If you decided to organize your trip by yourself, you will find this guide on how to book a hotel useful. You don’t necessarily have to know foreign languages but it’s very important to know some details. Here is a helping instruction to book a hotel or a hostel.
Let’s consider booking.com as an example. This booking system is one of the most popular and convenient platforms nowadays. Here you can choose a hotel from any category in any city in the world. All booking platforms look quite alike.
Before you start, install Megabonus cash back service. You will get up to 3.48% of cash back for every reservation on Booking.
Choosing a Hotel
- Go to booking.com. You will seу 4 tabs to choose from: Accommodations, Flights, Car Rentals, and Airport Taxis.
- On the main page select the currency and the language.
- Now you can get down to the search of the hotel. Enter the data in the search bar: the country, the city, and the dates. As soon as you start entering the data, Booking.com will show you all the possible variants.
Then enter all the information on the dates, the number of travelers and the purpose of the travel.
Note that the price is specified per accommodation, not per person.
As soon as you finish, click “Search”, the system will start searching the database.
- Getting results. They can be displayed on the map with the points or as a list. Place your mouse pointer on the hotel card and you will see its name, the rate and the price for the number of dates you specified.
If the map display isn’t convenient for you, you can close it by clicking on the cross in the upper right corner.
- Among the numerous variety of options, you can choose the best one for you. Use filters to the left part of the website. There are budget options, parking, meals, number of stars and much more there. And the hotel’s rating for sure! We will get back to it later.
What Affects the Hotel Price
To view hotel information and reviews about it, click “Choose your room”.
On the page of the hotel, you will see full information about the apartments and additional services. You will also find photos of the rooms and services.
The hotel price is affected by:
- The time of payment – if you pay for a room in advance, the price is lower.
- If you choose the variants with the cancellation option, the price is higher.
- Rooms with breakfast included are usually more expensive.
- If you book a room, its price is fixed and you pay the same amount when you arrive in the hotel. Or you can also choose to pay online. Sometimes online payment is a must.
How to Book a Hotel on Booking
Before making a reservation on Booking with cash back read all the reservation terms carefully. Each hotel has their own terms.
Some hotels specify that in case you cancel the reservation within a certain period (normally, 2 days before the check-in or following the reservation), they don’t charge a fine. If you cancel the reservation later, then you will be charged a fine.
Learn the information in fine print in the left part below the hotel description. Usually, you can also find information about urban taxes and VAT here. In the example, this tax is $6. Be careful, as many European hotels have extra taxes.
Besides, there might be cleaning fees. Sometimes the hosts specify a low price for the room but a very high cleaning fee.
This is why it’s important to learn the details before making the reservation.
Select the number of rooms you need. Check all the details once again, make sure you are aware of all the additional fees and click “I’ll reserve”.
*Pay attention to the information below the “I’ll reserve” button: often they place the information about prepayment there:
Then you will get to the page of entering personal information. Check the box “Manage reservation online”. As soon as you are ready, click “Next”.
Then specify your address and phone number.
Payment information: for making the payment or for charging a fine.
Pay attention to the terms of free cancellation.
Finish the reservation by clicking the button.
If you are not lazy enough, learn all the terms and conditions of the reservation.
Email Confirmation
Within a few minutes after the reservation confirmation, you will get a confirmation email. Save the pdf-file from the email. This document might be useful for the visa application if necessary.
Print the confirmation and present it on the receptionist desk. You can show the document on your smartphone as well.
How to Get a Discount on Booking
The best way to save is to search and book hotels with a discount. Many hotels provide good discounts. As soon as you chose the country and the city, check the boxes with special offers. Booking will show you the best deals.
You will see discounts on the list of hotels.
To learn more, select a hotel and go to its description. You will see the discount in the room’s price window.
Put your mouse pointer to the question icon to learn all the details of the discount.
Book safely, make savvy reservations and have great holidays!
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