There are different kinds of hotel accommodations like hostels, resorts, hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, inns, serviced apartments and condominiums, just to name a few. There are characteristics that are common to a variety of this range of accommodation; regardless if they are cheap hotels or expensive luxury boutique resorts. Understanding the basic differences can be helpful when you are planning your trip so that you can drive your dollar further. Here we’ve summarized the main features of the more common types of accommodation.

Hostels:

Hostels are cheap hotels that might include (or exclude) a variety of additional services. You might need to help with chores, clean your own room, or share a bunk bed barrack-style room with other people. Hostels come in a variety of configurations, depending on what part of the world you are traveling to. It might mean you have to make your bed for the next person, share a room with a room-mate or get a daily chore assigned as part of your stay. However, these kinds of accommodation are still some of the best deals, when it comes to cheap hotels.

Resorts:

Typically, resorts are located in highly desirable destination locations. Some cheap hotels will call themselves resorts just because of where they are located. So it goes without saying that there are a wide variety of classes in resorts but a real resort will offer much more than just a room.

Real resorts will have extra amenities like, restaurants, bars, game rooms, a swimming pool, possibly waterslides and other recreational activities; all adding to a more interesting and possibly more expensive holiday than your usual hostel.

Hotels or Motels:

Some people don’t know the difference between a hotel and a motel. You can find cheap hotels, but many times the proper use is cheap motels. If it is a building where you can drive up and unload your car straight into your room, it is a motel. A good way to remember the difference is that you can “motor” up to the accommodation, so it is a “motel”, that is how the term originated. A hotel will generally involve a concierge service and you’ll usually walk down a “hallway” to get to your room.

Bed and Breakfasts:

Most people think it’s easy to understand this one, but bed and breakfasts can be upscale like a boutique hotel or be as simple as a backroom in a home. Basically, you are getting a bed to sleep in and you can eat breakfast that is prepared by the host, whatever and whenever they decide to get up and prepare. You might have to share a bath down the hall with several other guests or you might even have a large elaborate bedroom. This variety makes them popular for those that are looking for cheap alternatives to hotels.

Inns:

Accommodations like an Inn can be a small, family-owned motel or hotel. As an Inn is defined by the family ownership structure, this kind of accommodation can be found in virtually all parts of the world. Some resorts will put an Inn as part of their name to indicate they are family owned and that offer a more family-oriented atmosphere.  Historically, an Innkeeper was the person who lived at and took care of an Inn.

Serviced Apartments:

In most Asian countries, it is quite common to come across serviced apartments. By definition, they usually have a fully equipped kitchen and a separate living room, but some of them can be studios too. In other parts of the world, including the United States, they might be referred to as kitchenettes, villas or condos. They might have a minimum stay required like two nights or a week, but they still get housekeeping services and offer the same kind of amenities found in hotels like a swimming pool, a restaurant, a bar, and fitness rooms.  You might even find that some cheaper hotels will offer serviced apartments or kitchenettes.

Condominiums:

This is a popular term in the United States for apartment-like rentals that are individually owned and therefore, decorated in a variety of different ways; even though the basic floor-plans are identical. Typically, these can be rented through vacation rental places and normally require a one week rental at a time. The good part is that they might be luxurious, yet priced the same as cheap hotels, when you break it down by the night. Like serviced apartments, housekeeping is done at certain times, but you should wash your own dishes and clothes while staying there because this isn’t included.

As you can see, there are a variety of cheap hotels and options to consider as alternative accommodation. So be sure you understand what you are getting before you finalize that booking.

There are a few key points to remember when booking hotel accommodation that you might not be aware of. Things like confirming the amenities provided and any additional services like whether they serve continental or a hot breakfast are essential to most savvy travelers. You need to know what is included in the room rate or if they have a restaurant or bar on the premises. Other key points to ask when traveling on a budget is whether there are any hidden extras like additional hotel or government taxes (this is a big one if you’re traveling to Asia), safe and phone access fees or additional resort fees, to name a few.

You might not know about these extras until check-out time, and if you don’t ask about them when or prior to booking the hotel room, you might find yourself footing the extra bill. Some of these items are hidden in the fine print on your registration card, which you automatically sign, when you are anxious to get through the check-in process and get to your room. And once you have signed, some hotels will be quick to point out that you acknowledged these extra fees, which can amount to an extra twenty or thirty dollars a night if there are internet access fees added on.

Ideally, the best time to ask about these fees is before you make the booking. When you make your reservation, there can be fine print that charges you a one night cancellation fee for changing your mind. Since it is common for hotels to charge these extra fees to help them cover costs, it is certainly something you should look for when comparing one hotel to another, based on the rate they are quoting.

Furthermore, if you need wireless Internet, you might wrongly assume that all hotels offer this in their standard room rate. However, some of them will charge you an extra $15 per 24 hour period, even if you just want to check your e-mail. On the other hand, you might find other hotels only charge $5 more per night and clearly include it within their booking terms and conditions, making them a better deal all round. Most hotels can’t do anything about the hotel and government taxes, but the additional amenity fees can sometimes be waived, if you request for it to be waived before-hand.

