Save money by booking lodging in Europe last minute or a month in advance?

It depends on where and when you're traveling, how many nights you want to spend in each city and whether you have any specialized lodging needs (elevator? air conditioning?). True, places with vacant rooms are likely to cut rates at the last minute. But there may not be such places in high-demand cities, especially smaller cities. If there are, will the places with last-minute availability meet your needs?

The extremely unpleasant heat so many cities are suffering this summer is probably leading some Europeans to cancel short trips to cities. If there's a break in the weather, those cancellations will probably stop, and you won't find so many last-minute deals

I've been traveling the way you describe for most of the last three months. I prefer hotels, so I can't comment on the Airbnb situation. I can tell you I'm not coming up with much availability in less expensive hotels. On the other hand, I've gotten some good rates at 4-star, business hotels--I assume because business travel slows down a lot in the summer. The thing is, those good-deal business hotels are costing me close to $100 per night, and I probably could have found acceptable (to me) places in the $50-$70 range if I'd been prepared to make reservations quite a bit earlier.

I'd recommend that you make cancellable bookings now, as a sort of insurance policy. Keep monitoring rates at your planned destinations and switch if the savings are worth it.

I almost always go through booking.com and book. a hotel many months in advance. I book with free cancellation and then I keep my eye on price including price of other hotels. More often than not, I will find a better deal canceling the reservation I had originally made and booking a brand new reservation.

Not this time though. I am heading to Barcelona during The America Cup. This is just a coincidence. I am going for my yearly cruise and it turns out that The American Cup is happening during the days that I will be there. Prices have gone up and I do not see many hotels that can now give me four night in a row.

I am fortunate that I made my reservation some months back.

Many members on this site prefer Google Hotels to booking.com.

Some suggest going to the hotel website for a better deal (you can still get free cancellation) and booking directly so that the hotels do not have to pay fees to a third party site. Even doing this, you can still use booking or Google Hotels for research.

There is no skin off of your nose to book a hotel with free cancellation and no upfront payment months in advance.

Just like tracking flight costs it’s a crap shoot.
Hubby is retired Hilton employee so he gets great discounts when there is availability. We are arriving Zagreb this weekend and booked a Hilton a little out of town for 2 nights 3 months ago. It was a team member rate so we grabbed it. Our regular Hilton, the Canopy by the train station did not have a team rate. I just checked last Sunday and the Canopy Hilton had the team rate for our 2 nights. We grabbed it, cancelling our other reservation.
Lesson - just keep checking, I know it is annoying but it is all part of the planning process.

PS, I reported the above post.

I always book a fully refundable reservation as far in advance as I can and then wait and watch. Almost always, the prices go up. A few times, the prices have gone down and I have rebooked. My theory is that I want to know that I have a hotel that is located where I want it at a price I can live with. I may be able to improve on location or price later, but I want to know that something is there for me. Not a big risk taker.......

I book as far in advance as I know, and then recheck on occasion.

I had booked a room for my husband back in November. His expedition got back a day earlier, so he needed a room for an extra night. The place I had him for the next night was now double the cost of what I booked months ago. Instead he got the pared down hotel next door. I knew the hotel would cost more on very last minute notice, but double the price was not what we were willing to pay.

Am I missing something here?

Just be sure you have a good back-up plan if all your top choices are booked. That can be a cancelable reservation or a list of second-tier choices, possibly out into the distant suburbs.

Booking has a price drop guarantee, where if your hotel drops price, you get the price difference back..
I have several reservations with Booking, but unfortuantely, price drop never triggers..
anybody have positive experience in getting refund for hotel price drop??