From Travel To Photo – Chapter 5 – Planning for your accommodations in Europe

From the previous chapters, we learned when is the best time to visit Europe,  for how long we should travel Europe,  How to fix budget for Europe travel, and how to plan your transportation to and in Europe. In this chapter, we will share on tips and guides to plan for your accommodations while traveling Europe. As a rule of thumb, accommodation cost constitutes up to 20 to 30% of your total trip budget to Europe. However, with careful and well planning, we could still save some money out of it, or at least won’t spend unnecessarily. There are many ways to realize this, if only holidaymakers understand the logic behind it.

First, we have to understand various types of accommodations in Europe available for short term travelers for holidays.

• B&B – Good news to budget minded travelers as Bed & Breakfast hostels are very popular and widely available in Europe. They provide basic dorm accommodation with sharing bathroom and bedroom, and basic breakfast every morning. Price starts from €9 per person, B&B in Europe are generally comfortable to spend a few nights in, and able to mix around with other travelers and backpackers especially if you are a solo traveler;
• Hostels or guest houses – A step higher than B&B, budget hostels provide private albeit small rooms to budget travelers who concern privacy and security. Guest rooms are lockable, with or without ensuite bathroom. Breakfast are sometimes provided complementary. They are best suited for young couples with limited budget but need more privacy. Price starts from €20 per person  ;
• Budget hotels – Budget hotels are plentiful in Europe and their cost can range from €40 per person to €100 person. Basic room amenities and ensuite bathroom are provided. Breakfast are sometimes included as well. Common facilities are still very limited. Best suited for flashpackers with some extra quids to spare, in exchange for comfort and security;
• Apartments – This is a great accommodation option for travelers vacationing in a small group. It normally consists of 1 to 3 bedrooms for privacy, a living room for social activities and a kitchen for self cooking. Condition of apartments in Europe are generally great with clean and comfy environment. If you are traveling in a group of 4 or 6, renting an apartment could be as cheap as staying in a hostel but you will get privacy, security, cooking facilities as well as comfort all combined;
• Campsites – For budget travelers with limited budget and don’t mind to stay a bit further from town centre, campsite is an economical option. Some are still reasonably near the tourist centre, such as the one that I stayed in Florence. If you are traveling in a large group of 10 persons or more, this could be a fun place to stay in for partying and team building. However, making loud noise at night within campsites in Europe are mostly prohibited. The downside of it is you have to fight for cold during Winter and mosquitoes during Summer.

After confirming your flight to Europe, and drafting out your preliminary travel itinerary in Europe, you can now start searching for your accommodations in each destination. According to your previously set budget and choice of accommodation types, log on to those many online hotel booking agents such as Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com, and start shortlisting those available options for each date and each destination. For best result, I like to use Hotelscombined.com, as they search through all major online booking agents for the place and date you selected, and you can quickly get the best price among all major booking websites with only one single search!

Before shortlisting your choice of accommodation, make sure to take these following factors into consideration:

• Locations of your hotels and proximity to tourist spots;
• Point of arrival and station of departure;
• Cost and convenience of local public transport;
• Cost of accommodation against comfort and privacy;
• Number of travelers in your group;
• Availabilities of internet service or WiFi;
• Availabilities of cooking and laundry facilities;
• Provision of free breakfast and availability of cafe or bar;
• Availability of restaurants and convenient stores nearby, and
• Review and rating of respective accommodation from other travelers.

By now you should have a list of preferred hotels, B&B or campsites in your mind. BUT don’t book it first. Prices of any accommodations at any location are further influenced by the following factors:

• Popularity of the said hostel;
• Availability of empty rooms or beds;
• Proximity from actual check in date;
• Special Promotions, and
• Peak or low seasons.

Generally, cost of accommodations is higher if they are popular, limited availability, close to staying date, no promotion and during peak season. Having said that, unlike trains or flight tickets, rooms or beds can suddenly become cheaper at last minute if, they are less popular and plenty of rooms left and those hotels operators decided to promote them with extreme low prices, even though during peak season. So, you have to do some analysis and decide when you should go ahead and book the rooms.

Extra Tips: Just before you decided to book for any hotels, do some Google search and check on their individual official websites. Sometimes, they do have special promotions for early birds or groups which could be even cheaper than the cheapest offer from booking websites.

What if we could not decide where to stay? European travel destinations have more accommodations supply than what you could imagine. So searching, picking and booking your accommodation only when you reach there are always possible albeit in the expense of wasting your precious times of your travel.

Extra Tips: Another benefit of booking hotels in advance is when you are asked to show or indicate your place of stay during your Europe tour by the immigration officer at the port of entry into Europe.

At the end of this chapter, you should have confirmed your accommodation options and refined further your Europe travel budget, as indicated in the above sample chart. In the next chapters, we will discuss on the planning of essential places to visit and popular things to do, which will further affect our travel budget plan. Stay keeping an eye on the development of this e-guide or subscribe for future updates via email. 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate guide to Europe travel

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.