Their conclusion: often, but not always.

They tested 10 different bookings and found that the average price was 60% percent lower than the price offered by the hotel directly.

It some cases, however, you can end up paying more than the standard price if you are not cautious.

You also need to be wary about extras.  In some cases the auction offer excluded the cost of making the reservation, tourist taxes and cleaning costs, which have to be added to get the actual price that you will pay.

Clearly then, you should first check the normal cost of the services that you are looking for, and then ensure that you do not bid more than that.  It is all too easy to get swept up in the excitement of an auction and to pay more than the going rate.

If you book late you can often save money, but there is always the chance that your preferences may not be available.  The reason is that hotels make no money from empty rooms.  If there is a convention in town, well, then you lose out.  But you may be able to snag a bargain.  Certain areas have off seasons and establishments that keep their doors open may be very generous indeed with their rates.

For instance, Cape Town in South Africa, has wet winters.  They call it their Green Season and pricing is much better than it is in the height of summer.  You may be able either to enjoy a holiday that you could otherwise not have afforded at all, or else you may be able to stay in a higher class of hotel than you would otherwise have been able to go to.

Be sure to read the terms and conditions of the auction reservation as they may be more restrictive in some cases than a regularly made booking.

Weekend rates

Many hotels offer a lower rate on the weekends, from Friday through to Sunday nights.  The reason?  Hotels in major cities get their regular trade from the business travellers on weekdays and so lower their prices to get higher occupancy on the weekends,

Long stays

A seven day stay is clearly going to bring in more revenue for a hotel than two or three nights.  So, to make it more appealing, they may offer a lower rate.  Or if they don’t, be sure to phone and negotiate.

Operators and travel agents

Travel agents that have a national presence and tour operators are able to negotiate discounted rates with hotels due to their larger buying power.  Even though you may have found a good price on the internet, be sure to check what rate an operator can get you.  Sometimes their rate may be the same but it could include, say, breakfast.  Or the rate could be even lower.

The price you get via the Internet may often be best for hotels in the United States, but in other countries such as China an operator will frequently beat rates obtained, because of the way business is done there.  (Some Chinese operators are online but there is no guarantee that they quote their best price there.)

Negotiate

Phone and negotiate.  We aren’t just suggesting calling and asking, “what is your best price”?  You need to try harder than that.  Get a comparative price at a different hotel chain that is of the same standard as the one you want and then ask them to match it.  In many cases they will.  It’s a tough economy out there today and everyone wants business.

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A cheap hotel need not be a nasty hotel, though some of them are.  One expects clean bed linen and a well presented room as the very minimum.  This is not always the case, though.  Pictures on the internet for hotels, hostels and guesthouses can often be dated or even deliberately misleading.

This photo of Generator Hostel London is courtesy of TripAdvisor

An experience I would not want to repeat, that I had at a hostel in London, will help us to illustrate the pitfalls.  To be honest, in retrospect there were clues available.  The Generator hostel’s web site has only one picture.  It appeared to have been taken at night.  Also the cheap plastic garden-furniture should probably have been a warning to us.

Advertising photos of accommodation that are taken at night (even if there is fancy neon lighting) can mean that the area is dodgy or that there are things you would see in harsh light of day that might otherwise put you off.

My sister and I arrived just before 8pm to find that our beds had been given away.  (Reports at Tripadvisor indicate that this was not an isolated instance.)  While we arrived later than planned because of a delayed connection, that is not what one expects from an establishment that claims to be a 24 hour operation.

The lighting was poor at night, though security was tight for getting into the hostel.  On arrival we had to present our booking confirmation to the doorman before we could enter.  However, the impact of this was spoiled by the very unconvincing-looking appearance of the doorman.

After they found other beds for us, we discovered that we were now in a mixed dormitory and not ‘all females’ as had been strictly specified on the booking.  There was a very strange smell in the corridors and people walking around in various states of undress between the bathrooms and dormitories.

