Ah, Hotels

Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash

I’m sitting at my computer refreshing a hotel booking page to try and get into a room block that will likely fill within minutes. Which made me want to talk about travel planning.

Specifically, hotels. Love them, hate them…unless you only ever book all inclusives or have a travel agent, you’re going to have to deal with hotel booking. And unless you only ever camp, you’re going to stay in hotels.

And the truth is, hotels are a mixed bag. Sometimes the same hotel is a mixed bag. Most hotel “chains” are franchises, and while there are certain rules across the franchise, that doesn’t mean service, etc, is going to be even. Then there’s when something goes wrong, like 50% of the hotel losing hot water. In February. So, what are the best things you can do? Here are some tips:

1. Always book through the hotel. Always. Book. Through. The. Hotel. Unless you’re being literally forced to use a third party booking site to get a block rate (Hello! And I’m mad about it because I can’t get rid of my backup room until I get the actual hotel confirmation, because they aren’t giving those out until a month before the con!). Never book through Expedia or any similar service. Instead, use them to compare prices, then book through the hotel. Even if the third party booking service is reputable, it adds an extra stage to the process. Hotels also tend to put people who book through third party…