Your location will likely determine your lodging options; however, in a few rare instances, an establishment might drive the destination choice.
If you have a destination picked out, my advice is to start by comparing several hotel and short-term vacation booking sites and see what catches your eye. Determine your non-negotiable filters (such as number of beds/bedrooms/rooms if traveling with a group, your maximum nightly budget, whether it’s child-friendly if you need it to be, etc.). If there are lots of lodging options where you’re headed, be picky: would you like to be within walking distance of something in particular, would you prefer to have a view, onsite parking, or a washer and dryer? If your options are less plentiful, remove non-critical filters and see whether something you weren’t expecting sweeps you off your feet.
The one filter I typically keep pretty high is other traveler’s ratings (4/5 or 8/10 and better), with more reviews likely indicating a more accurate representation of other people’s opinions (more on this below).
For city travel, location is also particularly important since you’ll probably park your car somewhere less-than-convenient (and may not want to re-park it for every meal) or have arrived by taxi/rideshare. Being in the neighborhood in which you intend on spending most of your time will allow you to maximize your time there. For rural destinations, I expand the scope of the search in terms of location, since parking and walking distance will be less critical, and consider location factors like proximity to the freeway instead. An exception to this is if you intend on taking part in small-town nightlife and won’t be able to drive yourself home, since rideshares and taxis may not be as abundant in rural settings. In that case, you may want to set your filter within walking distance of the pubs or saloons you’re eyeing.
Once my filters are set, I open a new tab for every lodging contender and only flip through them all once I feel like I’ve done a pretty exhaustive search. If a place has its own website, I open that along with the booking sites’ (individual websites can be hard to compare, since the sense you get often depends more on the website designer and their photographer than the lodging itself, but you can get a feel for what kind of experience and ambience they are trying to convey, which is still useful information). This way, I can flip between them, compare them side-by-side, and eliminate them one at a time by closing the tab. When I have four or five finalists, I attempt to find them on the same booking website so the format and rating system is most comparable. Unless my reigning favorite is likely to become unavailable (and this likelihood is lower than the sites would like you to believe), I to sleep on it. The next day, I am often more confident with a slightly more affordable option than I was in the thick of the process.
Thoughts on Online Recommendations and Reviews
When it comes to recommendations, trust but verify. If a friend or colleague recommends a place, that’s usually a good lead (yet they may still have a subjectively enhanced opinion from going there under different management of having a relationship with the place since childhood). When it comes to blog, magazine, or other commercial recommendations, sponsorship is likely to affect the praise it is receiving. I think these venues are still great for sources of inspiration, just be sure to confirm the glowing endorsement by doing your own search. Look at several review sites and critically read recent reviews. Consider whether reviewers seem to have the same travel values as you based on their comments (i.e. would you be excited or upset by the thing they are responding to?). Does the person’s complaint – or the business owner ‘s response – align with your notions of rationality? One bad review doesn’t necessarily mean the place is awful, but if at least 100 people have reviewed it and the general consensus is mediocre, it may not be the best option. Keep in mind that an off-the-grid mining-town-era hot spring with an unbridled marmot population and no indoor plumbing is one person’s paradise and another’s nightmare (if you also think it sounds intriguing, see Burgdorf). Ratings can be tampered with – and if rumors are to be believed, some sites are mighty unscrupulous – but in my experience, I rarely regret a stay at a place that had had an online review of at least 8/10.
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