On the flip side, there are some unscrupulous hotels that advertise a lower rate knowing you will incur additional charges when you get there. If you check-in and sign the registration card, you are acknowledging these fees and this can cause issues when you are checking out.  The time to discover them is not when you are at the desk because you may be subject to any cancellation penalty on the hotels booking, even if you have to scurry around to find another hotel room at the last minute. Be sure to read all fine print, even when making your reservation or you might find yourself paying a higher rate than you could get at a hotel that had these fees included.

If you have already made your booking, there are still a few things you can do at the check in desk to ensure you aren’t going to be charged for hidden extras.  If you don’t plan to use the phone, ask them to turn it off so you won’t be tempted or inadvertently charged. Ask if there is an internet access fee before turning on your laptop computer and browsing the web.  If there is a safe in the room, ask if there is a safe usage fee. The newest add-on fee is called an energy fee. Some hotels, especially those in resort destinations might have a resort fee and an energy fee that you should also be aware of.

The front desk clerks will explain these fees as a requirement, but you can talk to a supervisor and often get them waived if they weren’t outlined up front.  You might find that they will argue these fees were to help them cover the costs of operating the resort. When you are booking at hotels, you want to be sure that you of all the inclusions and exclusions upfront to know exactly what you are paying for and what sort of services and amenities to expect.

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If you are using the internet to research hotels, you can always narrow down the ones you like the best and then call them individually to see what kind of extra fees they have, if you can’t readily see them in their online marketing communication.  Be on the lookout for phone access, safe access, internet access, resort fees and energy fees. Some may charge an access fee for the pool, exercise room and other amenities. Uncovering these hidden fees at hotels by reading the fine print and calling before you finalize the booking will ensure you have the best and most relaxing holiday ever.

By doing some preliminary research on the internet, you can gain some ideas on how to book your ideal hotel escape and find the perfect hotel deal for your budget. Although, simply knowing how and where to do your research, could be a chore in itself.  Many people don’t choose unbiased sources for feedback. Instead, inadvertently, they might choose ones that are put on the internet by various hotels or paid websites that they advertise on. Sometimes, even travel agents will be biased towards a certain hotel if it’s one that books them a lot, but most of the time they will book the most reputable ones.

Researching feedback and review forums can be the most helpful. You’ll find good reviews and bad ones on many of the top review websites for travel like tripadvisor.com.  If you read the reviews, you will know exactly what to expect when you get there. You might find a few bad comments on a hotel, for example, but if the majority of them are good, it might be a hotel that is worth looking into.

When you are looking for the perfect hotel deals, there might be a reason that a hotel’s rate is much lower than the rest and you need to decide whether this is something you can live with, based on the overall customer feedback that is posted. In the hotel business, it is estimated that almost 10% of guests will complain, even at the top five star hotels.

When you are talking to travel agents, some of the larger national travel companies will book the most popular hotels that offer good prices, so this is a good way to find out which hotels are in fact the most popular ones. Typically, travel agents will rarely recommend bad hotels that they know of because once they get negative customer feedback on a particular hotel, they will talk to the hotel to make sure it wasn’t just a misunderstanding, but if they get several complaints and negative feedback from clients, they are likely to never book them again. When you are looking for the perfect hotel deals, you will obviously look for those with the best rate, but you don’t want a bad and cheap hotel to ruin your vacation or holiday.

The top travel websites have built a large number of reviews on almost every hotel in any area across the world. Some of the hotels will offer promotions through these websites because they are wholesaling the rooms that are vacant in the off season, and promoting these discounted rooms that are much more popular and in-demand during the rest of the year.

Even the most luxurious five star hotels will use these third party websites to rent their hotel rooms. They know that they can sell a lot of rooms when they need to move them quickly by advertising a special rate. You can find the perfect hotel deals by using a vast array of travel websites.  Just have a look at this video to find out more now >>>

When you are researching the perfect hotel deals, you should strongly consider the customer feedback you will find on sites like TripAdvisor.com, which is a top customer feedback website in the hotel industry. Other third party travel agents like Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity offer reviews of the hotels they sell and these are the top sources to find a variety of comments on any of the cheap hotel deals you can find.  Just because they offer them on their website does not mean they are biased. In fact, most of them move up and down the popularity list based on these reviews.

Keep in mind that there are always going to be unsatisfied guests, but normally that is usually because their hotel didn’t meet their expectations. If you read the customer feedback when looking for the perfect hotel deal, you can gain a better understanding of the pros and cons of the hotel. Sometimes, negative comments are too horrible to overlook, especially if you see a pattern of them against a particular hotel. You should assume you might run into the same problems, but often a hotel will improve on a problem, once they are aware of it, so be sure to check the dates because some customer feedback comments might be a couple of years old.

When it comes to the perfect hotel deals, it doesn’t always take a travel agent to find it. You can use many mediums like the internet to read customer reviews and feedback and base your decision on the hotel that sounds like it will best meet your expectations - whatever they might be. If you are just looking for a cheap hotel, it goes without saying that your expectations should be lowered but you just might be surprised to find that with a little pre-planning, you needn’t compromise on the quality of your room… there are many perfect hotel deals to be had!