As crazy as it sounds, I went to Europe 3 different times in the span of 6 weeks last year. And the last of those trips was the only one a friend and I planned way back in November 2016 (when those ridiculously cheap Black Friday sales were going on...Barcelona, here we come!). Then I decided to go to Scotland with my dad and my son (a bonus being a friend of mine is going to grad school there, so we got to see her). And then my sister invited me to tag along on her business trip , which she was extending to go see other parts of the French Riviera. My mom decided to come along on that trip too, which was a good way for the three of us to bond and a way to heal from a family tragedy we experienced late last year. Also, when a travel opportunity arises, I just can’t say “no.” Anyways...
The easy part, booking the airline tickets. The not-so-easy part? Where the hell are we going to stay? Should we do an airBnB? A hotel? That is the first line of questioning after the airfare. We decide on hotel for all three stays.
Now, where in the city do we want to stay? Hotels.com is what I used the most to search for places, and with good prices (I’m on a budget). There is a map showing where each hotel is located, so you can find the area you want to stay in. I’ve tried other websites as well, but always go back to this site due to the competitive pricing, its user-friendly site, and the rewards (more on that later).
Reviews are a big thing to me as well, so I read a few of the best reviews and a few of the worst reviews to see if a place is really that bad or if the person was upset they didn’t get an upgrade or turndown service at a certain hotel. You can search for hotels within a certain prices or rating range.
But something interesting happened when my dad and I were deciding on a hotel over the phone. He’s on the east coast and I’m out west. The price for the same hotel with the same dates showed up higher on my end! What the…?!? My dad ended up booking it on his end to get the lower price. That was annoying. I had even cleared out the cache on my computer after reading that it helps with websites tracking your searches, but apparently it didn’t help at all! So, that is one thing to look out for with booking travel on this, or any site. (Some advice: If you are traveling with someone who doesn’t live with you, ask them to check the prices on their end before booking).
Another thing I like about the Hotels site is that it offers monthly coupon codes. I used one for each of my three trips. It’s hard to find on the site, so I just google “hotels.com discount codes” and a link to the discount code area of the site will pop up. For the Scotland hotel, I believe the coupon code I used was for 10%. For our hotel in Èze, France I could only find a mail-in rebate offer for $20, but better than nothing. And for Barcelona, I got a 12% discount. Now, the catch with these discount codes is that you have to pay for the hotel up front. There’s normally an option to pay now or pay at the hotel in the local currency. So you must REALLY be sure you want that hotel before you pay, or just forego the extra discount and pay at the hotel.
To sum up, I use hotels.com because of the ease of search, the discount codes, the choice of hotels (including the Relais & Château property we stayed at in Èze, France, which was on my mom’s bucket list to stay at), and the rewards of signing up to be a member - buy 10 hotel nights and get one free. It takes the average cost of your hotels for the free night and the rewards kick in after you check out of the hotel. Right now I am sitting on at least one free night for my trips, and I think that is a pretty darn good deal!
UPDATE: I used the free night I had! Well, it was more of a credit of about $130.00. I did some research as I wanted to use it for when my parents were visiting me when I was working in Massachusetts this past summer. I had found another Relais & Château property in Lexington MA, which was over $200/night and wanted to treat my parents. Upon doing my research, I found I only had to pay the difference between the credit and the hotel cost. So I paid the difference and they had a lovely time at a beautiful hotel!
(Note: The above is an affiliate link. For questions, please email me directly.)