Find your next room

  Essentials

• Choose from the 3 ways to find a room — Each time you move to a new destination, you can choose how to find your next lodge.
  • BIA (Book-in-Advance) — Most travelers these days book online in advance for their entire stay in a new destination. Independent travelers may be sure of their departure dates.
  • SOA (Search-on-Arrival) — This is how independent travelers found lodging before the internet. But why endure the uncertainty and anxiety if you don’t have to? Still, there will probably be times when circumstances force you to search on arrival.
  • BIASOA (Book-in-Advance then Search-on-Arrival) — If you plan to stay 3 nights or more, this method will usually get the best combination of quality and price. You book online for your first night or two only, then search for better accommodation after you arrive. 
• Do a broad search — Use a general website that covers commercial lodging or a specialist site for private rentals, hostels or social exchange lodging. Narrow the selection with price, amenity and location filters to end up with 1-3 options.
• Check reviews — There’s lots about a lodge — including all the bad stuff — that you will never know from the booking sites. That’s where reviews come in. But most reviews are outdated, overly biased, mere fluff or otherwise unhelpful. You need only a few good reviews, but where do you find them and how do you know they’re credible?
• Secure the best price — You’ve chosen your lodge, so the only task left is to get the best price. If you’re using the BIA or BIASOA methods, you will proceed to book. If you’re going SOA, you will have your baseline price for bargaining.

the Big Picture

Every night that you are away from home, you need a place to rest, sleep, take care of your laundry and do other chores. As an independent traveler, you need to look for that place every time you move. That’s a lot of looking!

For most travelers, accommodation is also the biggest budget item. You need to find the best price for lodging that meets your minimum standards. That leaves more money to travel longer or spend more on cool experiences.

How can you get a good room in a good lodge for a good price?

• Think of what you want to do in a new destination — You want to be near your activities and budget enough time to do them. Then you’ll know approximately where and approximately how long to book. If public transit it fast and cheap, then location isn’t so important. If the lodges aren’t going to book-up, then you can be flexible about your departure.
• Keep realistic expectations — This is key. You can spend a huge amount of effort trying to find the best room in a great lodge at the perfect location and all at a sweet price. But is it worth the time it takes to find it? Some travelers spend 2-4 hours online every time they need a new lodge. Especially if your stay is just a few days, a modest effort can find you a “good enough” room at a price that’s close to the best. Is it worth it to use time that would be better spent doing something fun or getting needed rest in order to save a couple of dollars or get a hair dryer in your room?
• Use the internet — Looking at accommodation booking sites for lodges is obvious. But your search can be shortened and improved by matching your search to activity locations on a map, checking expected vacancies, reading reviews and using loyalty programs.
• But don’t rely entirely on the internet — You might get a jewel of a recommendation from an offline source, notably another traveler. To assess accommodation, there’s no substitute for actually visiting a lodge (including the district around it) and inspecting the rooms. Having the power to negotiate price can save a lot of money over time. While on-the-ground search might seem like excessive hassle, it’s pretty easy in traveler ghettos and other popular destinations. If you use the BIASOA method, you can improve on room quality and price with minimal extra effort.

Your online search for lodging needs different sites

You can’t do everything on one super-site. In fact, you could use up to 4 different sites for 4 different functions:

• Vacancy check — Unless you’re booking your whole stay in advance, you need to know whether rooms will be available after you arrive. There’s a site that lets you see location-wide vacancy rates for every day of your stay.
• Best choice — You want a deep selection of lodges the provides at least one in a good location that meets your needs. 
• Find out the “bad stuff” — You want to know what the booking sites won’t tell you and that means reading reviews. But the vast majority of reviews are too biased, shallow or otherwise useless. Just two sites will give you superior advice.
• Get the best price — Most sites quote very similar prices. After all, they have “best price guarantees” to meet. Yet some sites will give you a superior deal.

Three ways to find a room

Below are our strategies to get a balanced trade-off between time and results. You are not limited to just one. Your choice of method depends upon your personal preference for control vs adventure. Or secure reservations vs better rooms and cost savings. That assessment can and should vary with each new search, depending upon the destination, estimates of supply versus demand for rooms during the dates you will be there and conditions of travel.

