Historically, as a business traveler, vacationer, or tourist, you had a limited number of ways to find and arrange lodging.

First, you can book through your favorite or well-known hotel or accommodation chain. Depending on your needs and your budget, usually the largest of them would have (and still have) at least one property in your chosen location and would provide a consistent standard across the globe or across the country.

Another option would be to contact a travel agency to arrange your trip and accommodation with it. Typically, the agent would sell the tourist a “holiday package” or the business traveler a “standard rate” from their GDS (Global Distribution Systems like Saber or Galileo) A little more explanation of what goes on behind the scenes of these two methods : A vacation package was simply a “group discount” airfare known as a FIT (Fully Inclusive Tour) where in order to get the reduced fare, the traveler had to purchase a certain amount of approved accommodation, often all the nights of the duration of the trip. This accommodation was packaged by travel wholesalers who negotiated with individual hotels or chains offering them a minimum number of rooms/nights in exchange for a deep discount. The downside of these packages was usually a lack of flexibility and that the rooms booked were mostly common, which meant that the hotel could place these discounted travelers in whatever room they had available for the night(s). In contrast, a rack rate reservation made through the GDS, while more expensive (in part due to the high cost to the hotel of participating in the GDS, plus agent commission), was generally much more flexible and the customer would have some choice of rooms.

Today, of course, there is the Internet! The entire world of accommodation is at your fingertips, making it easy to find what you’re looking for. But is it? Unlike the phone directories agents had years ago, the Internet has no content or index, and Google’s address book may not be the same as yours. For example, a search for “accommodation (in a) city” may not typically return a single actual hotel property until page 2, 3, or beyond. Of course, there are many different excellent sites offering a dazzling array of hotels in the most popular locations around the world. however, many of these sites’ offerings are restrictive in many ways and can be arranged in an order more in line with the individual property site’s income than what works best for you. How do you know which one offers you the best? agreement?

Take a multi-pronged approach to this in order to get the right property, in the right location at the best available price.

Let’s imagine that you are going to a new place, where you have never been before. Take my hometown of Busselton in the beautiful Margaret River wine region of south-west Western Australia, for example. Where to start?

First of all, go to the only site that has (almost) all accommodation properties: Hotels Combined (No, I don’t work for them or have any stock or any other interest) In the light blue search box, enter your destination and arrival and departure (note that this is the date after your last night), dates, number of guests, and click SEARCH. The first result will show (say) 25 hotels arranged in “Recommended” order. You can modify this along the top line to: Stars; Distance; Price or Guest Rating, or at the bottom of the page in more depth by Star Rating, Price, Locations, Hotel Name (if known), Property Type and/or Features. Please note that you can only change one field at a time. This powerful tool allows you to narrow down the property you are looking for by any or all of these variables. Once you’ve chosen one, click BOOK NOW and you’ll see a new box showing a number of booking sites and their price for that property on the dates you want. When you click GO you will be transferred to the reservation site, as Hotels Combined is not a reservation site, just a great directory. Goal STOP! Before you book, there are a few more checks and due diligence you may choose to do.

First of all Hotels Combined does not cover all properties or all booking sites eg Triple A or Wotif and one of the downsides of many of these big international booking sites though their cost for accommodation property is much lower than that of the first two reserves. methods I described, you may still receive a regular room or face very restrictive conditions. You may also want to independently verify what other travelers’ experience of the property was. So:

Take a look at Tripadvisor (searching by property name is the fastest way, but you can also search by location, etc.) to see how previous guests rate the property, and if you really want to get to the heart of the matter. Brave, read the property’s responses to reviews, if they bother to, and you can even join as a contributor, it’s free, and send a request to one or more of the reviewers to ask specific questions about their experience or about the property .

Once that’s done, if you’re still happy with your choice, or made a new one, in which case repeat the process with Hotels Combined to find the best price offered, there’s one last step I recommend: Do a property search. own website. Many accommodation properties make the right choice, as all booking sites and other external booking sources such as Visitor Centers, Auto Clubs, etc. They charge variable levels of commission of around 10 – 18%, to guarantee that the same or lower price will always be offered on their own website.

Finally, almost as a note if you plan to stay more than two or three nights, especially if it’s off-season or weekdays in a vacation area, or Friday-Sunday nights in town, and/or if there are more of you than just you need 1 bedroom try phoning the property especially if it is a smaller owner operated as most of the time you will be speaking to the owner who may be willing to negotiate rates and will certainly be fine informed. over it and the surrounding region.

While I hope this method is useful to you and will of course lead you to our property if you plan to stay in this region, I am also very comfortable that it is not, as I am convinced that our happiest guests are those that they have made the most conscious and informed decision to stay here.

Happy journey!