Hotels/Holiday Accommodation

[Stan]

Been looking recently at places to stay for a family holiday, and got me thinking what everyone else looks for or prioritises when searching for somewhere to stay on their holidays.

Location, room size, parking, breakfast, hotel facilities like gym/spa etc, reputation. What's top of your list?

 

Also a good place for any recommendations if people are planning to go somewhere but haven't yet sourced a good hotel.

 

If anyone has been to York, let me know where is good to stay for 1-2 nights!

[Tommy]

A bed and a shower is all I need as long as it's clean. 

[nudge]

For me it depends on many factors, such as purpose of travel, length of stay, number of people, etc. I spent most of 2021 and 2022 in hotels/holiday accommodations (just checked it out of interest, and it's 517 days in total), and it varied from simple hotels to holiday villas to condos & apartment hotels. 

Location is obviously always important, especially in big cities with fucked up traffic, so I'd say it's probably on my top of the list, along with cleanliness and safety. For longish stays, a reasonable WiFi is a must, as I need it for work. Oh and price matters, of course Room size and amenities (and also view) are important for longer stays, not really important if it's just a few days where I only use the hotel for sleeping and showering. Don't care about breakfast and most hotel facilities, but I do prefer hotels that have a restaurant/bar.  

[Tommy]

So yea, when I said a bed and a shower is all I need as long as it's clean I obviously meant for a vacation. I never spend much time in the hotel as I'm out and about from morning until evening/night, so I don't need a luxurious room or anything. A balcony is nice too! I once booked an ECO room that was cheap as shit, but it only had a small window with a shitty view to the inside of the hotel. Like a chute that lead to a small inner courtyard where the kitchen employees went for a smoke. 

Breakfast would be enough for me, as Hotel food tends to repeat itself after a few days, and it's mostly standard stuff for tourists, and I prefer to eat local food outside the hotel. 

[nudge]

1 minute ago, Tommy said:

So yea, when I said a bed and a shower is all I need as long as it's clean I obviously meant for a vacation. I never spend much time in the hotel as I'm out and about from morning until evening/night, so I don't need a luxurious room or anything. A balcony is nice too! I once booked an ECO room that was cheap as shit, but it only had a small window with a shitty view to the inside of the hotel. Like a chute that lead to a small inner courtyard where the kitchen employees went for a smoke. 

Breakfast would be enough for me, as Hotel food tends to repeat itself after a few days, and it's mostly standard stuff for tourists, and I prefer to eat local food outside the hotel. 

I once booked a room which said "city view", but when I checked in, it turned out that it had just curtains hanged on the wall and no window at all  

I've been lucky overall when it comes to hotels though. I hear horror stories from different people all the time, but so far, I personally haven't had any truly bad experience.

[Tommy]

Just now, nudge said:

I once booked a room which said "city view", but when I checked in, it turned out that it had just curtains hanged on the wall and no window at all  

"City view" 

[nudge]

2 minutes ago, Tommy said:

"City view" 

I wish. It was more like this:

 

[CaaC (John)+]

@MUFC's bedroom wall.

[Coma+]

I'm actually looking at Airbnb's for my trip later this year.  It seems like the accomodations are just as nice and the price is less than a hotel, and it has a fridge/kitchenette area.  Location and parking are my priorities since I'll be trying to see as much as possible and don't want to be reliant on trains.

[Stan]

13 minutes ago, Coma said:

I'm actually looking at Airbnb's for my trip later this year.  It seems like the accomodations are just as nice and the price is less than a hotel, and it has a fridge/kitchenette area.  Location and parking are my priorities since I'll be trying to see as much as possible and don't want to be reliant on trains.

That's interesting as some AirBnB's here in UK are more expensive than UK, and the cancellation policies are vastly different/stricter to some hotels. 

Sometimes cancellation is only within 48hrs, and even if not, you still get charged some of the service fee despite not even staying there. I got stung by it once in the early days of COVID (accomm was booked before the pandemic).

[nudge]

2 minutes ago, Stan said:

That's interesting as some AirBnB's here in UK are more expensive than UK, and the cancellation policies are vastly different/stricter to some hotels. 

Sometimes cancellation is only within 48hrs, and even if not, you still get charged some of the service fee despite not even staying there. I got stung by it once in the early days of COVID (accomm was booked before the pandemic).

I hate AirBnB with passion. You pay as much or even more, without the ease and service of a hotel. Often unreasonable service + cleaning fees, poor cancellation policies and shitty customer service, in most cases. I am also not a fan of paying in advance for a privately owned accommodation; it's a bit too risky for my liking, especially when you are looking to book for long stays. I am definitely not going to pay thousands in advance before even seeing the place... to some shady host, nonetheless. On top of that, it has completely fucked up the housing market in many places. 

[Stan]

4 minutes ago, nudge said:

I hate AirBnB with passion. You pay as much or even more, without the ease and service of a hotel. Often unreasonable service + cleaning fees, poor cancellation policies and shitty customer service, in most cases. I am also not a fan of paying in advance for a privately owned accommodation; it's a bit too risky for my liking, especially when you are looking to book for long stays. I am definitely not going to pay thousands in advance before even seeing the place... to some shady host, nonetheless. On top of that, it has completely fucked up the housing market in many places. 

Yeah I've ended up veering away from AirBnB because the market was almost saturated as a result of their introduction and their popularity overnight, in effect. It meant the value-for-money aspect didn't really stick around for that long. You might find a bargain and a reasonable host/superhost, but they are rare. Having said that, apart from that one time mentioned above, the other few times I or family have stayed in one, the standard has been very high when it comes to cleanliness and condition of the property; and the overall cost for the amount of people that were staying became reasonable for the way it was split out. 

These days I do prefer other suppliers or providers and AirBnB barely becomes a last resort because we'll just change the dates (if possible) to suit where accommodation is available.