If your stay is short or your destination is booking up, it might be wise to use the Book-in-Advance (BIA) method. While only hardy Old School travelers would deliberately choose the Search-on-Arrival (SOA) method, you can find yourself in situations where there is no choice but to find something on the spot. Over time, you can save a lot of money and get better rooms with the combination BIASOA method. 

Book-in-Advance (BIA)

Find & book accommodation for your entire stay online in advance. This is what most travelers do for all their accommodation. but it’s not the best technique for stays of more than 3 nights.

Pros

• Reduced stress — You have your room taken care of before you arrive.
• Known cost — It might not be the best price, but it should be competitive.
• Quality assurance — Recent guest reviews should be available.
• Better transport options — If you have a booking, it’s usually okay to arrive at night.

Cons

The main disadvantage is that you’re locked-in to your booking unless you’re willing to pay a penalty to break it. Why would you want to break it?

• Poor lodge or room — You have your minimum standards for a lodge and a room. But lodges and rooms are rarely as attractive as the online description and photos. You might not find good quality recent reviews either.
• Poor location — It may be more hassle to get from the lodge to your activities than it appeared on a map. Or the neighborhood could be noisy, decrepit or dangerous.
• Better accommodations nearby — The room could be more expensive than comparable or better rooms in nearby lodges.

When to use the BIA method

• Short stays — BIA makes sense if you’re staying at your destination 1-3 nights.
• Low vacancy — It’s also a good idea if the vacancy rate is getting so low that only poor options will remain and it’s best to lock-in your reservations as soon as possible. 

Search-on-Arrival (SOA)

Search for a lodge and room after you arrive. Unless you find yourself in an unexpected place come nightfall, you should have at least some information before arriving at a new destination. It could be from another traveler, a guidebook or from internet research. For the best results, use the tips from Step 7.

Pros

• Not stuck with a bad lodge or room — You get to check the neighborhood, lodge and room without any commitment. If any of them are not up to your requirements, you can go elsewhere.
• More choice — There are still lots of decent to excellent lodges that are not listed in any of the OTAs.
• Save money by negotiating price — Unless vacancy is very low, you can negotiate for a lower price. Over time, this can save plenty compared to BIA.
• Easy to do in a traveler ghetto — If the destination has a traveler ghetto and it’s not high-season or during a huge event, you can find decent accommodation without too much trouble.

Cons

• Hassle & stress — It can take time and effort to locate a suitable room. That can be stressful, especially after dark.
• Transport options limited — You don’t want to do SOA at night in most destinations, so your choice of transport could be limited by the need to arrive with at least a couple of hours of daylight remaining.
• Information disadvantage — If you follow the steps below, you should be okay. But if the lodges you’ve identified in advance are not available or suitable, you’ll be checking new places without sufficient information.
• The Guidebook Curse — Here’s a problem lingering from the Old Days. Once a lodge gets recommended in a popular guidebook, you can be sure that demand will increase. That means it books up faster and will likely raise its prices.
• Risk of a bad room — If you find yourself in a low vacancy destination or have to decide late at night, there’s a risk of a poor or expensive room or a location far from your activities. 

When to use the SOA method

There are resourceful travelers with a taste for adventure who arrive somewhere new without a plan. Good for them! But most of us can benefit from knowing where we’ll be at the end of the day and what we might find there. When you hold the internet in your hand, why would you use the SOA method when you don’t have to? There are two main scenarios.

When you choose to do SOA:

• When it’s the only game in town — Finding accommodation upon arrival might be the only way to find a room in some small and remote places, where the OTAs have few lodges or none at all. In middle and poor countries many lodges, especially those used mostly by domestic travelers, are not listed on the OTAs. 
• When you can’t book anything online that meets your needs — It’s amazing that there are still good lodges aren’t listed on the OTAs. Suppose you can’t find anything online that meets your standards for a price within your budget. Or perhaps affordable lodges are just too far from the action. With a little help from TripAdvisor, you can find high-quality lodges that are not listed on any OTA.
• When you enjoy the traditional way of travel — Some Old School travelers prefer the serendipity of showing up at a new destination and finding their lodging on the spot. It sometimes results in excellent finds, significant cost savings and unique cultural experiences. Yet it can also result in a lengthy and stressful search that leaves you in dumpy or overpriced accommodation. But that’s all part of the adventure, right?

Sometimes, the need to SOA just happens to you. In this situation, you’ve not had any opportunity to get online and prepare. Good luck!

