Standard, Deluxe, Suite--What Kind Of Room To Book?

In many ways I think it's easier to figure out what kind of stateroom on a ship to book than it is a room in a hotel. Cruise websites usually have some good diagrams of room layouts and mostly the stateroom's position on the ship and whether or not there is an obstructed view are the main things you look for.

Hotel room descriptions are as broad and different as the types of hotels there are. A standard room is usually the lowest priced but even then they often offer different types of beds--single queen, two doubles and sometimes two queens. 

But some of those same rooms in another hotel might be labeled deluxe for a bed larger than a double or two rather than one. A deluxe label might be applied simply because there's a coffee maker or refrigerator and microwave added. The deluxe room is one that is compared to other rooms in the same hotel. What is deluxe room in one hotel is not necessarily the same deluxe in another. (While hotel chains try to standardize their room selections, we've found some differences among them as well.)

And then there's the suite. Just what is a suite? A suite can range anywhere from a room with a couch in it to a sitting room with the bedroom off to the side and/or a kitchenette. The kitchenette may be only a counter with a sink, small refrigerator and a microwave. Other suites we've found have had a full apartment sized kitchen. In one hotel, we were told we were being upgraded to a suite and it turned out to be just a larger room on the corner of the building.

Of course after you decide on your standard or upgraded room, there's always that little description "with a view." Sometimes that view may only be seen by putting a cheek to the window and looking down an alleyway to the "view." Ocean front hotel are notorious for calling it an ocean view if you can see even a sliver of the water from your window. 

As I always say, do as much homework as possible before you book especially if it is for more than a night's stay. I can do with most anything for one night but as we discovered years ago on our first get away trip after the twins were born, two nights of looking up at a ceiling that was water stained, peeling and bulging was too much. When I cried myself to sleep, Bob booked the rest of our stay in a nicer hotel and we enjoyed a much nicer stay even though we stretched out budget thin.

Hotel Booking? Beware

Several travel adventures are planned for our upcoming year. While just going and finding places to stay along the way with no planning ahead might sound adventurous, it's not in my DNA. I need to know where I'm placing my head on a pillow each night. When we book our stays, we consider quite a few things besides price and availability starting with the reviews on TripAdvisor. Look at the good and bad reviews and the dates they were posted. Things may have changed since the most recent review listed there.

Beware of those pictures on the hotel website that are just really too good to be true. You can make anything look really good with the right angle, lighting and a little computer magic. Check out the photos on TripAdvisor that have been taken by people who actually stayed there. They'll be a lot more realistic.

When the place we want to stay is in an area we are really not familiar with, we drop one of those little yellow men that Google has on its Google Maps page in a spot where we can look around and see what the neighborhood looks like. It's been helpful too when we arrive especially if we are on foot and dragging luggage. A few landmarks as seen on Google Maps makes us feel a little more secure about finding our hotel without getting lost. It certainly would have been helpful years ago when we booked a hotel that was nice enough but in the middle of a bunch of car factories in a German city.

An email to confirm or even a phone call will help to verify the kind of service you can expect. If your accommodations are in a foreign country it also helps to know that they can respond in English if necessary.

And if you are really paranoid about bed bugs, you might want to check the bed bug registry. It's a place where you can check to see if there was ever a problem with bed bugs that was reported. I don't know how reliable it is. There are some really nice hotels on the list and some of the reports are very old. Best advice is to check the TripAdvisor reviews and then always check the bed before you drop your suitcases. Here's a link to a USA Today article on how to check.

A little careful planning helps keep that travel adventure memorable in a good way.

Those Hotel Booking Challenges

When our son is on the road heading to our house or his in-laws, he loves the challenge of using Priceline for booking his night's stay. Thank goodness his family is adventuresome because they pull into the parking lot and go online on his smartphone to book. They have gotten some great deals and some not so great. Bob and I, on the other hand, are not quite so adventurous when it comes time to where we are going to put our heads to rest for the night.

If you are a plan-ahead type one of the best ways to assure a good room is to join the chain's loyalty program. When you book on their website and use your loyalty card you usually get a better choice of rooms. One article I read said that the Priceline and other low price sites to book through get the "ice machine" rooms or basically whatever is left. With our booking we have even been able a couple of times to choose our own room. Of course that's not always best if you don't know what side the freeway is on. Just sayin'.

If you have any special requests or concerns, you can always call before arriving to be sure your room is what you expect. For example the king size bed rather than two doubles and certainly a smoking/non-smoking preference.

Use a credit card rather than debit or cash. You have a lot more recourse if you are wrongly charged for something. Besides, the right credit card can earn you points toward more travel.

Double, make that triple check that you have the right hotel in the right place when you are booking online. For that matter make sure you have the correct date as well. We booked the wrong night once and arrived to find we did not have a room reserved until the next night. Luckily there was a room available but it had us scurrying to check the rest of our reservations for that trip.

And probably something I should have started with is to check reviews and compare prices of different hotels in the same area. Reviews are especially important. Those online pictures may show some wonderful amenities and property views but the tale is told best in the reviews you can find online at places like TripAdvisor.

While booking on the fly night by night might be a great adventure, I prefer to know where I'm getting my Zzzzzs ahead of time.