Hotel in Europe

Before You Book A Hotel in Europe: 5 Traps to Avoid
By Tom Meyers

Finding and booking the perfect hotels for your upcoming European trip should be an easy task, right? After all, hasn’t the internet made it easy to research and book with confidence?

Yes and no. It’s never been easier to get information about hotels around the globe, but it can also be easy to fall into traps set by hotel marketers, tricky websites, and even other travelers.

Here are five tips that will make your hotel research more efficient and your travel more affordable.

Tip #1: Be wary of online hotel reviews!

Lots of travel websites offer hotel reviews submitted by readers. While the majority of these reviews are probably legitimate, we always suggest approaching these reviews with a healthy dose of skepticism. You never know who’s posting that review, or why they’re posting.

For example, many returning visitors only bother to write a review when they’re M-A-D about something. They often blame a hotel for a frustrating experience that is not the hotel’s fault.

Furthermore, a hotel owner might “flame” a competing hotel with a nasty anonymous review and escape undetected. Conversely, hotel owners might give themselves glowing reviews. You just never know who these reviews are coming from.

Tip #2: Don’t confuse hotel “discounts” with good deals!

On certain reservation websites, you might be thrilled to come across available hotels with massively discounted rates—sometimes as high as 50%! Be skeptical.

When hotels partner with certain websites, they have to compete with other hotels to get your attention. One way to the top of the list is to offer the biggest discount.