How do you find accommodations

A variety of ways. For hotels, B&B's, etc. I use recommendations from people, occasionally I use Rick's guidebook, Trip Advisor (info only, book directly from hotel), booking sites (usually book directly, but have booked from the site if it is a better deal). I like renting apartments and have used vrbo.com and homeaway.com with good results.

Use Google maps - it has a feature that shows hotels, inns, B&Bs, etc.

James, good point.

I have used all of the above as well as wandering the streets aimlessly till I see something I like. Stopping in and asking availability, rates and if I can see a room...whatever works, but when I do prebook I like a referral from this site, versus Trip Advisor.... I think some of those people aren't real ( of course maybe some of the people here are just figments of our imagination too)

I've added, "wander the streets aimlessly". On the same line, "IT office".

Good call to add TI... I did use that once or twice during some kind of festivals or holiday that I was cluless about and they did find me a room. Also, country does matter... I don't feel like landing in Istanbul and 'wandering,' maybe next trip there.

Yes... I am 'clueless' not 'cluless' I am also not a very good typist!

Found some good places on the RS "Heroic B & B's". They are places not necessarily in the RS book but people tell of their good experiences. When you see a name over and over you can bet it is a good place. Also, I check trip advisor and never book through them, but go to the B & B site directly. We much prefer a Zimmer, B & B, guest house, etc. to hotels. For us, the smaller the better to get an intimate experience.

Interesting question, Lee. In most of my travels, going back 11 years, most of my accommodations have been booked by other people (traveling companions, friends, tour guide). I found one good place in Amsterdam from Rick's recommendation in his guidebook. Some places I liked a lot and would stay in again; others I wouldn't return to - too expensive, too far from the city center (but cheap), or bad service. The worst hotel service I've ever experienced was at the Royal Hotel in Brussels, which I booked myself after looking for a cheap place (say 50 euros for a room for one person; I don't remember the price exactly) on TripAdvisor and reading reviews about it. Your advice about looking on the town's website and asking in the TI office is great. Though I knew about ricksteves.com as far back as 2007, I didn't think about posting questions and asking people for hotel advice until the last year or so. This site is a great resource.

This question seems to have morphed since I first saw it, when only Options 1 and 2 were mentioned. I consult travel forums like Slow Trav and Fodors for recommedations and also consult Tripadvisor. I particularly like the map function on Tripadvisor as location is very important to us. Then I contact the place by email and see how it goes. We particularly like apartments and B&B's so these take some research. we always like to have things arranged in advance. That is just our style. In many trips, I have only got it wrong once. Every place else, I would happily return. And we often exchange Christmas cards with the places we have stayed.

I travel on the fly, mostly, and end up using TIs.

The options were changed since my initial reply. After I read the response from Susan (and Monte!) it reminded me that I have also looked at the Heroic B&B's for recommendations. I also pay attention to the answers of other posters and check out those places. For example I am renting an apartment in Paris next October that Randy from Minneapolis mentioned.

I Google 'Hotels or B & B's' in the city/town we wish to stay in. Go through all the choices listed according to our budget, where they are situated etc. Chose a few and then check them out on Trip Advisor and if they have web sites, check these out too.

I use multiple methods and put them all together for the final choice. First, I use hrs.com to find out if there are high rates for that time period, meaning some kind of big event is going on and the total range of prices from the very, very cheap to whatever level is my hurting point. This gives me a good budget frame. I then look at neighborhoods, as all the hotels have location maps. Is this near where I want to be, is it far from the bahnhof? Are there restaurants or bakeries near-by? Then I check the amenities, does it have breakfast or not, is the wi-fi free, does it have A/C in July, or a restaurant on the premises in case I am arriving late and a 24 hour desk clerk? What ever it is that makes my vacation nicer. Then I check the hotels own website if they have one. This is easily done using Google, except in those cases where the hotel does not have its' own website, and you would be surprised how many small places do not. It might be the cost or the various languages that the website would have to be in to keep the rooms filled. Not having to pay for a website, means you can pass those savings on to your guests and keep your rooms filled. In the hotel world, that is the most important, occupancy and nothing else. Many hotels do not charge a higher rate for booking with HRS than they do if you book yourself. HRS keeps their rooms filled, and this helps the hotels' profit. Sometimes I just Google for B&B's, or pensions or apts. to see what comes up. I then check Trip Advisor, first the reviews, and believe me, one can tell the fake ones from the true ones, then I also post on the forums and ask the Destination Experts, what do you think of this place, good location, good reputation? Can I do better? I also ask on this forum. Once I have compared notes with all that I have found, then I make my reservation. The other item I do like with HRS is that I do not have to pre-pay and I can cancel.

