Budget Travel Accomodation

It is well known that the 2 of the biggest things on your travel budget (assuming you don’t have “first lady” levels of shopaholic-ism) are transportation aka flight tickets and accommodation aka hotel rooms.

I’m sure many are familiar with Airasia and how it works and I’m sure many are happy that “now everybody can fly”. But today we will be talking about accommodation, specifically budget accommodation.

If you have been traveling more than once, you might notice that the only thing we need a hotel room is to have a place to sleep. Most of the time we will be out and about sight seeing.

Knowing that, I guess its only sensible to spend the least money on a place to stay. As long as its decent, that’s good enough. And having youth and the sense of adventure on our side, why not try something different, such as backpacker hostels.

Online hostel booking websites

There are a few online hostel booking sites and here I have compared 2 online sites showing you, not only can you get cheap hostel beds, but you can also get cheaper hostels beds. The two sites are :

www.hostelbookers.com

www.hostelworld.com

This might sound funny, but you can actually get a cheaper rate for the same hostel if you book from a different site. I googled hostelworld.com and found hostelbookers.com in the results and it specifically said it is 8.7% cheaper in its google result. So, I compared both to see if its really true or a marketing gimmick.

I made a search for a hostel in both of the websites with the same date, same number of nights and for the same hostel. The results were quite surprising.

Hostelworld.com results on a hostel in Hiroshima :

This is the cheapest hostel I found in Hiroshima in both sites. On Hostelworld.com it costs USD32.11 for a bed in a mixed/female dorm. Which is cheaper than the cheapest hotel you can find in the area.

Compare it with the results in hostelbookers.com :

Hostelbookers.com can offer the same dorm room for USD30.41. My point is, it is important that you search around for cheaper deals on hostels.

Payment

Online hostel booking sites usually don’t charge a booking fee, but they usually have a deposit of around 10% of the total fee due. You can cancel bookings but you wont get the deposit back. Payment is usually by credit card, or you can also use your trusty Tune Money Prepaid Visa.

Spotting the right hostel for you

Before booking, you should first read the comments from other backpackers about the hostel. Having English speaking staff is quite important as they can help you in giving information about the area you are visiting. Cleanliness is also important. Most backpacker hostels have a shared toilet, so, make sure you are OK with it. But you can always bath very early in the morning before everyone wakes up. But most important is the location. Is it near to transportation and tourist areas.

Pros and Cons of staying in a hostel

Pros :

Cheap
Possibility to meet fellow backpackers and exchange experience
Usually hostel staff are more friendly and traveller orientated.
Some can arrange for travel guide or packages.
Some come with free breakfast.

Cons :

less privacy. Everything is shared.
Have to take care of belongings. Fellow backpackers are not always good people.

4 commentsback to post

#1Picnicman06/02/2011, 6:59 pm

Very true – just want to add two things:

1) If you want to save even more money, book directly with the hostel itself. As a hostel owner, it’s hard to support having your guests pay another 10% when they can book directly with you.

2) It’s typical in hostels to not just have breakfast included, but to also have internet, maps, and all sorts of other amenities that in 2 and 3 star hotels are charged at a pretty unrealistically high rate.

#2iMyn06/02/2011, 9:52 pm

Thanks Picnicman. Also I want to add 1 last thing. in some contries you can even haggle over the room price, especially if its off season. Like when I went to Beijing where my friend and I got the room rate down significantly. But this is just if you are a walk in customer.

#3Sophie12/02/2011, 12:08 am

My name is Sophie and I work at HostelBookers. Thank you for this great piece on hostels.

We are always striving to make travellers get the best deals possible, which is why we have a lowest price guarantee. More details here. http://bit.ly/c6XzPx

Thanks again for the mention.

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