Booking a hotel can be a stressful and time consuming task. Scrawling across pages and pages of various internet sites and visiting travel agents can turn what initially was excitement at the prospect of going away into anxiousness at choosing the right hotel! To make this task slightly easier, here are some things that you may want to consider when booking a hotel.

1. Use comparison sites. Comparison sites enable you to compare a large amount of hotels, look at ratings and even reviews from customers. For example searching Berlin Hotels would come up with lots of results. This should help you save time and give you an insight into what is available and for what price.

2. Location. Location seems like an obvious thing to look for when booking a hotel but something that can easily be overlooked. Say for example you search online for a hotel in Brighton. Just because that hotel comes up on the search results doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to be near to where you want to go. You may in fact end up being miles away! This might then lead to more travel expenses. Have a look on the hotels website and search for the address on Google maps. Hotels central to towns or city’s tend to be more expensive and so you may need to look out of town, but if the place you are visiting is fairly small this may not necessarily be a problem. For example, Brighton.

3. Reviews. Reviews are a good way of seeing whether or not a hotel is worth staying in. The hotel may have reviews on its site but is it always going to show bad reviews? Look elsewhere on the web. Are there any Facebook pages about the hotel? E.g. ‘Don’t ever stay at …’ or ‘We love …’also have a look at other social media sites or forums. These are likely to show a wide range of opinions that could help you choose a hotel. Remember to check dates of reviews. Reviews that are out-dated might not necessarily still be relevant.

4. Where is your room located? This may sound strange but finding out where your room is in relation to other parts of the hotel can be important. Planning a holiday away with your mates getting drunk? You might want to consider if your room is next to the pool. Waking up with a hangover can be horrible at the best of times, least of all when you have hundreds of people screaming and shouting, jumping in and out of the pool all day! Similarly if you are planning a quiet and relaxing holiday then you may want to consider where you are in relation to the bar!

5. What facilities does the hotel have? If you are staying in a hotel out of necessity e.g. a business trip, then you may want to check simple things like do the rooms include a T.V? If not then you may find you are in for a lonely evening! Similarly if you are taking children with you, does the hotel have suitable facilities? And perhaps more importantly are the children going to be occupied?

6. Be aware of hidden costs. Ask exactly what you are paying for and what is included in the price. Those tempting miniature bottles of alcohol are most likely not free!

Hopefully these tips will help you to make a more informed choice when choosing the perfect hotel for your holiday. Remember, a good hotel can equal a great holiday.