Our booking included a free cocktail.  That turned out to be a either a fruit juice with vodka or a Coke with vodka.  Apparently, if you put vodka in it, anything can become a cocktail.

Breakfast was what one could expect for the bargain price (currently starting at £15 a night): bread that had to be toasted before it was palatable, orange-flavoured mixer drink and watered-down, seemingly World War II army-surplus coffee.

The beds aren’t made up daily, only once the guest checks out.  If you have a long stay there then the linen is changed once a week.

The undoubted low point was having a young Australian backpacker who overdosed after having her drink spiked, allegedly (according to her companions) in the hostel’s own bar.  The drama and commotion surrounding this, which happened at 2 in the morning, was enough to traumatise the most hardened intrepid traveller.  It need hardly be stated that it was also not good for one’s beauty-sleep.  Fortunately, she survived, which wasn’t a certain thing until the medics arrived and pumped her stomach – right there in the room.

This photo of Generator Hostel London is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Lessons

When you find a hostel or budget hotel for a really good rate, be sure to do extra homework and check out the area, reviews of the property and area.

Use the Streetview facility in Google Earth to look at the building and the neighbourhood.  (It is not available for all countries.)

If you are prepared to do the homework, then that is great, go ahead and book.  The main thing to remember is that there are risks to booking the cheapest hotel you can find.

Use www.tripadvisor.com to check out the accommodation.  While it is known that unscrupulous proprietors “stuff” Tripadvisor with good reviews, either by entering them themselves, or by bribing guests to do so, negative reviews are more often genuine.  We suggest that you do not just look at how many “excellent” or “very good” ratings there are.  If there is any significant number of “poor” or “terrible” reviews for a property then this is a strong indication that you do not want to stay there.

As an example, the Mount Nelson (“The Nellie”) in Cape Town, South Africa, has  200 Excellent reviews at Tripadvisor, 31 visitors rated it as Very good, but only 4 each for Poor and Terrible.  From our experience it is a very fine hotel.

Of the 556 reviews of the Generator, fully 289, over half, are Average, Poor or Terrible.  That sounds about right.  Cheap hotels can bite.

Keep your room number hidden as you move about the hotel.  This will prevent unwelcome calls or visits, particularly for female guests.  It will also help prevent other guests from charging things to your room.

Do not advertise where you are staying

It is inadvisable to display the name of the hotel you are staying at when you are out and about in the town.  Do not display the key-card or material showing the name prominently.  You do not want to be noticed as being from out-of-town, and it is wise to minimise the risk of being followed or ambushed.

Secure the door

If you are worried about a hotel employee entering your room while you are asleep, carry a plastic door-wedge with you in your luggage.  Push the pointy end under the door when you go to bed.

In some countries it is possible to purchase a special strong strap that prevents the dead-lock from being opened from the outside.  This only works when you are inside, of course!

Use a door alarm

You can buy an inexpensive personal alarm that kicks up a rumpus when the door is opened.  These either have a magnetic strip or a pin that pulls out.  Attach it to the door and if the door opens the alarm will sound.  If you use one of those you will need to take some Blu Tack, or similar removable putty (Prestik, Zorkai, Tack-it, Poster Putty, etc.) to make it easier to hold it in place.

Check the fire exits

As soon as you get into your room, locate the fire exits.  In many countries it is customary to have a map of the fire exits on the back of the door.  Secure the room and go to check the exits.  Check if the fire door is blocked or locked and complain if either of those is the situation.

If there are no notices, check the signage in the passage.  If that does not help, ask at reception.

Beware the sensored mini-bar

Beware of the mini-bar – some Dubai hotels and others have scanners built into the fridge, and if you take anything out you are automatically billed for it.  The scanner does not put it back in stock if  you return the item to the fridge.

Electricity in Green hotels

In Green-minded hotels you will frequently have to put your key-card into a wall unit in order to have electrical supply in the room.  This means, for instance, that you can only recharge your cell phone while you are present.  In some older hotels you can fool the sensor using a piece of card to hold open the contacts.  More modern hotels read the key-card and you can’t use that trick.