Cont'd: At the end of the day though, does it really matter how people find their hotels? We all have comfort zones, and some ways may be better or easier, but do they have to be labled wrong or right? I don't understand chastising people for using a source that you yourself personally don't like, for whatever reason. If there is hard evididence that a source is shady or ripping people off, that is a different story. Like using Craigs List to find apts. If you hang out on Trip Advisor, people are always writing complaints about certain hotel suppliers, others never receive a single complaint, like hrs. It would be interesting to see some facts and figures about how much a hotel or B&B pays to have themselves listed on the various websites. My bet is that even the local tourist board may be charging them either a monthly fee or a percent. The hotel may be buying ads on Google, may pay to have a listing on Trip Advisor, may be with a group of other B&B's who all pay a fee to have themselves listed together in a town. Important for a property is having their rooms full and the only way to do that is to have their name visible and out there, as much as possible. It may be in guidebooks, but better is to be on multiple websites, it doesn't matter which ones, but they have to be easily found. I apologize for these 2 long posts, but my experience in the hotel field has shown me the other side of this business.

I spend hours pouring over the internet looking for the best deal. Seriously. Traveling with 4 is not easy, accomodation-wise. Many European-style hotels only have doubles, or, if they have quads, they're limited and pricey. I have tried hrs on Jo's recommendation and had luck there. Otherwise, I use the town's website or do a Google search, but I have to do my research first. My "Take Your Kids to Europe" book has been helpful with that. I book mostly apartments now, which have different names in different countries. I find that if I search for "vacation apartments (name of town)", I get the websites for the expensive agencies. If I do a search instead for "self catering County Clare" or "bauernhof fewo Toelzer Land", then I get linked into the individual websites and get better deals. It helps, tho, that I speak a good bit of German, since many of the sites in Germany aren't posted in English. Traveling with 2 was easier we'd go with a Rick recommendation to book our first and last night, then find them on the fly from there. But the thought of pounding cobblestoned streets with luggage and 2 tired kids doesn't appeal to me.

No matter where I'm travelling, tripadvisor is the tool I use to help determine where I stay. I may look for reviews while on their website for accommodations I've seen in a guidebook or recommendations I've received elsewhere, but tripadvisor is the source of record every time. I always book with the lodging directly. I'm sure someone will respond with some load of crap about bogus tripadvisor reviews, but those are fairly easy to catch IMO, and the places I stay most likely wouldn't be the kind of places that would submit bogus reviews (no resorts - no big hotels). Don't get me wrong, I know this occurs, but I've personally never run across it. I've been using tripadvisor for years and have never (ever) been surprised or disappointed. There was a news program a few weeks back regarding an entire industry built around bogus tripadvisor reviews, however. Not sure if anyone caught that. There are even off-shore (read: India) back office centers (like call centers) doing nothing but providing bogus reviews for sleazy operators. But again, most of the activity was for resorts, not tiny B&Bs. Interesting!

Apart from TA, here are some of the numerous sites that I have used for reviews for accommodations in Europe in the past: venere.com travelpod.com booking.com travel.yahoo.com hostelworld.com hotels.lonelyplanet.com
and Google maps now includes reviews as well. I believe in checking more than one source for many reasons, but mostly because a) shills often dominate TA, and b) great little places have not yet made it to TA. Same for restaurants. Case in point, I don't usually write reviews for TA. But two of the recent ones I wrote were for exceptional stays at small inns that had not yet made it to TA, and deserved to be discovered by others.

I've added Google search to the criteria. A great many towns in Germany have a "Kurtax", a small amount levied on visitors. This tax goes towards running the tourist office and, I would assume, maintaining the town's website and list of accommodations. I have done a great deal of research on booking websites vs hotels websites. For the most part, I have not found that the prices shown on booking websites are more than those listed on the properties themselves. But I have not found them to be significantly less than the price on the properties website, even though they often claim huge discounts. One big exception: in 2008 I stayed at a rustic lodge in the Harz. I found the hotel's website using the town website, and they had a five night package, with Halb Pension, for €209. Since I average €8/day for dinner, less beverage and tip, I figure the room cost me €169 for five nights. Booking and HRS both booked only rooms for €225 for five nights. (Venere didn't even list the hotel.) So, there are cases where booking websites charge a lot more. It's kind of like RailEurope booking only full fare, not discounted tickets. Weikersheim (on the Romantic Road) is a town with which I am familiar, having visited it in 2007. The town website lists six places to stay in Weikersheim plus several more in another town a short train or bus ride away. I took pictures of three hotels right on the town square. But HRS says there is nothing in Weikersheim and the closest accommodations are in another town, "2.9 km" away (Google maps says it's actually 4.8 km). There are only six buses each way from 8 AM to 6 PM.

