How to save 100s with mystery mega-bargains, top hotel comparison sites, bargains, cheap-yet-clean hostels and much more.
Pay less for the same hotel room
The same hotel or B&B room is sold by different places at different prices.
Step 1. Need to find a good hotel?
The first aim's to find a top hotel, within your budget, then to try to get it as cheaply as possible. If you already know where you want to stay, jump to step two. If not, read below.
Don't trust the hotel star system
Picking a cheap suite involves cutting through vast swathes of information, yet there's a golden rule to start with.
Can you trust the hotel star system? In a word no !
It's based on facilities not quality; there's no ranking standardisation whatsoever.
Use a comparison site
Check TripAdvisor
Trip AdvisorFast becoming a worldwide institution, TripAdvisor* lists detailed reviews and customer ratings for hotels, and pictures taken by past guests. Search for different hotels to see whether they're palaces or pigsties. For more, read quick tips for using TripAdvisor.
For UK hotels, the independent hotel guidebook Good Hotel Guide has a free website reviewing UK hotels. Entries in the guide are based on visits by undercover inspectors, and it's well worth a look.
Unnamed hotel mega-bargains
How to uncover them
There's a way to work out what the hotel really is and whether it's worth it. Simply copy and paste all or part of the hotel description into Google. Often, it just uses the hotels standard description text that also appears on its website.
If you've no luck, ask in the Top Secret Hotels Revealed discussion or, for the capital, the London Hotels Revealed thread. Secret-hotel pros on this site's chat forum can usually track them down in seconds. If you book, please do post the hotel name and description after you get the Lastminute.com email revealing the hotel.
It's also worth pasting the details into the specialist secret hotel website SecretHotelsRevealed. This site isn't perfect; only use it to corroborate what you've already found.
Ensure it's a bargain
Once you've pieced together the hotel's identity, use comparison sites such as Trivago and TravelSupermarket* to ensure it's a bargain.
Done right, this is a superb way to a classy hotel in your budget. Yet you can never be 100% sure which hotel it is, so it's not for those desperate to stay at a particular place.
