Flight and hotel reservations for travel and tourism - repost 3

Find the cheapest rates for hotels Biggest offer of hotels worldwide‏ Booking in advance Booking in advance gives the traveller peace of mind that they will have somewhere to sleep once they arrive at their destination. It is also a good idea when travelling to a popular tourist destination. This can be done in a number of ways: Over the internet Through a travel agent Over the telephone However, hotel managers have to fill beds so it's not uncommon for travellers having booked a room, particularly at the lower end of the cost scale, to arrive to find that it has been resold. [edit] Online You can book accommodation online, either at hotel's own web site or at web site of an agency. Depending upon where you are going, this can be extremely useful. Yet if you are traveling to somewhere a bit more out of the way, for example, a small city or town, you may find something, but there will be accommodation options not listed on the internet. In this situation, it is better to find accommodation "on the day", as described below. Meta-search (price comparison) websites are very useful. They offer an online service which searches and compares numerous accommodation websites at once to return the cheapest price across them all. This saves time as they do the searching and comparison for you. Another frequent situation is that hotel has its own web site, but doesn't publish which dates it can it is not busy. Then filling a "Contact us" form or sending an email are equal choices for inquiring every detail you need. While online is increasingly becoming the most common way of booking accommodations (sometimes the only way), unfortunately the downside is that a credit card is required to process the reservation so you will be out of luck if you don't have one (sometimes getting a debit or prepaid VISA/Mastercard may work). Moreover, you will need to check the rate being offered if payment is needed immediately or upon arrival/departure. Discounted rates would usually require that payment be made immediately but regular rates will allow you to pay upon arrival or check-out at the property. In the case of the latter, you do not need to settle payment with the same credit card used for reserving; in fact you can pay using cash. However you may still be required to present the credit card used during booking (especially for pre-paid/advance purchase bookings) to verify your identity so bring that with you.