11 sites to help you book hotels

Booking a hotel online might sound easy, but it’s not. If you have a budget (which most people do) you want to get the best hotel possible for that budget. Central location. Great reviews. Free breakfast or dinner. Free parking… or maybe you just want a cheap room and that’s it, no extras. In any case, you won’t or at least shouldn’t just go to hotels.com, key in your dates and book a hotel that takes your fancy… no. It can take time, patience and a lot of research…

1. hotels.com

Need a hotel? Hotels.com seems like an obvious site to go to. No nonsense name, usually a large selection of hotels & decent prices. They’ve built up a reputation as being THE hotel site and rightly so, they’ve made booking hotels without getting ripped off easy. But you’d be a fool to trust it and only it as there are alternatives…

2. laterooms.com

One of my favourite hotel sites as it shows a huge list of hotels along with prices per night. No clicking ‘next’ 400 times to view another 10 hotels.

3. booking.com

Sometimes more hotels, sometime less than the others. Can be cheaper than hotels.com, can be more expensive… it’s just another option worth having a look at.

4. travelzoo.com

It’s like a bargain alert newsletter for travellers. Some great, exclusive deals can be found here and they’re usually all tested & legit as travelzoo have a team of ‘testers’ to make sure all deals are up to date and valid. Perhaps the most underrated travel website and i only discovered it a few months ago.

5. priceline.com

Name your price for a hotel. Sounds good to me I’ve used them several times in the past and have often got great hotels at half price. If you don’t mind buying a hotel blindfolded (you only find out what hotel you have after paying for it), it’s a great way to get expensive hotels for cheap prices 😉

6. betterbidding.com

If you use priceline, you gotta use betterbidding.com which will allow you to discover ‘name you own price’ bids other people have had accepted & rejected and the hotels they’re staying in. There’s also a list of all known hotels which use priceline so you can take a fairly good guess at what hotel you’ll get if you use ‘name your own price’ and you’re successful.

7. lastminute.com

Worth a look although they’re usually not the cheapest. ‘Top Secret hotels are definitely worth a look and thanks to my own hotelsrevealed.com, the hotels aren’t actually that ‘secret’.

8. expedia.ie

I just use them as another hotel search engine / directory, don’t usually buy from them because they’re never cheaper than hotels.com or booking direct through hotel websites. I don’t like their site either, but that’s just me.

9. ebookers.ie

Same as the rest, just another option on the off chance they’ll have more hotels or different prices. Again i never book anything with them, i just double check them before booking anything in case i’m missing a bargain.

10. tripadvisor.com

Before booking any hotel, tripadvisor is always worth looking at. With tripadvisor, what you thought was a fantastic hotel will turn out to be the worst hotel in the world and one you should steer well clear of, according to Bob. John will say it’s the best hotel in the world. You have to read the good and the bad and make a decision whether to book it or not. It’s a bit like trying to self-diagnose medical conditions online – you’ll always end up with cancer or a life threatening condition if you take them too seriously.

11. travelsupermarket.com

A price comparison site which makes the job of finding the cheapest price on a hotel a bit easier. It’s amazing how prices can vary from site to site and you’ll see that when you use travelsupermarket.com.