Lee, I always prefer to pre-book accommodations, and usually choose them this way: (1.) Check Rick Steves Guidebook and look for a place that's located in the part of each city I want to stay, and in the price range I want. If I have easy access to another Guidebook (Lonely Planet or whatever), I'll also check that. I usually have RS books on hand, so they're my first choice. If I'll be visiting a city that's not covered in the RS books, do an internet search to find Hotels. That was the case for my trip this year, although I've now "scratched" that destination off the list now as it didn't fit my overall route this time. The search engines usually present the choices on a map of the city, so I can get some idea how close the Hotel is from the rail station and the main attractions in that city. If I plan on any Hostel stays, I check the HI Hostels website first, as I usually have a current membership and have a good idea what the facilities are like. They often have several properties in larger cities, so again I can choose the location I prefer. I occasionally get tips from other travellers and make a note of any Hotels I might be interested in using on future visits. (2.) After picking one or two Hotels, double-check them on Trip Advisor or other review sites. I usually stay in "chain" Hotels (Best Western, Holiday Inn Express) for domestic travel, but prefer local Hotels in Europe. As with all of my travel methods, this is usually "fine tuned" a bit each year, but this is my method at the moment. Cheers!

BTW, T/A shows the name-only of four places in Weikersheim, one of which probably doesn't exist. The other three are listed on Weikersheim's website, with contact info. None are bookable through T/A. Of course, there is no contact information for any of them, and only one has reviews (3, in German).

I have found that places Rick recommends are already full by the time I get around to it. I use Google Maps and read all the reviews on the place. It's amazing the poor reviews the 5 star luxury hotels get. I try to opt for the small family run hotels similar to the ones that Rick endorses.

I have a question that might fit into this topic. We are traveling to Amsterdam, Paris and Rome in June/July. We are looking to book rooms in those main cities and then pick others where ever we land in between.
Our question: The rooms in the above mentioned cities are very expensive, more so than last year. Is it that we are trying to book to early? Would we get a better deal if we wait and book closer to the time of travel? We would as in the past, book outside the major city and Metro in daily. Thanking you in advance for any assistance.

The responses to this question are very enlightening. I have two criteria when determining whether to pre-book accommodations. Am I staying in a large city such as Rome, London, Paris or staying in the countryside? If I'm staying in a large city and know the dates I'll be there, then I'll reserve a room using either a Rick Steves' book or stay at a hotel chain. I also consider getting others opinions here on this website to be very valuable. I do not use trip advisor. A large factor in my search for accommodations is that we drive. Therefore, we can expand our search for a room. If we are staying in the countryside or on the outskirts of a city (because we do not want to drive in the city), we will drive in search of a zimmer frei or B&B. I personally want to see the room and determine whether it meets our needs. The location, cleanliness, room air flow, proprietor and price all come into play. I am often amazed at the beautiful rooms we get to stay in and how reasonably priced they are. This past fall, we traveled without reservations for five weeks. We had three last resort situations. I keep the room info for the next trip--if we happen to end up in that area. We have traveled this way since we lived in Germany. We have used this method in the spring, summer and fall. I believe it works for us because we drive. I would not use this method if we traveled by train. Have a great day in beautiful Colorado, Lee!

For small hotels and B&Bs, we use guide books. But these account for only about 1/3rd of our nights. The other 1/3rd are youth hostels and 1/3rd apartment/cottage rentals (where we research online).

We have used this method many times in the States, and I'm sure it would work overseas. We drive into an area that has plenty of hotels, restaurants, and amusements. We drive through it. On the other side, we (he) decides that rather than going back into town and picking a hotel, we should continue on our journey for another hour or two. No sense doubling back! We then drive on for one, two, or even three more hours, to an area on the map that looked promising. It is not. All hotels are either full, dangerous, or filthy. Restaurants are closed. Hunger and fatigue has brought a charming tone to our voices. Children cry. Sometimes for extra fun there is a local power outage. While you may not find the best hotel with this method, it does lead to fun and spirited marital discussions!

1. I'll make a list from a variety of guidebooks of places that look decent, then check for reviews on tripadvisor 2. Maybe just to see if I can get a better deal directly 3. Yes, I've used booking.com or expedia.com to book rooms. No complaints so far. 4. No, too many other options 5. No, IMO these are like dentist search sites, they advertise the dentists who pay. 6. I'll peruse comments on the site but I don't post about it
7. TI office is my last resort, I see it the same as a town website but will use it in a pinch.

