This bacchanalia can only leave you bewildered. Therefore, if you don't know exactly which hotel you want to stay in, it's better not to waste time helplessly clicking through all the suggested links, but to act step by step, in accordance with computer logic. You can start with an abstract query like "hotels reservation" or "city name + accommodation" and choose a suitable reservation system. By the way, as the columnist of the magazine "Вояж и отдых" notes, it's best to search in English or in the language of the country you're heading to.
Rule No. 1: Move from the general to the specific, and don't rush.
First, understand the information provided by different booking systems. You need to pay attention to the city district, find out prices, admire hotel pictures. But don't book anything right away! Among the intermediary companies offering hotel booking, one of the most interesting is the Italian www.venere.com, which has more than 12 thousand hotels in Europe in its database.
Firstly, unlike other booking systems, right after a "click" on the desired city it displays a map, which allows you not only to get your bearings but also to choose a hotel in a specific area (landmarks are marked on the map - very convenient). Secondly, on this same first "click" all the most important things appear right away: photos, price, and tourist reviews of the hotels, and not just one or two, which would be unrepresentative, but dozens.
Rule No. 2: After you take a liking to a particular hotel, you need to find two things right away: its own website and tourist reviews.
Any self-respecting hotel simply must develop a business card website. Reviews are a useful thing indeed; it's not for nothing that hotel owners gloomily note that a satisfied customer will tell five close friends about the hotel, while a dissatisfied one will inform no less than two dozen people. For a relatively accurate impression of the hotel, you need to find at least four reviews. By the way, if you want to search separately for reviews of a specific hotel, it's enough to type "reviews/experience + exact hotel name" in the search, and something will turn up.
But typing the query in Russian "отзывы туристов" is useless - you'll only encounter criticism of our travel agencies, "horror stories" from the lives of resort vacationers, and empty pages of travel agencies prepared for future entries. It's better to try searching "название отеля + отдыхали/жили", then at least there's a chance to find out whether our compatriots have stayed in this hotel at all...
Rule No. 3: It is recommended to prefer a small hotel typical of the country, with a sort of local charm.
Since the goal of any curious person's travel is to learn about the world. Small private hotels, even better family-run ones, are best able to share their aura with the tourist. But international brands, with their almost always excellent but, alas, impersonal and sterile service, are not even worth looking at.
In any chain hotel (Hilton, Sheraton, Best Western, Marriott, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, etc.) you can expect a high level of service maintained in all hotels of that chain, which is convenient for business trips but not for getting to know another country. There is a famous joke about a businessman who, waking up in a Hilton hotel, asks at the reception: "What day of the week is it today?" "Tuesday," they answer. "Ah, so I'm in Berlin..."
In a small hotel, everything is different. By the way, a good alternative to a private hotel is a pension (guesthouse). In Europe, many pensions offer quite decent service at very attractive prices.
In high season, according to professionals, booking rooms in small hotels is less reliable than in well-known chain hotels, because there is a high probability that in a small private hotel a room will be given to a walk-in guest with cash rather than waiting for a guest who booked without prepayment.
Rule No. 4: It is more convenient to book a hotel room directly than to contact a travel company or booking systems.
By using intermediaries, the tourist enters into a business relationship with them, and if something goes wrong at the hotel - overbooking, lack of the desired room, furniture color not matching your expectations - hotel staff will always refer you to the company you paid. Whereas, by paying the hotel directly, any issues can be settled with the front desk administrator.
Rule No. 5: In sightseeing tours, when choosing a hotel, easy access to landmarks is important.
Or the presence of a metro station nearby. But the star rating of a hotel is not very important. Or rather, star ratings can be considered, but it is more sensible to be guided by price. Since there are many classification systems in the world and quality assessment criteria vary from country to country. So the room rate speaks louder than stars, crowns, keys, forks, flowers, and other items decorating the hotel's facade.
When prioritizing savings, don't rely too much on the low cost of hotels located far from the center - it is quite possible that by staying in one of them, you will later have to spend all the saved money on transportation, going on daily outings to the city.
For example, in London many hotels at reasonable prices are offered in the suburbs, and for group tours when tourists are taken by bus, this is a suitable option. But on an independent trip, you would have to use public transport every day, and the London Underground is quite expensive. Besides, you don't want to constantly waste precious time commuting back and forth instead of, say, romantic evening walks along the almost deserted Thames embankment. Moreover, in the suburbs of European capitals, there are sometimes safety issues for tourists, whereas in the city center this problem rarely arises.
Booking technology
The hotel booking procedure itself is simple: fill in a form on the website or send an e-mail and wait for confirmation. A credit card is needed as a guarantee and serves as proof of serious intention. The worst that can happen is that the hotel will charge a penalty (usually the cost of one night's stay) for cancellation less than two days before the arrival date, depending on the hotel's policies. At the same time, it should be noted that in practice there have been cases where hospitable owners forgave a 'no-show' - the issue was resolved with a single call and an explanation of the situation... Perhaps because it was a small family hotel, and the situation was truly critical - the tourists simply did not enter the country...
However, if you need a confirmation from the hotel to submit to the consulate for a visa, a simple fax or e-mail is not enough. You should obtain an original from the hotel administration on their official letterhead with contact details and attach a document confirming full prepayment of the room for the duration of your stay. Moreover, the confirmation should clearly state that the hotel, as the inviting party, fully assumes financial responsibility for the tourist's support during their stay in the country. A confirmation in this form will likely open the way for independent travel to almost any European country.
Professionals claim that the first independent trip (especially regarding hotel booking and visa) is best done in the off-season: spring and autumn. Because in summer, it is actually easier, more reliable, and sometimes cheaper. For example, when it comes to Berlin, Rome, and Paris, it is better to use the services of large travel agencies that have accreditation at embassies and pre-booked blocks of rooms in hotels in popular tourist cities. And remember, if any problems arise during your independent trip, you will have to solve them yourself; there will be no travel agency behind you.
And finally, a few words about renting apartments or flats. The only snag is visas. If you have no visa issues, then staying in a fully furnished apartment in the center of a European city is a very good alternative to hotels. But unfortunately, few apartment owners provide visa support for foreigners.
Websites for preliminary selection: www.all-hotels.com www.hotelseurope.com www.choicehotels.com www.venere.com.