Summer is a time for vacations and travel. Some people want to go to the sea, in the mountains, in nature, while others prefer large cities and distant countries. But all share one thing – the desire to have a good rest in comfortable conditions.
At this point, many people start thinking about how to organize a perfect vacation: to ask for help from a travel agency or to cope on their own. As practice shows, most people choose the second option, because it is at least can be much cheaper, and as a maximum – you can choose all the details yourself. And some people just love these worries about planning trips.
This is where booking comes to the aid of travelers. Read our article about what it is, how it works, and what advice experienced travelers can give.
Online Hotel Booking
If you are planning a short trip or a long trip, you will have to review more than one site in search of a hotel. It is only necessary to type in the search engine the city of the intended residence, as the user sees a whole list of services offering hotels of any category, apartments, rooms in a pension, houses or rooms. Among them, “Booking.com” occupies one of the leading places. It is a site where anyone can easily find an appropriate hotel based on the desired location, reasonable price and other characteristics.
However, Booking is not the only system for searching and booking hotels. There are many similar resources where you can book accommodation and even find unique offers.
We would like to recommend booking to experienced travelers who like to bother with the organization of travel more than they want to save money and protect themselves from force majeure situations. No matter how you look at it, every user of the service can meet with booking incidents (especially with payment by card) and unpleasant situations in the trip, which will have to be solved by him, and only by him.
Online hotel booking is the same as regular booking, only automated via the Internet, bypassing the human factor.
The client selects the desired option on the Internet: country, city, hotel, room of the appropriate category, date of arrival and departure, payment method, necessary services. The client must fill out the form and provide information about themselves.
Advantages of Booking
In fact, there are many advantages of online booking:
First of all, permanent access to booking — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that is, the ability to book a room at a convenient time. At any time of the day or night, regardless of time zones, the tourist simply fills out a form, the electronic system checks the availability of the number itself and enters the data. The hotel Manager controls the availability of rooms during working hours and enters data into the system. When checking in or booking data is automatically entered in the database, double booking is excluded.
Secondly, a tourist can book a room in a matter of minutes— no need to wait. In a world where we value every minute, this is a very important advantage.
Third – it saves your money. Prices in online booking are always cheaper than in the agency and, as a rule, less than at the counter.
Fourth, you can book a room from literally anywhere with Internet access. During the flight, you changed your mind and want to stay in another hotel? You can easily do this using online booking.
Fifth, you can carefully read the offer of the hotel and the rooms booked, choose additional services and take advantage of discounts set by the owner or manager.
Another advantage is that booking cancellations also occur in the online system. The hotel announces the dates before which you can simply cancel the room without penalty. If the trip was canceled, conditions and dates changed, the tourist cancels the reservation. The action also takes a few minutes.
And the most important thing is confidence. When you arrive at the hotel, you risk facing the fact that all the rooms are occupied and you will have to look for another place. You can’t disagree, this can spoil all the impressions of your vacation. With online booking, you don’t have to worry about this. Online hotel booking helps you get a guarantee of your room in a few minutes. Just fill out the form on the site, send a request and confirmation will appear immediately. The online booking system will send all the necessary documents to the traveler by email. The hotel will know the date of arrival and personal information, will be able to pick up staff who speak the language of the tourist, and prepare everything for a comfortable stay.
Disadvantages of Booking
Like any online system, booking has its drawbacks. Here are some of them:
- You may not always be sure that you will get exactly the room you have booked. Unscrupulous hotel owners often post photos with better conditions than they can offer themselves or photos of rooms from a higher price category. And, unfortunately, there is no way you can check it before you arrive.
- Another bad thing about booking is that your card details end up in the hands of the hotel staff. Usually there are no problems with this, but sometimes there are reviews on the Internet that unscrupulous hotel employees stole money from the card. To avoid such a misunderstanding with you, it is better to use a separate card for hotel booking when booking, where there is enough money only for booking, or there is a limit on withdrawals.
How to Book the Best Room
Choosing the best option, you need to start from your requirements and budget. And start the search, of course, with the hotel. You should pay attention to such items as:
- Location. First of all, see if it will be convenient to get to the hotel from the airport, whether there are metro stations nearby, and whether it will be convenient for you to visit the places you wanted.
- Number of stars. This item depends more on your budget. Do you want to relax in style or do you need a small but cozy room? Perhaps you will not refuse the hostel?
- Client feedback. Hotels can tell you about their services in any color, but in this case your main assistant is the reviews of those who have already lived in this hotel. If the reviews are bad or completely absent, you should think about it.
Many hotels offer different prices for the same room. The minimum fare means that you are dealing with a non-refundable fare and even in case of force majeure, you won’t be able to get your money back after canceling the trip. If the room price is higher, the reservation is canceled in full without penalty.
When the hotel is selected, you can proceed to selecting a room. Usually, online booking services can set search filters based on any details, up to whether you want a room with a bath or shower. Pay attention to all the details. Do you want a room with a view of the city or a courtyard? Is Breakfast included in the price? What facilities are available in the room?
Some booking sites have special offers. For example, they give a discount on a reservation for each invited friend, or offer discounts when booking for a certain amount. Read these offers carefully and you may be able to save some money.
Be sure that among all the variety of offers you will find the perfect option for yourself.
Once you understand what a booking is, you will make your life much easier. You will not have to pay agents for the simplest actions that are available to everyone. Now you can easily plan and organize your trip, as well as make adjustments to it at any stage.
Travel with pleasure!
