Continue to write about cheap hotels

In my last post, I said that you'd better read some online reviews before making a reservation at a hostel. This also applies to all hotel reservations. Although hotel rooms are often more comfortable than dormitory rooms, the services cheap hotels provide are not necessarily better than those provided by hostels. You don't really know whether a hotel is good enough until you read its guests' reviews. Some hotels show some 'testimonials' by their guests on their official websites. Don't trust them - they are always positive and are actually advertisements. Instead, read reviews on booking.com, tripadvisor.com, or something like that.

Of course, you will read the information posted by the hotels, but you need to be careful - there can be lots of misunderstandings. 

The most common one is the wi-fi they provide. Some hotels just say online that they provide wifi, but when you arrive there, you notice that there's no wi-fi at all in your room. Then you run to the front desk and ask why. The receptionist smiles and tells you that the wifi is only available in the small area around the reception but not available in rooms. So you need to make sure the hotel you're gonna book provides wi-fi 'in all areas' if you want to surf the internet in bed without using your phone's data. Another thing you need to take notice of is that the wi-fi in hotels is not always reliable. There are two aspects: security and speed. Some hotels' wi-fi is not secured, meaning that anyone can access it without entering a passcode. This kind of wi-fi can be easily hacked, and the information you browse via this wi-fi may be disclosed - your identity, your credit card information, your home address and so forth may be seen by the person staying next to your room. Unfortunately, you can't know whether the wifi is secured or not until you arrive at the hotel. But what you can do is to be careful when using unsecured wi-fi - try not to enter any sensitive information. By speed I mean that some hotels' wi-fi is really slow, either because the wi-fi is slow in itself or because there are too many guests using it at the same time. Still, you can't know anything about the speed of the wi-fi until you arrive at the hotel. You can do nothing about it if it's really slow, but you can be mentally prepared for it.

Another common misunderstanding takes place in the breakfast. Some cheap hotels claim online that they provide breakfast, but actually they don't. They either don't have a dining room or keep the dining room closed all the time. Still, you can do nothing about it. Even if your hotel indeed serves breakfast like what they say online, don't expect too much. Cheap hotels sometimes cook terrible food. My suggestion is to spare enough time in the morning because sometimes you have to search for nice food near your hotel before you do anything else in that city. 

Last, let me give you some advice on your arrival time. Some hotels require you to arrive and check in before midnight or 10pm or even 8pm in some small towns. However, in fact, if you can't arrive there before that time, you can probably still end up checking in and getting into your room that night. What you need to do is simple: give your hotel a phone call in advance and tell them that you are unable to arrive there before that time. They will do their best to find a way to check you in that night. But if you don't contact them in advance, you'll be locked outside and will have to find another place to stay.

OK, I've talked as much as I can about what to be careful of in terms of booking a cheap hotel in Europe. I guess in my next post I'll write something about eating.