How To Choose A Hotel

We have travelled quite a bit by now, and I’ve always said that one of the most important things you choose during your trip is where you stay. It can be a time consuming decision, but I’ve nailed down a strategy for how I choose a hotel!

Narrow Down An Area By Looking At What We Want To Do

The area you stay in can make or break a trip in my opinion. Some people will choose a hotel based on price and not based on where it is. It is why people stay in New Jersey and spend half of their vacation to New York on public transport. I start by looking at what we want to do when we are visiting a city. If most of the things are in one general area I start looking for a hotel close by. I also look at public transportation options and whether or not it is accessible from our preferred area.

Choose A Budget

This is of course the hard part. We typically don’t spend much time at hotels because we are out exploring! A budget depends on how much you have to spend, and where you are traveling. For example I could not find a hotel in Miami or Fort Lauderdale for less than $200 a night, so your budget needs to be at least that much!

Pick A Hotel

I like to use websites like Hotels.com to explore all the hotels in my preferred area. I make a list of ones that interest me and compare. If I can find one that includes breakfast it’s almost always an automatic winner! Consider things like parking (paid or free, or if unavailable) if you have a car with you, whether or not you have a kitchen or fridge or microwave or coffee maker in the room. Sometimes a pool is important to me and sometimes it is not. It all depends on your travel party and what you are planning to do on this vacation!

If nothing in my preferred area we will have to decide if we will up the budget or choose a different location. This happened on our recent trip to Toronto. We ended up booking a little bit further away (but within walking distance) from where we wanted to be. It turned out fine!

Read Reviews

The next step of picking hotels is reading reviews. I Google the hotel to read reviews from bloggers or other people who have stayed there, sometimes there is even a YouTube video tour! I am sure it has saved me from staying somewhere less than ideal in the past.

Repeat If Necessary

If all the hotels on your favorite list have not so great reviews I would probably start again and maybe up my budget a little bit. It is important to me to stay somewhere where I feel safe, comfortable and have easy access to exploring!

Final Thoughts

Everyone has different opinions on staying at hotels vs Airbnb vs hostel, etc. It is all up to you and your travel style. I personally usually opt for a hotel but we have used Airbnb in the past. Hope this helps you choose the right hotel for your next adventure!