, you go to the site that deals directly with the reservation. Suppose this is Booking.com.

After you have decided on the reserve system, the hotel page will open, where you will need to choose the type of room and the food system. As a rule, all hotels offer breakfast, which can be either already included in the price, or you can make them when booking.

After clicking the “Book” button, the system will ask you to enter contact information and a bank card number. This information is needed for hotels only to guarantee a reservation, they do not charge any payment in advance. True, when creating a reserve, you need to read the cancellation policy, some hotels do it for free, but there are also hotels that indicate the time frame for a cancellation without penalty. If you cancel the reservation later, the hotel will deduct the penalty amount from the card, usually it is equal to the daily room rate. Most hotels only charge at check-out.

Contact information and your first and last name must be indicated in English letters. You can also indicate any wishes, for example, that you need a parking space for a car, or ask for an extra bed.

After you enter the card number and click "Book", you will receive an email confirming the reservation. It is advisable to print it out and take it with you; it may come in handy not only at the hotel, but on the road. For example, you may be interested in where you are going in the border zone.

What you need to pay attention to if you decide to book a hotel yourself

First of all, when choosing a hotel, you should pay attention to its stardom, and you need to do this, adjusted for the country of the proposed vacation. So, if three stars in Europe is a very decent hotel, then, for example, in Turkey or Egypt it is better to consider a hotel of a higher category.

Remoteness from the airport, the city center and the seashore. Agree that after the plane I don’t really want to shake on the bus for another two, or even three hours. It is also not very convenient to adjust your sea trips to the bus schedule or spend money every day on a taxi.

The power system in the hotel. It is very important how the hotel organizes meals, whether only breakfast is included in the room rate, or whether lunch and dinner are included.

Additional free services, such as a pool, gym, children's room.

If you travel by car, the first thing you should pay attention to is whether the hotel provides parking or not, if so, how much does it cost.

Hotel reviews. This is the most important point, which should be almost decisive when choosing a hotel. Moreover, focusing on one or two reviews is not worth it; you need to look at as many responses as possible in order to make your own opinion about the hotel before booking a hotel.

Choose and book a hotel on the coast of Turkey

The Turkish coast is one of the most visited and favorite places of Russians. This is due to the relative cheapness, excellent service, delicious food, sunny weather and the country's proximity. If you are traveling for a week, then, of course, it will be easier to buy a ready-made tour from the operator, but if you intend to spend at least a month in this fabulous country, it will be wiser to refuse the services of third parties and reserve the room yourself.

If you plan to book a hotel in Turkey on your own, first of all determine the region of the country, this will determine not only the price of the hotel, but also the quality of the beaches, the surrounding nature, the availability of historical places, as well as the composition of vacationers. So, Belek is famous for its sandy beaches and high prices; in Kemer you will find a wonderful microclimate, but you will have to sunbathe on the rocks; in Side you will find dilapidated historical monuments, but mainly tourists from Germany will surround you; in Alanya you will feel almost at home, as this is a favorite resort of our compatriots.

Having decided on the place, enter the hotel category, the number of people and planned days of rest in the search form. If you are going on vacation with children, indicate their age. Turkish hotels do not charge for children under 2 years old.

When the list of hotels opens, pay attention to the food system, remoteness from the sea and reviews. After reading the reviews on the reservation site, see what people write about the hotel on other sites, for example, on Tophotels.ru. Making a reservation, you can leave information in the comments that you need a transfer, and hotel employees will be happy to meet you at the airport.

Book hotels in the capital of Turkey

Istanbul is a very beautiful, ancient city, reminiscent of an oriental tale. However, not everyone visits the capital of Turkey in order to admire the beauties, someone is attracted by huge bazaars, someone comes for business. Before you book a hotel yourself, you need to decide on the purpose of the trip, as well as the budget. If your trip is exclusively touristic, the budget allows you, then it is best to consider hotels in the center of the old city of Sultanahmet.

Of course, staying in a historical place will cost much more, but the best ones are located there. Booking a hotel yourself is better in advance, since hotels in the historical part of the city are in demand. When reserving a room in the center of Istanbul, pay attention to its area, as this part of the city has hotels with tiny rooms.

How to book a hotel in Spain

When planning a trip to Spain, decide in advance in which city and place you will book the hotel. In Spain, it is quite simple to choose and reserve a hotel on your own, as all hotels in the country, even those with only two stars, are very good. In addition, to save money on restaurants, you can opt for an apart-hotel, where the rooms look like a small apartment, having not only a bedroom, but also a full kitchen for cooking.

The most budget hotels can be found in the areas of Costa Brava, Costa Dorada, Costa Blanca. The most expensive vacation options are offered by the resorts of Costa de Almeria, Costa de Sol, as well as the islands of Ibiza and Mallorca.

Summing up, you need to dwell on some of the nuances that it is advisable to foresee if you intend to book a hotel yourself. Tips to heed to avoid problems are listed below:

In order not to have to pay extra days, specify the time of arrival and departure when booking.

Find out in advance the opening hours of the reception, so that arriving at night or early in the morning, do not face closed doors.

Before making a reservation, read the cancellation policy so that if you change plans, do not lose money.

