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Very often, apartments rented for travel (or in other words, a separate apartment, room, house, villa) turn out to be not only more profitable, but also cozier and more convenient than hotels.

Convenient location, favorable price, hospitable hosts who can meet you at the station for free and recommend the best places, your own kitchen or home-cooked food (details at the very end of the article) - these are a few reasons why you need to know how to find profitable apartments and how receive discounts on them. Today we’ll look at working with booking and comparing prices.

1. Systems for comparing prices for hotels and apartments and discounts.

The first thing to do when looking for an apartment is to find the best deals and compare prices. If you don’t yet have a favorite rental site (mine is booking.com, read below about how to get a discount there) or you are looking for the best price among all offers - this is the best option. Everything is quite simple. You select the destination, dates (if they are already known), the number of travelers and the search engine searches hundreds of booking sites. You can also try in this form:

Next, you can add filters by stars, availability of parking or kitchen/pool/transfer from/to the airport (and many others). We are immediately looking for apartments, so we also check the “apartments” box on the left.

To find a suitable offer, sort by price or set the desired price range on the left in the “price” tab.
The lowest price for apartments is shown on the right. The rest of the prices and the sites on which they are presented are nearby. Perhaps the site with the lowest price is not suitable for you for some reason (it does not have a Russian translation, for example) or you saw a site that you trust more than others.

Discount on booking.com No. 1.

Booking.com guarantees best price, so if you find on another site (not as reliable or unfamiliar) the same offer as on booking.com, but cheaper, then booking will reduce the price to the same.

In this case, you must have already made this reservation with the possibility of canceling it. And you just write a request to booking support service to reduce the price.

Discount on apartment No. 2.

Readers of the book asked me about this. Let me explain what kind of discounts I mean when I say that sometimes I don’t book all the nights of a trip in advance. Especially when I travel by car.

Many hotels and apartments offer 50% discounts after 18.00 if you book a room on the day of check-in. Those. today, when booking after 18.00 you can get a 50% discount. I checked this on booking.com many times. For other sites, this should also work, and some offers with a discount appear only after 20.00 or even later.

If you go to the owner of the apartment or hotel in person, you may not be given a discount. And in the apartments in general, they will say that there are no places if you are not here for a week. I encountered this in Montenegro, and there it is better to see many apartments in person in advance.

Sometimes it makes sense to only book the first couple of nights and then move somewhere else.

By booking on the website via wi-fi in a cafe, for example, or in some hotel in the lobby, you will 100% receive accommodation at the price at which you booked.

Even if you come during the day, the price at the reception may be 10-12 euros higher.

Discount “Smart offer”.

On different sites it is called differently and the conditions are also different. But essentially this is a discount for specific dates, for accommodation a certain amount of days, etc. There are also discounts on apartments. It never hurts to check.

On booking this is called a “Smart Offer” and this option is available to those who register on the site or subscribe to the newsletter. In this case, you can search for discounts using the links in your email.

Discount from the apartment owner.

Did you find the apartment on the website? Try searching for them online and contacting the owner directly. This way you can get a discount, without intermediaries.
Ask the owner about it. For 1-2 nights, you are unlikely to get a discount, but for 7-10 days it is very likely.

If you book a hotel with cancellation, you will be able to find out the exact location of the apartment and the owner’s email. You can also try to find his contact on Facebook by searching by name and apartment name.

And save contacts of the places you like. We contact some owners directly if we need to rebook the apartment. It works out a little cheaper, without booking commission.

This section is for those who do not yet have much experience in independent travel, so some things may seem obvious to you. But this important points, which really affect the price and quality of accommodation.

1. Book your stay in advance.

This will allow you to choose from a variety of inexpensive accommodation options.

2. Choose a time when fewer tourists travel.

For some reason, in July, when it can be +50, and the beach is simply crowded, and it’s very hot to walk, so many people are planning their beach trips! And the prices, by the way, are the highest.

The apartments can be booked all year round!