• When your booking vanishes — Mistakes happen. You arrive, but the lodge knows nothing about your booking and there are no rooms left. If this happens, the least the lodge can do is make a couple of calls and refer you to another lodge or let you use their WiFi to search for an alternative yourself.
• When you can’t make it to your scheduled destination — Your flight got cancelled. You missed the train. The bus broke down. A bridge got washed out. There are lots of reasons why you won’t arrive where your next night’s lodging is booked. Then you have to search for a lodge wherever you find yourself come nightfall.

Book-in-Advance & Search-on-Arrival (BIASOA)

The best method over time is a combination of the other two that we call BIASOA.

You book only the night of your arrival (or maybe the first two). You will likely have the option to extend your stay if you wish.

Look for something better the next morning. When you’re rested and have plenty of time before check-out, leave your luggage in the room and go out to look around for alternative accommodation. Yes, it’s a bit more effort and yes, you might end up back at your original lodge anyway. But this method will save money over time as well as get you better rooms and amenities.

Pros

• Less search time — Since you’re not committing for more than one night, you don’t have to invest in a detailed search. You need only “good enough” for that night.
• Reduced stress — You arrive at a new destination with a place to go.
• Improved transport options — If the best transportation option to your new destination arrives at night, you don’t have to wander around finding a place to stay.
• Only one night if the lodge is bad — If the district or lodge is not acceptable, you’re stuck with it only that first night.
• Better lodges, better rooms — There should be comparable or better lodges nearby. You get to inspect them without any commitment to stay. With your mobile device and either a WiFi hotspot or a local data plan, you can still check ratings and prices as you search the street.
• Option to stay in the original lodge — If you like the neighborhood, the lodge and the room, you can probably extend your stay.
• Lower cost — You will usually have the opportunity to negotiate price and/or amenities. That applies to your original lodge too, since they won’t have to pay 15% or more in OTA commissions. Over time, negotiating price will save a lot. See below for how to do it.

Cons

• Requires vacancies — There is only one big drawback to the BIASOA strategy. When you go looking for alternative lodging, there have to be empty rooms to look at and a hungry lodge manager who’s willing to deal on price. If the vacancy rate is low, you could find yourself having to leave your original lodge because it’s fully booked the day after you arrive. You might then find that the selection of rooms in other lodges is all bad (poor quality, over your budget or too far away). Use our Vacancy Check technique to avoid problems.
• Extra time looking — Instead of starting your activities, you will have to spend some time and effort the morning after your arrival looking for an alternative lodge.

When to use the BIASOA method?

This technique is worth doing if your stay is a minimum of 3 nights.

• Default method for 3+ nights — If you’re trying to save money and get better rooms, BIASOA should be your default method for any stay over 3 nights (some might say 2 nights). If you’re only spending one or two full days, it doesn’t make sense to spend some of the first morning switching lodges.
• When your first lodge sucks — If your first night lodge is terrible, then you could try to get out of a 2-3 day commitment and look for alternatives.
• Only when vacancy is low enough — Decent rooms have to be available when you go looking.

Why online search for accommodation?

Whichever method you use, you need to do online research, but your final objective will differ:

• BIA search — You need to find and book a lodge for your entire stay.
• SOA search — You need to identify 2+ lodges that you can scout upon arrival. Old School (non-digital) travelers can source information from guide books or other travelers.
• BIASOA search — You need to book a lodge for your first night. 

You have 6 steps to perform for the BIA method, 7 for the SOA and BIASOA. Our challenge is to keep them short, without sacrificing the quality of results. The first 3 are very quick.

• Estimate your arrival & departure dates — This is easy for short-term vacationers, but independent travelers are more uncertain. Your proposed arrival date in a new destination is usually soon — as early as tomorrow. You may be flexible about your departure date, but perhaps you know your minimum stay.
• Check vacancy for your dates — This is vital for the SOA and BIASOA methods. For BIA, you can skip this step since your search (below) will take care of it.
• Select an approximate location — You want a lodge that is reasonably close to your activities, but not in an undesirable district.
• Search for a lodge & room — You need to sort through the lodges available in the neighborhood you’ve chosen, filtering for the amenities and price that fit your travel style.
• Check the reviews — You’ve picked some possible lodges, but how do you choose among them? It’s helpful to have the opinion of credible fellow travelers who have recently stayed at the chosen lodge.
• Find the best price — You want a good price, but also need to understand the conditions that go with that price. For BIA and BIASOA, you will book now. For SOA, you will have your base bargaining price. 