Now you know how to book a hotel yourself, and you can travel and save money on travel agency services.

It is quite easy to book a hotel on your own, every year more and more tourists and travelers book vacation accommodation in this way, without resorting to travel agencies, while saving up to 70% of their money. This was made possible thanks to the search engines available in hotels around the world. It is enough to enter the data (city, date of arrival and departure, number of people) in the search and within 5 minutes to “stake out” suitable housing for yourself.

What you need for booking

To book a room at the hotel, you will need:

Internet access
Plastic Visa, Mastercard or the like.

It is important to note that not all plastic cards are suitable for paying for reservations. For example, in most cases, a VISA Electron card cannot be used to pay for a number. We need the so-called "registered" bank cards. How to distinguish a name card from an unnamed one? Simply, your name, surname and the card number itself (a sixteen-digit number in the middle of the card) are squeezed out (not printed) on the name plate.

Where to book

There are a lot of hotels in the world, and in order not to search for them for several hours “manually”, you need to use the search engine for available rooms, which in a few seconds will select the most suitable option for you to stay in the right place. This service scans trusted hotels around the world and provides information about them in a convenient form (like Yandex, which scans the entire site and gives an answer to the request that you entered in the search bar, only RoomGuru specializes in finding accommodation, it’s much more convenient for this and provides discounts), and also with its help you can book any room you like in a few minutes.

Advantages of booking through RoomGuru

You will find the most suitable holiday accommodation
The service is absolutely free, and in many cases it provides large discounts on accommodation (RoomGuru has direct discount agreements with some companies, i.e. if you had already booked a room at the reception (without RoomGuru, upon arrival at the place of rest) , then you would pay 10-20% more than using this service).
Service finds hotels with the lowest prices and the highest level of comfort.
A description, a photo, a list of what is in the room, and most importantly, there are reviews written by people who have already rested in this place are added to each hotel on the site.
The service itself has received millions of positive reviews from travelers from all over the world.

Less booking through RoomGuru

With the money you saved, you can buy more sweets on vacation and get better :)

Choose hotels with a rating above 7
Read reviews carefully
If you want to save, then choose housing away from the city center and popular beaches
If you want to save, then book a room a few months before the date of arrival, in which case the prices are much lower than usual
Read the list of what is in the room
Read the cancellation policy
Booking a room with full prepayment will be cheaper than paying with check-in

Instruction manual

In order to book a hotel yourself, you need to follow a few steps. And so, in order.

Step number 1. Go and enter the data (where you are going, arrival date, departure date, number of guests). As an example, I will look at a hotel search (Thailand).

Step number 2. You will be redirected to the page with the search results, which presents hotels with available rooms according to your parameters. Also on this page on the left there is a block “Filter by your criteria”, thanks to which you can specify which option will be most suitable. In my example, I need a 3-star hotel with a price from 0 to 2999 rubles and with breakfast included in the price, so I tick off these items in the block on the left.

Step number 3. After setting all the filters you need in the block on the left, you will see only those options that are suitable for the selected parameters. Now your task is to choose the most suitable hotel, preferably with a rating above 7, because this suggests that it is quite comfortable here, the staff takes care of their customers, and the food is tasty (in general terms). To view reviews, photos, descriptions, simply click on the name of the hotel.

Step number 4. After you have chosen a suitable hotel, you need to book it. To do this, simply click on the "Book Now" button next to the accommodation option you like.

Step number 5. You will be redirected to the RoomGuru partner’s site (do not forget that this service is looking for hotels, but you need to book them on another site). Depending on the partner site, the interface is different, but the procedure is similar for almost everyone. Click the "Book Now" button on the partner’s website.

You will be taken to a page with a detailed description. Choose the required number of rooms (usually 1) and click on the "Book" button (the interface is different on different sites).

Step number 6. Now you need to enter the data for the reservation (name, surname, e-mail, password, number of guests in the room, address of registration and payment details). Carefully read the terms of payment, in some cases, money is debited from the card immediately, and in some it is debited only upon check-in. After entering the data, click on the "Book" button.

That's all, you booked the hotel yourself. An electronic confirmation of your reservation will be sent to your e-mail, print it out before departure, because some hotels require this confirmation.

Two nice “tricks” booking

There are some tricks that experienced travelers use, even if you are not, it will not hurt you to use these methods in order to improve your conditions on vacation for free, although they do not always work, only 70 percent, but still better to try, the attempt is not worth the money.

If you book a standard room in the hotel in the evening (after 17:00) on the day of arrival, then when you check in, they almost always offer a more comfortable room (for example, a suite). This is due to the fact that standard, which means inexpensive rooms are in the greatest demand and often they are all booked, and expensive rooms are rarely booked, more comfortable rooms are offered to those who book them late, because the cost of service is standard, that luxury rooms are for the hotel is the same.
If you consider yourself to be a person who can insist on anywhere, then you can use the following trick: when booking, indicate what is needed for smokers, and when checking in, insist that an error has occurred and you need a non-smoking room, then you will be given more comfortable room, but on condition that you check in in the evening.

That's all. Now you should not have a question how to book a hotel yourself. Travel and enjoy life.