Quickly Find the BEST Hotel for You in Any City

Finding a hotel--especially in a city you’ve never been to--can be overwhelming, and many people don’t know where to start. 

Asking for recommendations can help, but if you want to make sure you get the BEST deal, here’s a trick I use. It can be done quickly, without any prior research, and has always resulted in finding the best hotel for the price I want to pay. 

Not surprisingly (because I’m a scientist & researcher), my trick relies on data--from Tripadvisor, whose traveler opinions I've found to be extremely reliable. 

The "Explora" hotel in Patagonia had an amazing view and was all-inclusive

STEP 1. Go to Tripadvisor.com & enter city in the "where to" bar. 

STEP 2. Click on the box for “hotels”. 

STEP 3. Enter your travel dates. 

• Put your dates in the "check in" and "check out" boxes

• Also enter "number of travelers" and hit "update"

STEP 4. Sort by “traveler ranked” (the default is “best value”). 

 STEP 5. Read the reviews starting at the top and moving down. 

• The first one is often “sponsored” (which means it’s an ad), so you can skip that one and start at #1. 

• If you want to use filters (e.g., property type, breakfast included, free parking), you can check the boxes to the left, but I recommend NOT limiting by price because comparing prices allows you to see how good of a value your hotel is. 

• Example: if #4 is $150/night and is between #3 at $500 and #5 at $300, you know #4 is a great deal. 

• Choose the highest rated hotel that’s in your price range. Depending on your budget, this may be #5 out of 240, or it may be #58. Once I find a high-rated hotel that looks good in my price range, I might read a few more to see if a slightly lower-ranked hotel has a better feature, but mostly I end up with the highest rated one in my price range, and this has worked out great. 

• Reading reviews can quickly tell you the important features to look for in a hotel in that city (which spares you from having to do research beforehand). 

• Example: location is often important. Is it near a metro station? Can you walk to restaurants nearby? Is it in a safe place that isn’t sketchy to walk around at night? It’s also easy to find out if the hotel is clean, has good wifi and/or AC, has free parking, good views, treats their customers well, etc. 

• Stick to hotels rated 4.5 or higher. Tripadvisor’s colored-in green circles tell you the average customer rating out of 5. As a rule, I only choose hotels that are 4.5 or higher. The reason is that 4.5s are a mix of 4 and 5 reviews, whereas 4s are a mix of 3 and 5s (3 is actually “bad” to most people, who may be too polite to put 1 or 2; 4s definitely have some flaws). My experience backs this up (especially early on, before I had this rule)—any time I’ve chosen a “4”, I’ve often been annoyed, but am rarely unhappy with something rated 4.5 or higher. 
• Tip: The 4.5 rule also works great for activities, tours, and restaurants on Tripadvisor! 

STEP 6. Find the best price for your hotel. 

• Although Tripadvisor includes price comparisons (many of which are hard to beat), it’s important to check the hotel’s own website as well. Whenever you can (e.g., if prices at the hotel’s site are equal or lower than the ones on Tripadvisor), you always want to book through the hotel directly: they appreciate it, plus it’s often easier to cancel or make changes and you might also get some perks. 

• Check Costco and/or AAA. If you have memberships to either of these, it’s worth checking them as well. 

• Costco has vacation packages (to places like Hawaii, Bora Bora, Florida, etc.) that often are at terrific prices and may include extras, such as free breakfast, resort credit, and/or a Costco “shop card” (which is essentially a rebate that you can spend like a gift card at Costco; these can be several hundred dollars and up). 
• Tip: Costco is also well known for having the best rental car and cruise prices that few competitors can match.

• If you have Triple A, it’s worth checking because their best rate is often equal to the best non-refundable rate through other sources, but with AAA that rate often has a 24-hour cancellation policy. So if you like the rate but need flexibility, it’s good to book through AAA. 

All-time favorite: Overwater bungalow at Intercontinental Thalasso Bora Bora

 Good luck, and happy travels!!