Pre and post trip hotel question

It's personal choice--I certainly understand some might choose to save money.
I almost always choose the convenience of staying in the tour hotel, but twice I've decided to move to a hotel close to the airport after the tour because I knew I wouldn't be doing anything in town the next morning before my flight home.

Is the Paris Hotel the Beaugency on Rue Duvivier? If so you’ll probably get a decent rate for the neighborhood. Go to their website to check. If you’ve emailed them this weekend sometimes the English speaker is not there until a weekday to reply in English to an email.

https://www.hotel-beaugency.com/en/

I would also check the Haarlem hotel on Booking.com to compare the rates. Otherwise, what do you think you will want to do on that day? If you want to look around Haarlem no problem staying at another location in the city.

BTW, I usually just book on the hotel website without emailing them. I will indicate I am with a RS tour starting on “Xx” night and would like to stay in the same room.

This is a WONDERFUL tour! One of my favorites!

Also…can you add another day on to your front end? If so, since it’s tulip season you could go to Keukenhof Gardens on one if your days and see Haarlem the other day.

I have a mixed response. I do it both ways. Last spring I chose to stay in a lovely B and B 2 blocks from the tour hotel in Palermo. I saved $150 and it did not impact my enjoyment of the tour in any negative fashion. I have also chosen to stay in tour hotel for convenience if nearby hotels did not offer significant (greater than $50) savings. It is really entirely up to you. It works fine both ways.

I’m with Liz, it’s mainly a matter of convenience and worth it to us to not have to check out, store your luggage somewhere and then check back in, I would rather be out exploring. We normally come in two days early to get thru jet lag and stay one to two days after the end of the tour. I don’t remember ever having to change rooms, but maybe because we make our reservations as soon as we book our tour and tell the hotel we are with the RS tour. But it all comes down to what matters to you.

I’m on the first BOE21 tour next year. I’m arriving two days ahead of time and staying at the Hotel Amadeus, which was cheaper than the tour hotel.
On the day the tour starts, I’ll just drop my bags there and explore until the group tour meeting.

I’m also staying a couple of extra days in Paris at the end of the tour. I had extended my reservation at that tour hotel but that hotel has since changed. Instead of changing hotels I’ve decided to keep the original reservation at the previous hotel as it is MUCH cheaper and it’s in a different arrondissement, which I figure would get me out of my comfort zone.

But since you are only staying one extra night, the convenience may be worth the extra cost.

Once in Haarlem, I would enthusiastically suggest you book free tickets to the Corrie ten Boom museum NOW! It's a heartwarming tour of a Dutch Resistance fighter. The tour is personally led by a guide, and is only fifteen people. I liked it much better than the Anne Frank House, which was very crowded, (and our tour was by headphones.)
The free tickets are fully booked about 8-10 months out.
Haarlem is a charming city on its own merits .
What is the name of your Haarlem hotel?
If you come in two days early, you will have time for Keukenhof, which is fantastic, and would work for two nights at another hotel.
We loved Hotel Malts B&B, the owners are fantastic, we also liked Hotel Staats, a little more expensive.
The NL raised hotel taxes in 2026, adding to the cost.
Have a wonderful trip!

The problem I find is that, though I may ask to be able to stay in the same room I'll have for the tour, it doesn't happen. If I'm going to have to pack up after one night and move to a different room, there's no convenience to having stayed at the tour hotel and I might as well have stayed at a different (cheaper sometimes) hotel. I find it difficult to get this pinned down ahead of time.

We have booked directly on line with the Hotel for the three RS Tours we have taken. We have never had to change rooms - perhaps we just had good luck. When we had a question about the type of room offered vs what the Tour provides we emailed the Hotel before making the on-line reservation. We avoid booking through a 3rd party.

This is a “time vs. money” question. How much time and how much money can vary greatly, so you really have to evaluate it based on what’s more important to you and what options are available. If an acceptable but less expensive hotel is a block away, so you don’t waste time or transportation costs in the transition, that may be worth it (as long as one of the hotels will hold your luggage after check-out or before check-in). Personally, we used to be much more careful about pinching pennies, but we’re retired and in good financial shape, so we generally go for the simplicity of staying at the same hotel. We’ve done 2 RS tours and were able to keep the same room on both; ditto for several tours done with other companies.

One aspect to consider: when choosing a hotel, I put more credence in one selected by a tour company I trust than one that got lots of good reviews on tripadvisor (or whatever).

I have always stayed at a different hotel for my pre-tour days. I search on Booking.com with filters for a rating of 8+, a hotel, and then look on the city map to find exactly where I want to stay. I like to be in the center of the city and typically try to pick a different location that gives me shorter access to something I want to do during the pre-tour days. Or for Haarlem, I might pick Leiden, instead - close to the airport, and it’s a nice smaller city & 20 minutes by train to Haarlem.

Post-tour, I would probably stay in the same hotel. You will be more tired at the end of the tour, so simplifying would probably be appreciated. I have never stayed at the last city of a tour longer. We either flew home that morning, or I flew to another country.

Have a great time!

I’m traveling solo and arriving 2 days early for the best of Europe on September 28th. I decided to stay in Amsterdam and transfer to the tour hotel in Haarlem at the start of the tour. I wanted to check out sights in Amsterdam that I thought would make it more convenient than Haarlem. Booked a tiny attic room. It is ridiculously small and up 4 flights of tiny steps, but thought it would add to the adventure! $220, tax included for two nights , Corner House Hotel.

We’ve usually booked the tour hotel at the beginning and have contacted the hotel directly. We’ve never had to change rooms yet. Often the hotel adds breakfast even when not included in their standard rate.
Also you will often meet tour mates early or see them on your last day or so. Once our guide helped several of us book a shared day trip to Montenegro from Dubrovnik.
The hotel at the end of our recent England tour was quite pricey so we moved to a different hotel for a couple nights.

We've taken 4 RS tours now and always stayed at other hotels pre- and post-tour (including the BOE 21 Days this past April/May). We regretted it only for our London and Scotland tours (see below for why). Staying at a different hotel gives us an opportunity to see a different part of the city (or another city entirely ... we stayed 2 nights in Leiden before the BOE Tour, visited the Escher Museum in Den Hague, and the Antiquities Museum in Leiden and also the Windmill Tour). It also gives us a chance to try a different pillow and bed! The day our BOE tour began, we took the train to Haarlem so we arrived at our tour hotel in the morning, dropped off our bags, did a little sight-seeing and had lunch.

Haarlem had some other conveniently-located hotels that we walked past, so if you find a good deal for the day before the tour, go for it! Don't have to stay too far away if you don't have a lot of free time. The local trains are awesome in this area, so depending how much free time you have, it's easy to go to Den Hague, Leiden, etc. Simply tap on/tap off with a credit card.

Someone else mentioned arriving early and seeing Keukenhof Gardens. You may not need to do that separately. The Gardens WERE INCLUDED in our tour (we had about 2.5 hours there when we left Haarlem on the bus to head to Bacharach). And, what a surprise, the Ann Frank House in Amsterdam was also included! Email Rick Steves Tours to see if this will be true for your tour.

Regarding us regretting staying in a different hotel for the Best of London 7 Days and Best of Scotland 13 Days (which started in Glasgow) tours.... The reason is we stayed too far away and had to either walk a long time or take the subway (to move our luggage to the tour hotel), and doing this took up too much of our free time. And it was during a heatwave! Ugh!

You'll have a great time on this tour! And if it's King's Day while you're in The Netherlands, it will be crowded and 'party central'! Think Mardi Gras, minus the parades.