What are some sites to look at before booking a hotel? Here are just a few online tools to consider while planning your trip:
Concierge.com: This Condé Nast site bills itself as "the premier source of independent travel information online." And it does contain a lot of content, including reviews of hotels for every type of traveler. Here, you'll also see various lists of the best hotels in the world.
TripAdvisor: This site not only has over 20 million hotel reviews, but it also allows you to compare hotel rates offered by the big web travel agencies like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity.
LateRooms.com: If you need a bargain room at the very last minute, LateRooms.com provides listings for 16,000 hotels internationally.
Tablet Hotels: This site offers listings of the hip, off-the-beaten-path boutique hotels from around the world.
Citysearch.com: This site is a major go-to for customer reviews on restaurants and bars, but it also provides listings and reviews of hotels from across the U.S.
Lonely Planet.com: Looking to backpack across Europe and simply need a place to lay your head at night? This well-known travel guide has a website that provides practical information on hostels. For example, in a review of a hostel in Barcelona, one reviewer writes, "The staff are very friendly once you get to know them and their 'no curfew' policy means you won't be made to feel like an inconvenience no matter how late you return from a night on the town." Good stuff to know.
TVtrip.com: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a video can say so much more when you're looking for a hotel. This site is a YouTube for hotels, containing "unbiased" video tours of some of the best hotels of the world.
