The best way to use hotel booking sites is to choose the accommodation that can help you plan the rest of your trip. Once you have chosen the accommodation that helps you plan the rest of your trip, you need to check the booking details. Many travelers choose accommodation with the lowest nightly price only to find out they have created problems. Compared to the price, the location, the configuration of the room, the cancellation policy, and the cost of parking are many more important factors. A lower room price can become expensive if your travel days involve a lot of driving, paid parking, and no opportunity to cook.
For travel to New Zealand, especially self-drive travel, accommodation should be chosen along a realistic route. The ideal accommodation for a city break in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch may be completely unsuitable for a self-drive travel itinerary through towns and rural areas, the Southern Alps, and the coast, and near the parks. Travelers do not need to pay the best price for accommodation. However, hotel booking sites do offer travelers comparison and information to help them choose the accommodation they want if they can look beyond the prices.
Many travelers incorrectly assume that hotel booking sites are for finding the cheapest rooms. I can understand that price and rankings influence travel decisions. A limited budget is a valid concern. The best stay is the best deal only when it fits the itinerary. Driving trips in New Zealand are long, and accommodation outside the bigger cities may be less available. Poorly placed accommodation can require a cost of time and energy that far exceeds the savings. A booking site is useful for almost every traveler because it answers practical questions about hotels like: - Is the hotel in the location where you need to be? - How comfortable will the room be for your traveling party? - Are the features you need included, such as parking, breakfast, wifi, laundry, or kitchen? - What are the cancellation and payment terms? - Do the reviews describe the hotel accurately? - Is the total cost reasonable when you consider all the mandatory fees and additional costs? If vacation planners concentrate on the questions above, then booking sites are an asset for planning. It clarifies why a best hotel list for a given region is so general. Best hotels for couples on a short city break may be completely different from the best hotels for families in a rental car with kids. #Book Travel Based Around Your Plans #Prepare for Your Travel to Fit Your Hotel Budget Not the Other Way Around Hotel booking sites may not be useful if there isn't a plan. Set the travel dates, possible stops along the way, the expected group size, vehicle requirements, and hard requirements before evaluating the properties. This is most important when arranging a road trip. Booking based on labels alone at the region level can hide an inconvenient detour, whereas a hotel that looks more distant from an attraction might actually be closer to the road, the ferry terminal, an airport, a trailhead, a town center, or the city that is important the following morning. Hotel booking pages have some excellent map features that you should use early in the process rather than as an afterthought. Once you have an idea of the operating area for the following day, see the sites within that reasonable radius. The map also facilitates seeing if an attractive deal is for a location outside the area you believed was the booking location. A property being "close to" a destination is subjective and a description that should be completely ignored. Think about the direction and timing of the trip. A city center stay that is ideal for a night out may turn out to be a terrible choice if the next morning's plans include an early airport departure or a long drive. Hotel booking sites do not make that assessment for the traveler, but they do have all the data the traveler needs. Every detail in a room listing should be analyzed the same way you analyze the price. One of the most common booking mistakes is treating a property's name, photographs, and rating as a replacement for reading the room details. Each hotel has its own unique ways to break packages up into room types you can book. The differences can be quite significant. A price for a certain room type can include a compact room, a room with a shared bathroom, a view with some limitations, a bed configuration that doesn't work well for your group, and/or a room with amenities and conditions that are less like the more expensive room you see in the main photos. Before you book, ensure you know the room name, bed configuration, how many people the room can hold, the type of bathroom, and what else comes with the room. Just because there is a kitchenette shown, doesn't mean you have all the equipment to cook. If you think you may have to park, make sure you see what the described parking has to offer;
if a spot is guaranteed and you have to pay a fee, how much is the fee? Traveling with kids means you have to make sure what you are booking is/are sold beds (meaning room is booked with the bed in place) versus them having the option to bring extra bedding. This is not excessive caution, this is the smart use of hotel booking sites. Often the site will show many polished photos but the conditions and costs of the room are much more important than a well thought out photo. Consider the overall value; do not just compare what is shown in a headliner. Hotels can also have different taxes, fees, parking, and other amenities bundled in differently. Also, consider how all the amenities are shown on the individual booking pages. Be sure you are comparing apples to apples. The precise figure is the total cost for the whole stay that travelers can agree to. This does not mean the most expensive option is necessarily the best. It simply means something has to warrant it being the cheapest option. A lower-priced property can definitely be the right choice if it is clean, convenient, and have good reviews for the trip. But if you have to make a long drive to get to the planned activities and there are no good facilities for a longer stay, and if there are a lot of restrictions, then the saving is probably not worth it. Longer trips to New Zealand can definitely mean that the facilities are worth the cost. After outdoor activities laundry could definitely be something that is important. A kitchen could definitely be useful so you don't have to eat out as much. Parking is definitely useful for a self drive trip. Having a central location can possibly eliminate the need for a car in a city. On the other hand, travelers should not pay for amenities just because the booking site has a filter that makes them sound useful. It certainly doesn't mean that a gym, pool, or a decent breakfast is useful if the itinerary makes it impossible to use the amenities. Hotel booking sites are more helpful if you filter amenities that will improve the trip hands down. Verified Guest Reviews Should Not Replace A Scoreboard Do take into