Tips to Book Hotel Room

It’s time to make plan for next holiday. Select a destination, set the dates, and ask friends or family to join are some of the things I do when planning a vacation. What about hotel reservations? Of course, I want to choose the right hotel for a vacation, right? So, my holiday plan should be comfortable, trouble-free, enjoyable, and full of memories and stories.

What hotel should we choose for a vacation?

Checking special price or best promo is usually the first thing we are doing when searching for hotel. But don’t book the hotel right away when you get a good offer, because there are also other factors worth to be paid attention and considered.

During vacation, we don’t want to only explore the city and visit many interesting places, but also, we want to be comfortable while resting before traveling again the next day.

So, besides price, here are some important factors to consider before booking a hotel.

First, please check the hotel location

Hotel location can be either in the hub of the city, near tourist attractions, not far from restaurants and bars, or nearby shopping areas or even other location best to your holiday agenda. Some of these questions can help us determine the location of the hotel to choose.

• What activities do we want to do while on vacation?
• Can we walk to the places we want to visit?
• Do we often need to take taxis or other transportation, which this means extra costs are required?

Second, please check what public transportation is available at the selected destination.

There are many public transportations available. In Indonesia, we can also choose to take a taxi or rent a car with or without a driver.  This can be different when we plan a holiday abroad because a taxi or rent a car will require an extra cost which is considered quite expensive. So, it is important to check about the available public transportation too.

• What public transportation routes are available to visit some interesting places. Public transportations can include such as, MRT train, bus, Skytrain, subway (underground train, generally available in some European countries).
• Is there a ‘one day ticket’ facility for visiting tourist attractions so it will become more practical and efficient.

And, the third, please find out and read the information about hotel facilities and destinations.

• Are hotel facilities such as swimming pools, fitness center, restaurants open as usual or closed due to renovations?
• Is there any big event at the destination that might close some of the roads or will this big event be part of your holiday adventure?
• Public holidays (national holidays) at the intended destination also need to be checked, because some tourist attractions or shopping places may be closed on national holidays.

Do you feel more comfortable to choose the right hotel now?

And since the room price will definitely one of the determining factors, please also look at some of these important points during price hunting,

• Do not check the room price from one channel only, but search from several different channels too to compare different offer or room promotion available.  To check the prices or promotion, you can contact the hotel directly, go to the hotel website, contact the travel agent, or check the online travel agent platform.
• Many hotel promotions can be offered on your intended periods of stay.  These will usually depend on the method of payment, length of stay, number of rooms reserved, stay periods and booking periods.
• Do not miss to check the terms and conditions on how many persons included in the room price or room promotion.  If you wish to add more person in the same room, please check if there will be additional charge applied (this is an extra charge for additional person not additional breakfast or extra bed).
• It is also important to check all terms and conditions applied in the room price or room promotion, such as cancellation and modification procedures, for example, is there any fee applied if you cancel the booking in certain periods? does the room price or room promotion allowing you to change the arrival date or room type without any charge ?
• Lastly, please also check what services and amenities included in the room price or room promotion. For example, some hotels will offer laundry package at special rates or included in room promos. This can be an interesting offer especially if you bring limited clothes and have not time to do your laundry.  Stay fresh and smell nice will be good during holiday, isn’t it? Other than that, some hotels will also offer special food and beverages package or even included in the room price or room promotion.  This can be good to add to your culinary experiences.

Ready to do the hotel booking now?

Enjoy and Happy Searching.