Interesting note about budget hotel availability

[WillTravel]

I've been paying attention to prices for budget hotels and B&Bs in Rome and Florence for the past couple months, in case I want to change to a better deal. I'm pretty happy with what I've found, but of course I can't help wanting to keep on looking.

I'm in Florence from Dec. 31-Jan. 4, and Rome from Jan. 4-9. I've been watching about eight sites, and in most cases, the lowest-priced hotels have disappeared from them. I thought perhaps that new deals would open up, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Some really great rates have disappeared.

So I guess the moral of this is to book your budget accommodation well in advance, particularly if you want to be picky. You can keep looking for a better deal, but there's a good chance you won't find it.

I don't know how much this applies to hostels, although I know certain popular hostels like the Beehive book up well in advance also.

[Kim]

Yeah, the deals tend to go away.

I asked why at one hotel in Spain and they said it's usually cause the hotel owners want to make sure they have customers so they make the price attractive until they are partially full. Then, when they know for sure they have some customers they put the price back to normal for the rest of the rooms.

Makes sense, I guess.

Kim

[WillTravel]

I have to re-emphasize this point. The same thing is proving true for Amsterdam. One day at www.bookings.org (a very good site for many cities), I saw a rate for a twin room at the Best Western Lancaster in Amsterdam for 64.5 Euros per night for my dates (including VAT and breakfast) for an ensuite twin room. That is not too much more than two dorms beds at a hostel in Amsterdam, so I booked it right away. As soon as I booked it, that offer disappeared. Now a month later, the cheapest option for my dates in August is considerably more expensive.

[LHR02]

WT...this seems to fall into my 'iron clad rule' about airfare. Do some research, decide what you would like to pay, keep watching and once you find your price, or hopefully a bit lower, book it/grab it/reserve it and never look back with buyers remorse. If you've studied the routes/areas you should have a good idea of best and worst pricing you will likely find. And if you find that 'magic number' then buy it right then! Yep, a few weeks or months down the road you might see something cheaper....but chances are you'll not see 'your number' again. For me...once I find my price and buy, I stop looking! I've gotten what I wanted for what I chose to pay and no need to watch any longer. It's all a guessing game in the end, is this the best I will find or if I wait a bit longer could it be better? Set your price and when you get it, buy it, then forget it!

ging

[WillTravel]

With hotels, it's a little easier than airfare most of the time, because you can cancel them (if you didn't prepay). There do seem to be more last-minute hotel deals than last-minute airfares, but for hotels these tend to be for really expensive hotels becoming only moderately expensive, rather than a really good budget deal.

[me]

Italy seems to have it's share of wierd reservations systems. at the Archi Rossi, in Florence, you can't reserve. it's 1st come, 1st served.

at Santa Fosca, in Venice, it was no reservations until 3 days before. (which *really* screwed up my Spring 2004 Venice visit) although, just looked at the website and it said nothing about that.

- d

[stanncie]

this only applies to hostels since that's the only accommodations I used during my trip, but, lots of times hostels have plenty of room even though when you try to book online it says booked.
I found this with at least 4 hostels i tried to book, then i called them and they had plenty of beds. Lots of times too if you call the day before arrival suddently beds have opened up