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Accommodation is the largest line in most travel budgets and the one where the difference between a good decision and a lazy one is biggest.
Before you book
Search here, then check the property’s own site. Small hotels and guesthouses pay 15 to 20 per cent commission to the booking platforms, and many will match or beat the rate directly, or include breakfast. An email takes two minutes.
Ask for the weekly or monthly rate if you are staying more than a few nights. It is routinely 30 to 50 per cent below the nightly rate and it is almost never advertised. This is the single biggest saving available to anyone travelling slowly.
Check the total, not the headline. Tourist taxes, city taxes and mandatory “facility” or “resort” fees are frequently added later and can be substantial.
Read the last twenty reviews only. A property with 800 reviews averaging 8.9 tells you nothing about whether it changed hands last year or whether there is now a building site next door.
Free cancellation is worth a small premium on anything more than a week out.
When to book ahead, and when not to
Book ahead for festival weeks, Japan in blossom or autumn, Iceland and the Faroes in summer, Mediterranean islands in August, Torres del Paine’s refugios a year out, and the first night of any trip.
Do not book ahead across most of Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America and the Balkans outside peak weeks. Supply exceeds demand and a chain of reservations is the commonest reason people leave places they were enjoying.
Short-term lets
A growing list of cities restrict or ban whole-apartment short-term rentals: New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin and Kyoto among them, with registration schemes, night caps or outright bans.
Two consequences: illegal listings get removed, sometimes after you have booked; and the housing-pressure argument is one residents in those cities feel strongly about. Where whole-apartment lets are restricted, licensed guesthouses and aparthotels are the alternative.
The full detail is in how to find somewhere to stay.