Search and Compare with Hotelscombined
Written by Andy Hayes
Choosing a Hotel is Difficult – Copyright by Andrew Hayes
In preparation for some late-autumn travel and the busy Christmas period, I was pointed in the direction of Hotelscombined to search for good rates on hotels. I always have a hard time with hotels because of all the options available – do I want to go with a chain with an award programme? Spend a little more and choose something very central, or relax on a budget on the edge of town? Will the extra star be worth it? Thankfully, Hotelscombined was there to help with an easy-to-use interface that made searching, comparing, and booking a reservation a bit easier. All I had to do was make a choice (the difficult part) and click (the easy part).
Good
- Multilingual service (twelve languages)
- Streamlined user interface
- Search results include hotels reviews, photos, and a map
- Search covers multiple websites which increases the likelihood of a deal
- Ability to refine search results by price, star ratings, hotel name, or features
Bad
- For large metropolitan areas, there is no additional filter to search by particular neighbourhoods.
A search for the first weekend in December for accommodation in London resulted in 1,453 hotels found. The cheapest was a few very nice looking backpackers around £20, or I could splurge £500 for the Rocco Forte Browns Hotel.
I also did a quick check on Amsterdam hotels and found 358 – this time the site gave me some recommendations for budget, mid-range, and luxury travelers. I thought that was a nice touch, hopefully it is coming for all the cities.
While my comparison searches on other websites (including Expedia and Travelocity) did result in a similar price range, Hotelscombined definitely gave me more choice in each of the pricing tiers.
Keep in mind we have had a fair number of accommodation reviews here at Europe A La Carte, should you need any further help in choosing a hotel, hostel, or apartment. Karen has also had good results with Hotelscombined, as she mentioned in a previous post.
Hi Andy -
Thanks for the interesting post and giving a very fair assessment of Hotelscombined.com. I’ve been impressed by the volume of their results, too, and am amazed by the amount of translation the site provides.
I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on our site’s approach to hotel search – http://www.eurocheapo.com. We developed a meta-search engine that we call “CheapoSearch” to help budget travelers find the best affordable hotels in Europe, and include many filtering & mapping options and our editor’s reviews within our results. Have a look and let me know your thoughts!
Thanks,
Pete
Pete -
Glad you enjoyed the post. Love the name of your website – cheeky puns are always a good starting point. Will have a closer look and let you know.
Cheers
Andy