12 things our travel experts always do when booking holiday accommodation

When booking a hotel or self-catering accommodation, our travel experts follow a few rules to ensure they get the best deal – and you should too.

From checking that local events aren’t causing inflated hotel rates to knowing how to spot dodgy accommodation listings, our tips can stop you from getting scammed, save you hundreds of pounds and potentially wangle you a free breakfast.

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How to save on hotels

1. Book late and save up to £60 per night
   According to the comparison site Kayak, booking just 2-3 weeks in advance can save you up to 60% compared with the most expensive window (9-12 months in advance). You’ll save an average of £60 per night on international hotel bookings and £40 on UK stays. The downside is that room availability will dwindle, so if you’re set on a certain hotel it may not be worth the risk.
   
   
2. Book through a cashback site and get a tenner off
   While booking a trip via cashback sites such as Quidco and TopCashback won’t reduce the cost of a hotel upfront, you can claim back a percentage of the total cost afterwards (if your hotel or booking site is signed up). For instance, book a Hotels.com hotel on Quidco and you’ll get 7.5%* of the booking cost back later. For a £150 per night hotel, you’ll earn £11.25. Find out more about cashback sites and how to use them successfully.
   *The rate is current at time of writing but can increase or decrease
   
   
3. Check the price of booking a hotel directly to get discounts and free breakfast
   Hotel booking sites help us compare hundreds of hotels. But once you’ve narrowed it down, it’s worth checking the price directly, as hotels might offer you incentives to book, such as a free bottle of wine or breakfast. Even better, give the hotel a call. They may not be able to advertise the best rates online because of legal commitments not to undercut booking sites, but they can offer a better price over the phone. Find out more about accommodation booking sites.
   
   
4. Use deal sites to save hundreds – if you can be flexible
   We found some incredible bargains on holiday and travel deal sites during recent spot checks. On one, an eight-night stay at a swanky hotel in Phuket (£1,129) was £445 cheaper than booking direct, and it included a free massage, a free hour of drinks daily, a cooking class, a six-course tapas dinner and afternoon tea. But you need to be flexible, ideally about where and when you stay, as often deals are for less popular nights or seasons. Discover the best-rated holiday, hotel and flight deal sites and more details on how to get the best deal.
   
   
5. Book on your phone to save as much as £270
   Booking on your smartphone rather than a laptop could slash the price of your hotel by up to 20%. Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com increasingly offer mobile exclusives to entice users to book on the spot: we saved a whopping £270 on a two-night stay in Amsterdam using this trick. Just look for the ‘mobile price’ icon when you browse. Do check the saving too: a Which? Travel investigation found these mobile discounts can be exaggerated.
   
   
6. Use hotel or booking site loyalty schemes
   Loyalty schemes (usually free to join) are an easy way to secure better rates. For example, the Accor group (including Ibis, Mercure, Novotel, and others) offers discounts, upgrades and reward points for members, which they can later cash in for free stays. This works on overseas hotels too. When we became an ‘Amigo’ for Paradores, a Which? Recommend Provider (WRP), in our recent international hotel chains survey, we saved €20 (5%) on a night’s stay at a hotel in Granada. Extra perks included a welcome drink and a voucher for a complimentary breakfast as a joining gift. 

How to save on self-catering properties

1. Check if your accommodation is cheaper elsewhere to save £300
   Holiday cottages often appear on multiple booking websites at different prices. For instance, we found a week’s stay at a cosy cottage in the Cotswolds for £304 less on Airbnb than Vrbo. Both included a weekly discount, yet it still worked out cheaper on Airbnb. That doesn’t mean Airbnb is always cheaper. Look around to ensure you get the best deal – you may even find the property has its own website.
   
   
2. Do your due diligence to check if a rental property seems legitimate
   It’s not uncommon for fraudsters to advertise non-existent properties. Check that your rental exists by looking up the address on Google Maps and using Street View, if available. For added peace of mind, use a listing site that does verification checks to confirm the property is real – even if you book directly afterwards. And beware of scammers intercepting emails and asking you to pay into their account directly. If in doubt, call the company or owner to check if it was them that requested this. Always choose the ‘most recent’ reviews setting, and check that the listing is still active and that guests are having a positive experience.
   
   
3. Check reviews of the company you’re booking with
   Not all accommodation booking sites or overseas rental companies are made equal, according to Which? members. Some can leave you high and dry, or advertise properties that don’t match the description. Discover the best-rated hotel booking sites and results from our overseas rental company survey to make an informed decision when you book.
   
   
4. Book a week-long break instead of a weekend trip to halve the nightly cost
   The longer you stay in a cottage, the lower the rate often works out per night, meaning a longer break is cheaper than taking multiple mini-breaks. For instance, 39 Foxtail Cottage on WRP Rural Retreats’ website works out as £92 per person per night (pppn) if you book a week-long stay; it's £132pppn if you book just three nights. Similarly, with WRP Classic Cottages, its Buzzard’s Rise accommodation is £29pppn if you stay for the week, but this doubles (£59pppn) if you opt for a weekend break.
   
   
5. Check for local events to save as much as 60%
   It might be a pleasant surprise to realise you’ve booked a cottage just down the road from a local festival, annual fair or sporting event. But it can be expensive too. If the event is popular and you’re not attending it, you may have accidentally splashed out more than necessary. We found a house rental on Vrbo for two nights over the Gold Cup horse race meeting weekend in Cheltenham for £1,069. The weekend before is a whopping £667 cheaper (£402).
   
   
6. Use a credit card to book for extra financial protection
   If the accommodation costs more than £100 and less than £30,000, you should book on your credit card to benefit from Section 75 legislation. If anything goes wrong – for instance, the accommodation doesn’t exist or isn’t as described – your card provider is responsible for helping you to get a refund. Find out more about Section 75 protections.

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