I have used all categories except #2,3, when traveling solo. I will also pre-book my first & last 2 nights of travel.

Brad, I really have to disagee with you on #5. It's the booking website that only show places that pay them (they make their money off of bookings). The town websites are paid for either by the towns as part of their tourism budget or from the "Kur taxes" collected from overnight guests. I have used town website extensively for 10 years for finding accommodations, and they always give me a wider choice. Note, the town website almost always gives you contact info (website, email, phone number), the booking websites never do. Booking websites seem to have fewer choices, and focus on the more expensive properties. For my last 3 trips (40 nts), I spent €1391. Using Booking I would have paid €1992. Using HRS, €1907. Most of the places where I stayed appeared on the town website, but not on booking websites. Example, in a Black Forest resort where I have spent over 2 weeks in the last ten year, the town website shows 23 hotel type listings. I know that 5 are not easily accessible from town, leaving 18. Booking shows only 13, 4 of which are not easily accessible, 9 are accessible; HRS show 8 accessible properties. The town website, in addition, has 9 Privatezimmer and 97 Ferienwohnungen.

Hi, We only use the "#5" method... We look through the local town/village websites to find places to stay. We prefer to stay in local, family run places (Pension's, Garni's, etc.). We've never used a "booking site", as we also prefer to email the establishments and deal with them directly. We pick a few that look good to us, and then start to put them in order of preference. Oh, and if the place has animals... cats, dogs, cows, chickens, etc. on the premisies, it "automatically" moves to the top of our list. Paul

You'd really like the place where I stayed outside Hallstatt. It was a farm house, with a cow in the barn and sheep in the neighbor's yard. There were some strange cats around. When I arrived it was raining and the chickens were huddled together in front of the garage, under the overhang.

It depends on location and number I am traveling with..... In general the steps are: - Look at hotel and apt reviews at slowtravel.com - Peak at RS, LP and other guidebooks - Look at reviews at eurocheapo.com - Some google searches around name of place and "best value hotel or b&b or whatever" - Develop short list - Research user reviews on TA and Venere (this feature was recently downgraded on Venere)
- Book on TA since they have the best prices. Kidding on the last one, contact the property directly and book.

We wing it, seriously; over the past 11 years my wife and I have traveled extensively throughout Western Europe and we only get a hotel for the first night in and last night out. The rest of the time we just wait until it gets near dusk and then we look for a hotel near the outskirts of town. This gives us flexibility in traveling when and where we want, not being tied to a "we got to get to the next location" schedule. It is quite liberating.

Im a Rick Steves fan. Ive used hisbooks for all my trips,booking in advance.Ive been happy with all of his places.Some are better then others but all are pretty much as he describes them.

Wow, Lee...great thread!

I use Trip Advisor quite a bit and also take a look at the places RS recommends. We visit the library and take a look at the guidebooks and recommendations noted in them. Lots of research later, we finally make a decision. So far we've been pleased with all our choices.

I just wanted to add that we've never been disappointed in picking from the local websites. Maybe we've just been lucky, but we've loved every single place we've stayed during 8 trips (over 75 nights) to Germany, Austria and the Dolomites. Paul

For our European road trips, I cull through at least twenty possibilities for each stop and book everything ahead, but I am into overplanning. (hold over from all those years of lesson planning)......I find Sawadays quite reliable for the "fancier" accommodation......Smoothhound has been useful on previous trips......We prefer small inns or larger B and B, and always try to get a room with some sort of view and hopefully some place to sit as well as sleep........In larger cities (London, Edinburgh, Paris, Bergen so far) our main criteria is a central location for walking everywhere, hopefully also some charm about the place....... In smaller towns or the countryside, we want either a restaurant or pub on site or within walking distance...........I also use tripadvisor, but only look at reviews for the last two years, first clicking on all of the poor reviews to look for major problems and I disregard posts from people who have only posted once or twice........We feel the accommodation is part of the experience, so we are rather picky about our choices......so far, we haven't had anyplace horrid, only a few we found a bit odd.......hope this helps.

I think it depends. When in Europe in April, my departure plans were interrupted by the volcano eruption. I was scheduled to fly out of Berlin via Swiss Air. Went to Zurich to try to get ahead of the cloud with no success. TI found me a room when thousands were trying to find accommodations.
In the past, I have also found that TIs willing to call various hotles/B&Bs. Saves you the work.