The book says that for hotels in Brussels in July, I should not make a reservation and will then find nice business hotels at low prices. My question is how to quickly find such a hotel. It is a big city and I don't want to spend several hours shopping for a hotel. Are there particular ones which are good to try in this way? Have others successfully used this strategy?
That sounds like a recipe for disaster running from hotel to hotel if you do not know how to get around.
As someone who has been to Belgium and stayed in Brussels I would search booking.com today or stay at the Ibis Hotel at Grand Place.
Use booking.com.
Using advice on this forum, we stayed at a very fine business-class hotel on the weekend for a much lower price. Just look on line for these weekend or off-season prices.
I do a lot of short-turnaround hotel reservations, and I research my options on booking.com. I often check the
hotel uwebsite to see whether it offers a better deal. Rooms in what I call "business-class" chain hotels do sometimes turn up with good deals at times when the business travelers are not on the road.