consideration verified guest reviews as they are often some of the most constructive things provided on a hotel booking site. However, an overall score is not something that determines if you should choose that hotel or not. A property can still be bad if it is in a bad location, or has bad reviews, or bad policies for your trip. Likewise, a slightly below average score does not necessarily mean bad reviews. This may simply mean that the traveler wrote their review based on some less important features. Sometimes one positive review or negative review is not enough. You have to look for consistency when determining how clean, how quiet, how well employees communicate, how warm or cool the rooms are, how good the parking is, how easy it is to get to and from the hotel, how big the rooms are, how well the rooms are kept. Pay special attention to reviews of travelerer types that most closely resemble you: families, solo travelers, couples, people on driving vacations, or people staying more than one night. You also have to be able to identify if guests are actually complaining about a legitimate problem or if it is the result of unmet expectations. A guest may complain that their room is small, but they knew they were booking the least expensive room. Another guest may complain that a rural property is too quiet. Although these reviews maybe legitimate, they also have to be looked at in context. The hotel booking sites do it best of describing the experiences, but it is really up to the traveler to determine if the experience meets their expectations. Flexible terms are better than small savings. Non-refundable rates are useful in locking in an excellent price if dates are known to be firm. They should not be treated as the default smart choice. New Zealand trips can be extremely unpredictable due to weather, transport delays, flights, road conditions, etc. A flexible booking can protect your itinerary from becoming locked when it should be the least flexible. Travelers do need to be able to filter booking sites to see flexible booking options, but the traveler also needs to read the fine print and make sure they understand the booking terms. “Free cancellation” is useful until the stated cutoff, and payment timing can vary. Check the property’s local time, the date by which changes must be made, and if the reservation is charged immediately or later. Save the confirmation to note the cancellation deadline, as it's unlikely to be remembered during a busy trip.
Flexible cancellation policies do tend to cost more. However, it's not simply comparing two nightly rates. It's comparing a restrictive, fixed rate to an adjustable, flexible rate. In the case of multiple itinerary components that are not fully fixed, flexible cancellation policies can be a reasonable approach to risk management. The more components of travel are out of your control, such as driving conditions or your outdoor plans, the more important a reasonable cancellation policy is to you.
It's good practice to shop around on multiple hotel booking sites. Room categories, terms, and inclusions can differ. A single site shouldn't be considered the full market. Make sure to compare the same room category, same dates, same occupancy, and same cancellation policy. Otherwise, a price difference can be due to a different offering, not a best price guarantee.
Once a property is selected, it's worth checking the property's own website as well. It's not assumed that booking direct will always be cheaper. It may be more expensive. Instead, compare the total price, room category, inclusions, and flexibility. A booking site may have an easier interface with better reviews, a rewards program, or better tools for handling multiple reservations.
Direct bookings can sometimes have better terms, direct communication with the property, or room options that are not shown elsewhere. Therefore, you take the booking that has the best confirmed terms for the stay.Beware of deals that seem too good to be true. Before confirming, you have to read the payment terms, if it can be refunded, if the occupancy terms are bad, and if the provider clearly shows the property and booking conditions. The goal is not to get every single deal, it is to get a confirmed booking that has no bad deal hidden behind it.
Filters can save a lot of time. When searching for accommodations in New Zealand, filters can include: property type, parking, kitchens, accessibility, family rooms, reviews, location, neighborhood, and cancellation policy amongst others. When a trip has a clear practical need, filters can be very useful. For example, if a traveler is likely to arrive late at night and has a car, it would not make sense to waste time and review accommodations that would not work for that need.
Filters are sometimes insufficient. A listing can be very vague and not explain a property extensively enough. "Parking is available" is not the same as "guaranteed, convenient parking." "Near the center" can be very far from "close to/in the area." A listing that says "family friendly" is not necessarily a listing that can accommodate a family of 6, because "family friendly" accommodations vary. For each listing, be certain to check the property and room descriptions, review maps, and check the reviews.
A disciplined approach to your booking process minimizes last minute, rushed decisions. Search for the route and find reasonable spots to stop overnight. Search for hotels with exact check-in and check-out dates and the exact number of guests. Once you have the results use the map view and the core filters to eliminate hotels/accommodations that do not fit your plan and then open the result listings that look the most promising. Compare listed information on the specific room, the total cost, the reviews, the cancellation policy, and the facilities. Repeat this for other booking sites and the hotel's website. Confirm. Only when there is absolutely no doubt, confirm the booking. Once you’ve confirmed, leave the confirmation page available so you can return and look at the instructions before you leave on your trip. This is helpful because many accommodations have limited reception hours, self-check-in, and instructions that are not obvious. If your travel plans change, confirm that you have changed or canceled your booking itinerary with the same company and retain the confirmation of the change. With hotel booking sites, traveling in New Zealand is easy to accommodate and is more flexible than just finding the cheapest deal. They are helpful for comparing and contrasting accommodation information based on itinerary, budget, and travel styles. It is a simple fact: don’t instantly book the first room that has a good score and is inexpensive. Use hotel booking sites to cancel and compare. A well-chosen stay makes for a smoother New Zealand journey. An ill-chosen stay means a strong travel plan turns into a series of costly, time-consuming drives, irritatingly uncomfortable nights, and unnecessary compromises.
Price is important. However, the right fit is more important.