Sources of pre-arrival information

• Maps: get oriented — There’s no substitute for orienting yourself on a detailed map.
  • While digital maps may display very little on the screen of your phone, you can zoom in for more detail than paper. There’s always an exception: some remote places are almost blank on Google Maps. Good detail may be found on local maps, but they’re difficult to get until you arrive. 
  • A Google search “[starting point] to [destination] “, where the “starting point” is your transport hub of arrival and “destination” is your lodge, will show a map of routes and travel times by private vehicle or public transit. Not all routes are covered, so you might have to augment with other websites.
  • Download an offline map of the entire area encompassing your activities and lodge (part or all of a city, for example).
• Guidebooks: understand the districts, location of attractions and how to get around — will often help you understand a location, where the attractions are, what districts you want to consider for lodging and how to get around. Their accommodation listings are much less useful. They list the few lodges that their reviewers have been able to check and that checking will have been done at least a year ago and probably more. Price quotes are only indicative of the approximate price band: as soon as a guidebook recommends a lodge, the place will quickly become popular and, more often than not, respond to increased demand with increased prices.
• OTAs: identify at least two lodges — You don’t have to book on an OTA to get valuable information. Again, TripAdvisor is best because it has user-reviewed listings for lodges that have no commercial relationship with TripAdvisor or any other OTA. Get an idea of location, quality and quality. 
• Fellow travelers: ask for current information — Someone you meet on your plane, train or bus could have a recommendation for a district or lodge. This person could be a resident of your destination or another traveler who has just left there. He or she could have lots of other useful information to share about things to do or places to eat. Make notes!

Boot Camp — Should you ever use a taxi driver or tout to find a lodge?

No, you should not get into a situation where you have to rely on a taxi driver or tout to find your accommodation. You should always arrive at a new destination with the names and street addresses of at least two lodges.

But maybe you couldn’t make your new destination by the end of the day — you had to stop in a town en route where you have no information on accommodation. Maybe you had two lodges selected at your destination, but after you arrived neither of them worked out. And your taxi or tuk-tuk is still outside waiting.

Let’s be clear: if you have internet access, it’s best to get online and search for another lodge. But if you have no leads and no internet, you may have no choice but to rely on a taxi driver or tout. But know that accepting the services of a taxi driver or tout is an admission of helplessness, putting yourself at a huge disadvantage. The very least that will happen is that you will pay too much for the lodge.

• Taxi drivers are safer — A taxi driver is not totally anonymous and can be traced. He is linked to his taxi and his taxi to the taxi rank at the airport or station. That means that, apart from possibly ripping you off on the fare, he won’t cause more trouble.
• Touts know more about lodge deals — A taxi driver who knows about a lodge or two is still a taxi driver first. A tout makes his living by commission sales, so he’s better informed and will likely have several choices for you. You can try to tell him what you want, but he will always start with the most expensive, no matter what you say, because that’s where the best commission is.
• Instruct the taxi driver or tout with whatever information you have — You should at least know the district you want, especially in an enormous city. If he says he doesn’t have a lodge in your preferred district, but has one that’s nearby, don’t believe him — “near” can be pretty elastic when a sale is at stake.
• Never go with a tout in a private vehicle — Always use a taxi that you pick, or the random one at the front of the rank. Don’t let the tout choose a taxi and definitely don’t go in a private vehicle. An anonymous tout in an anonymous vehicle, maybe with an anonymous driver, is asking for trouble. The tout may not be a tout, but a front man for a scam or robbery.
• Unless the town is booked up, take the room for just one night — If you use a taxi driver or tout, it’s unlikely that you’ll get an acceptable lodge in a good location for the best price. It’s more likely that you will pay more than necessary for the quality of the lodge. It’s possible that you will end up far from your activities or in a terrible lodge. There’s little doubt you can find a better lodge, possibly in a better location and surely at a better price the next morning.

If, in the end, your tout doesn’t have a place that meets your requirements, you’re under no obligation to compensate him for his efforts. And, with luck, you’ll already be in a street with alternative accommodations to check on your own.