Traveling out of season is cheaper and more enjoyable. 50% discounts on 5-star hotels that have SPA with swimming pools, allowing you to swim in winter. And you can go swimming at the sea in Montenegro and Croatia from May to mid-October. Just keep an eye on the weather on the Internet and questions like “isn’t it cold to swim on May 19 this year” will disappear.

3. Take advantage of the apartments.

The apartments give you the opportunity to cook yourself or eat home-cooked food prepared by the owners. Look for such options.

The owner of the apartment can meet you at the bus station, train station or airport. Most often, it is completely free. Or the owner will help you call a taxi at city prices or explain how to get there by public transport.
You just need to ask for help.

Read the description of the apartments and reviews of those who have already been there. This way you can learn about additional opportunities.

4. Chat with the owner

At the hotel, you won't always be able to find out about the places that locals prefer - restaurants with excellent food and reasonable prices, cafes in the city center, attractions and little-known interesting places.

Contact the owner in advance so that he can help you plan your trip and ask all your questions.

Next time we will discuss in more detail special sites for booking apartments, where there is not even a mention of hotels.

One of the defining moments of any trip lasting more than a day is choosing where to stay overnight. The ZagraNitsa portal decided to introduce readers to the best services for rental housing in Europe. Tiny rooms and inedible breakfasts in the first available hotels are cancelled!

Pre-booking accommodation (subject to careful selection) makes travel, whether on vacation or a business trip, more comfortable and safe. Looking for suitable options so-called “mashups” (aggregator sites) will help, through which you can rent hotel rooms, apartments or villas around the world. International services allow you to compare offers from several booking systems and rent a room, room or other accommodation for a specific date. Vivid examples of such sites are Booking and Hotels.com: there is an impressive database of objects of a wide variety price categories and locations.

“Booking” and “Hotels” are convenient with instant confirmation of your reservation. But as practice shows, you shouldn’t delude yourself and it’s better to play it safe. Reservations made through online services - due to technical glitches or other unknown reasons - are sometimes not confirmed by the hotel. It’s good if there are free rooms there, because otherwise you will be left without a place to sleep.

The cost of a room in the same hotel on different aggregators may differ and be higher than the price on the official website of the hotel. If you want to save money, it is always useful to surf different platforms looking for the best offer.

A healthy alternative to hotels - renting from locals

An excellent option for lovers of diversity and authenticity would be to rent housing from local residents. You will be able to chat with your foreign host and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the country. Living in a standard hotel, you will not get such pleasure.

On many sites you can leave comments and participate in the formation of ratings of hotels, homeowners and the apartments themselves. Reviews from ex-clients will help you make a choice. These comments are especially valuable when the service is not responsible for the accuracy of the information.

The most popular rental services from the owner in Europe are Airbnb, Homeaway and Wimdu. They offer big choice both simply cozy apartments and more exotic options. You can find a chalet in the mountains, a villa on a picturesque seashore or a small family castle.

Home Exchange - exchange holiday

You can stay for a couple of days in a foreign city or country without money. Participation in the Home Exchange program will help you find a room, apartment, or even a house for free living with the owners or during their absence. This way the trip will cost at least half as much.

The practice of exchanging homes for vacations originated in Europe and the United States more than 50 years ago and is gaining popularity every year. It’s not surprising, because this is one of the simplest and available ways integrate into the everyday life of a foreign country, make new friends and exchange cultural values ​​with them, see the most interesting sights. To join the club, you need to pay an annual membership fee. The number of trips is not limited.

Hospitality websites are a kind of social media, where participants are ready to provide strangers with a roof over their heads or simply accompany them on a walk around the city. To become a host, you must have your own home (confirmation will be required) that is being offered for exchange.

Europeans are mostly friendly, but are not ready to travel into the unknown. They want to clearly understand who they are visiting and are not averse to conducting reconnaissance. To do this, they communicate online for a long time (six months to a year): they correspond or have “live” conversations via Skype.

At preliminary acquaintance It's better to find out all the details. Exchange photos (personal and home) and detailed description apartments/houses. Ask any questions that will help you get comfortable in a foreign city. By the way, residents of the USA and Europe often plan their holidays in advance, so you rarely see last-minute options for exchange holidays.