It seems lately all I do is look at European hotels, researching places to stay for our weekend adventures. It's not a bad gig, though it can be a little overwhelming. So, after so many searching, I've developed a useful workflow to filter down the results and judge the hotels. And I've gotten pretty good results, too. Hope it will help you, too.
I really enjoy shuffling through the hotel lists, especially if I have the time to focus on the trip and how I want to "live" while we're there. Orbitz lets me "favorite" hotels that have passed my tests, and saves my "recent searches" so I can reopen them if a shelved trip gets green lit. Or if I want to start again. I'm a happy planner.
On a side note: I have been told that airbnb.com has some pretty great European options but, for me, renting an apartment/house is only desirable if we're staying outside of a big city and for longer than a week. Maybe it's just me. One of the moms I've met has four young kids, so she only stays in airbnbs when they travel because they need the space.
While living in Paris, we want to take advantage of the short flight times to all those European cities on our list to see. So, finding a comfortable hotel quickly is key.
Related post:
Here's our Italy travel guide with the hotel details
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- I use Orbitz for my hotel searches because I like the filtering and layout -- and I'm just used to it. But you can probably use whatever hotel search site you prefer.
- Once I search a destination, I filter for only 4 or 5-star hotels. In Europe, unless you're really pinching pennies, you don't want to stay in anything less than 4 star. Often they're the same price as the 3 and 2-star, but better quality.
- I scan down the results page looking at the prices, so I can do a quick calculation of the average. It's usually around $200/night. The super-cheap will likely be undesirable, and the super-expensive will be very desirable, but not realistic.
- So I pick out a few hotels I want to investigate. On Orbitz, I can click on each I'm interested in and it opens a new tab.
- From there, I look at the hotel photos, specifically, the bathrooms. I want to stay in a new or refurbished hotel and the bathroom is the first place you can quickly judge the age. I also like the rooms and decor to be minimal, clean and new-looking. If it's cluttered or shows shabby curtains, it's an automatic no.
- If the hotel passes the photo review test, I scan the reviews. I'm looking for three things specifically: noise complaints, cleanliness and location. If I see "noisy" too many times, I'm out. If I see a lot of cleanliness critiques, just the serious ones that include the bathroom or a weird smell coming from the alleyway -- I'm out. And location, I always look for "easy walking distance to ...." comments. I also like if they're close to "good restaurants," the metro, etc.
- Location is another key point. Usually, I have the beginning of our itinerary and I might want to be close to those monuments in a larger city (like in Florence). Or, I might choose to be a little further out in a less-touristy area (like we did in busy Rome). Either way, I'll look at the map that shows a few attractions, metro, beach, with the hotel location.
- Does it have a free breakfast? For us, that comes in handy because the kids are starving when they wake up and David likes to workout in the morning. So a hotel breakfast is a great place to take the kids while waiting for David to finish up.
- You should have a winner by now, but if you're still choosing between a few hotels, take a peek at the amenities. I alway look for "24-hour front desk" which will usually indicate if it's an apartment-style hotel called an "aparthotel" -- something that's not always obvious. Generally, they're roomier than a standard room with a kitchen and separate bedroom (we love them), but be prepared to miss out on amenities such as a gym, 24-hour front desk or concierge service, luggage storage, a front lobby, etc. We stayed in one in Rome and for our "check in" process, we were texted the front door access code and our hotel room number. No lines. Totally simple. We walked right into our room. Plus, it had a kitchen, so we could pickup local foods for breakfast.
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| Our Rome Hotel Room |
On a side note: I have been told that airbnb.com has some pretty great European options but, for me, renting an apartment/house is only desirable if we're staying outside of a big city and for longer than a week. Maybe it's just me. One of the moms I've met has four young kids, so she only stays in airbnbs when they travel because they need the space.
While living in Paris, we want to take advantage of the short flight times to all those European cities on our list to see. So, finding a comfortable hotel quickly is key.
Related post:
Here's our Italy travel guide with the hotel details
More Travel posts
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