Two pin connector fits most places, with thumping

A European-style two-pin plug is surprisingly versatile.  Since that is commonly the sort of electrical connection cell phone chargers come with, this is useful to know.  It fits into the deep German-style socket (also used in Turkey) without a problem.  It can, with a minimum of violence, be forced into the live and neutral sockets of the UK and Irish style three-pin socket (though to be honest a “toothbrush”-style 1 Amp adaptor plug is inexpensive and less likely to upset hotel management, should they see it).

Which floor to book?

Fire and rescue equipment works best up to the fifth floor.  If that is a concern to you then you are best advised to stay on a lower floor.

However, theft from rooms is more common on the lower floors.  The higher you go the lower the risk usually is of theft by outside parties, because the thief does not want the risk of discovery.  Since it takes significantly longer to get out of the hotel from higher floors the risk of a theft being discovered and ground floor staff being alerted is greater for the thief.

Securing valuables

Don’t leave them in your room unless you feel you can trust the safe in the room.  Your other options are 1) take them with you, which may work best if you are big and scary-looking and do not have a lot of valuables with you or 2) leave them in the main hotel safe for safekeeping.  Our personal view is that by checking things in to the hotel safe you tend to draw unwanted attention to yourself and your belongings, which may increase the risk.  Rather travel with few valuables.

With a bit of planning you can probably reduce your valuables while on holiday to a cheap watch, a cell phone, your passport, a small amount of cash, your credit cards and a camera.  Those can be carried distributed about your person without attracting attention.  A sling bag with a woven nylon strap (not easily sliced by a knife) and a flap that cannot be opened by pulling can securely hold the bulkier items.

“Please service this room”

Never put out the “Please service this room” sign as it advertises to all and sundry that you are not there.  Handy information for would-be thieves.  Phone room service instead.

“Do not disturb”

If you greatly mistrust the hotel cleaning staff then you could leave the “Do not Disturb” sign displayed even when you are out of the room.  This is only recommended for times that you have genuine reason to mistrust the staff.  Most of us enjoy having our bed made, towels replaced and things cleaned and tidied.

If you are booking your hotel as a DIY on line, be sure to email them any extra safety requests, such as lower or higher floor if that is a concern.

Call-back

In our experience a call-back service is the best answer.  It should be one that you are billed for later rather than a pre-paid one.

How call-back works: you phone a designated number, let it ring once and put down.  The service then calls you back automatically almost immediately.  When you answer, you are prompted to dial the subscriber number and you are put through.

Most call-back services are based in the USA, which means that you get the more favourable US rates instead of the higher rate that the hotel would charge you.

Call-back with a mobile phone

In order to avoid the bother of having to access the Internet in order to keep changing the call-back number, it is convenient to use the call-back in combination with a mobile phone.  That way the number stays constant even when you move between countries.

For this you need an “international” SIM card and a GSM phone.  The SIM card can be obtained from the same service provider as the call-back service, and they frequently also rent or sell suitable GSM-compatible phones.

The number is usually Estonian because Estonia has a very liberal phone system (and is the country that Skype came from).  Anyone phoning your number will pay the international call costs to Estonia.  You will also be able to receive SMS text messages from anywhere in the world, which the sender pays for.

Limitations

Check if the phone you intend using is compatible with your service provider.  For instance, we found that a Nokia 95 could not send SMSes with a United World Telecom SIM card.  The similar but older Nokia N70 is fully compatible, which we only found out by experiment after returning home.  As a result we could not send text messages whilst travelling across Europe.

We suggest that you select a service provider that states phone compatibility on their web site.  One such company is One SimCard, who have an exhaustive list of compatible GSM phones.  (If you are aware of others please feel free to register and add a comment.)

For travel within the US different arrangements will have to be made as it is a stronghold of the CDMA phone system.  Cheaper calls can be made with a mobile phone and direct dialling rather than call-back.