If you’re an occasional traveler than finding an affordable accommodation might not be on the top of your priority list, but if you’re a true traveler fan then this is the only option to see the world.
Accommodation prices differ from country to country, but as cheap as you find your place to stay, you can always go cheaper and save some bucks for other activities.
Today, we’re bringing you some amazing tips on how to find the affordable and perfect (!) accommodation wherever you travel.
Airbnb should be your accommodation bible
Airbnb is especially useful in some parts of the world while it can fail big in other parts. If you need an apartment for a week or two in Vienna or Budapest, Airbnb is what you need to check. It’s really useful for countries that have reasonable living prices, Croatia, for example, but it’s not strange that you score big in world popular travel destinations such as Paris or London.
Finding affordable accommodation wherever you go through Airbnb is especially useful and the best budget option, especially if you’re traveling with another person as most prices stated are usually for 2 people/per night).
Travel tip: If you still don’t know your destination and you are planning your trip per cheap accommodation, open up the Airbnb’s world map view and type the cheapest price you can pay per night. You might find some great deals in places you would never expect you’ll find.
Camping
In the worst case scenario, if you can’t find cheap enough accommodation, it is always handy to know camping places. This is the only option if you already did this before, or know how to build a shelter using materials you can find.
Camping can be a pretty cheap accommodation option. Once you invest in the best solo tent you’ll use it and stay at places you wouldn’t think is possible, for $0 for years.
Couch surfing
It’s an accommodation option that most people either hate it or love it. The website couchsurfing.org can be amazing if you want to travel this way. The whole idea of the website is to find cheap (read: free) accommodation as you sleep on someone else’s couch. Just be careful and read all reviews before “booking” some place as sleeping at some stranger’s place can be dangerous.
Once you find “safe” stays, Couchsurfing can be a great accommodation option if you plan on visiting countries that are expensive, such as Switzerland, Norway, US, etc.
The only problem with couchsurfing.org is that you might send a lot of messages with no results or replies from people with a couch available, but when you score one you will score big.
House-sitting
If you really want to travel on a budget for a few times a year than house-sitting might be the perfect option for you. This accommodation requires free staying in exchange for taking care of someone’s home.
Although it can be a daunting task to start house-sitting, once you manage to do “your job” properly for the first time, you’ll get many recommendations which will open doors to the other places in the world you never thought you’d visit.
For some of the most reputable house-sitting websites, you will have to pay for a website’s fee, but after you find them useful and find cheap accommodation it will pay off in no time. Create a profile and make sure you populate it completely, reply to homeowners messages quickly and you will quickly find yourself house-sitting somewhere in the foreign country.
We advise you to start with HouseSit Match, Mind My House and Trusted Housesitters.
Travel during off-season
Traveling during peak season equals skyrocket prices. It is well known that accommodation is mostly 50% lower during the off-season, so the savings will be higher. If you can postpone your trip to off-season, you’ll have more budget for some other things.
The longer you stay the price will be cheaper
If you plan on staying in the same place for more than one week, then consider comparing rates for monthly holiday home rents. This especially works for Airbnb accommodations. You will be surprised how many owners are looking positively on longer stays and give discounts to even 75% per night. Also, don’t forget to negotiate the price whenever you can.
Do research
If you invest some time to search for different accommodation options and compare prices will pay off in the long run, believe us. Here are a few resources where you can compare prices for various accommodations all over the world:
If you plan on booking a hotel room
Explore Expedia.com. This website searches and offers cheap hotel rooms and provides great loyalty points which you can redeem for the latest discounts. The process of booking through Expedia is stress-free, easy, snappy and great for repeated use.
You can also look into Booking.com, Hotels.com and HotelTravel.com.
If you plan on booking an apartment
We strongly advise Flipkey.com. It is pretty similar to Airbnb.com with a wide variety of apartment accommodations or entire house bookings. Airbnb takes a percentage of the rent, FlipKey service does not which means the prices of accommodations are transparent and negotiable, especially in particular seasons and on how long you’re planning on staying. You’d be surprised how these little things will help you save dollars.
Last minute anything
Lastminute.com and Wotif.com are perfect for finding affordable last minute accommodation everywhere. They work closely with homeowners and hotels who would rather be paid at lower prices and be filled than be paid at higher prices and stay empty.
This is it! Hopefully, you find our tips useful and if you’re a world traveler and know other tricks to find cheap accommodation feel free to share with us in the comments section below. Happy travels!