Traveling to a new destination is always exciting, whether you’re doing it with a huge group of friends or family members, with your beloved partner, or even solo. Besides checking out all the cool places one can visit, gorgeous clothes you can pack, and delicious foods you can eat, there’s one travel task that is most important — finding a good place to stay. Luckily, TripAdvisor is a boon in this regard. It’s not that daunting a task to find hotels on TripAdvisor that you’ll end up loving, mostly because the website aids you every step of the way. Right from the research bit to the booking bit, TripAdvisor helps travelers find excellent stays that suit their preferences and budgets.
It goes without saying that it’s best not to rush hotel bookings, so identifying a truly good hotel online can be challenging. Here’s TripAdvisor’s detailed and useful guide to making that process a whole lot easier.
Also read: TripAdvisor Tips For Traveling On A Budget.
Look at TripAdvisor’s “Best of the Best” List
Travelers’ Choice is perhaps what TripAdvisor is most popular and widely known for. Not only does it include the famed Travellers’ Choice Awards, but also, the awards are across two important levels: Travelers’ Choice and the Best of the Best. Since 2002, these awards have honored travelers’ favorite places, attractions, eateries, activities, and, of course, hotels. Since they have a new list every year, looking at TripAdvisor’s ‘Best of the Best’ list is a fantastic place to start looking for excellent stays. This is especially helpful when travelers have no clue what kind of place they’re looking for or even where.
When a stay checks all the boxes (rooms, amenities, service, the works), it’s probably one of these winning spots. That’s why looking at the Travellers’ Choice Awards “Best of the Best” list is so great. It’s awarded to those hotels that receive a high volume of superlative and above-and-beyond opinions and reviews from the massive Tripadvisor community worldwide over the previous 12-month period. In fact, less than 1% of TripAdvisor’s 8 million listings achieve this milestone, which is what makes this so special.
Another extremely useful resource is the “Travel Stories” section under the “Discover” tab. This blog is the ultimate one-stop shop for reading the personal experiences of travelers, including those who have stayed at hotels.
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See TripAdvisor’s Travel Forums
One of TripAdvisor‘s best features we found was the “Forums” section, which the online travel platform widely encourages its users to look at and read when planning to book hotels. You can browse the hotel forums by destination, especially if you’re still deciding about where to go. What’s more, you can also browse by theme, especially if you’re looking for pet-friendly hotels, romantic stays, budget stays, or whether you’re looking for luxury stays and vacation rentals.
These forums cover a range of questions asked by travelers and topics from all over the world. They cover not only what kind of hotels one can find in a particular destination, but also their location, the budgeting, their amenities, whether they provide any special services, whether they are gay-friendly or not, and more. If the question you’re looking for has already been answered, then you can simply click on the topic and read the forum. If you don’t find your question anywhere, then simply scroll down to the Q&A section and start by typing your question about hotels and starting a new discussion.
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Read TripAdvisor Reviews
TripAdvisor is most known for its reviews, which is also one of the best ways to explore the best stays on the website. The website is known for depth and detail in its reviews, especially since it specifies specialized features in its hotel reviews. We especially love the website’s filtering options in its reviews, so you can filter reviews of hotels by specific amenities, such as included breakfasts, star ratings, outdoor/indoor pools, spas and saunas, fitness centers and gym, laundry facilities, free Wi-Fi, the inclusion of kitchenettes/kitchens, etc. What’s more, TripAdvisor’s reviews are not just highly detailed but also verified. So, you can rest assured that you’re making an informed decision and not going in blind.
TripAdvisor’s reviews have always been its crowning glory, especially their filtering options such as the travel season, types of travelers, and specific mod-cons, both for the hotel as well as for the room, such as room service, bathtub, turndown service, etc. Since these reviews are highly detailed, you can make choices according to what you exactly want. What makes it all the better is that TripAdvisor does and is doing its best to weed out fake reviews. Thus, it’s a great travel tool with verified customer feedback to book hotels. The best bit? Accessing TripAdvisor’s reviews is very easy via its iOS and Android apps, especially when you’re on the go.
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Perks of the Loyalty Program
It might not seem like it, but one of the best ways to look for the best stays on TripAdvisor is to sign up for their Loyalty Program, TripAdvisor Rewards. While joining it is absolutely free, this app-based rewards program allows members to earn 5% back on eligible hotel bookings in the form of “Trip Cash.” Furthermore, members can use and redeem them against future app-based hotel bookings, complete with a cool 1:1 redemption ratio! So, if you’re a member and have collected enough points from a previous booking on TripAdvisor, you can book hotels for your next holiday via the app and redeem your Trip Cash. It allows you to look for better hotels that are probably outside your budget, allowing you to stay better for less and resulting in huge savings.
Furthermore, there’s also TripCollective, Tripadvisor’s enhanced contributor program that recognizes users for their contributions to the website, specifically reviews, and awards them status levels and badges. Additionally, they also receive TripCollective points every time they contribute to TripAdvisor, whether it’s helpful votes, Traveler article contributions, ratings, forum posts, videos, photos, or reviews. Check out the levels here.
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Explore The Main “Hotels” Page
The main “Hotels” page on TripAdvisor offers a wealth of information that few homepages of other online travel platforms have. Firstly, it has a search bar where you can search for a destination (if you haven’t decided where to stay) or a specific hotel that you’ve already zeroed in on.
However, the page has a lot more beyond that. In the first section right beneath the search bar, you’ll find a list of Travelers’ Choice hotels from TripAdvisor’s esteemed Travelers’ Choice and ‘Best of the Best’ lists. In the next section, you’ll find hotels that you’ve recently viewed, especially if you’re comparing different hotels. Below that, you’ll find a list of “You might like these” stays, which TripAdvisor thinks you might like, depending on your search history or past preferences. Finally, below that, you’ll find all-inclusive picks as well as hotels in top destinations worldwide.
That’s not all. At the very bottom of the page, you’ll find hotels divided by popular destinations across the United States, Europe, the Caribbean/Mexico, Asia Pacific and Australia, Central/South America, Africa, and the Middle East.
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Are written reviews more reliable on TripAdvisor than reviewer photos?
Since reviewer photos reflect actual experiences and offer a clearer picture of the hotels, they hold more weight and merit as compared to written reviews.
Is there a fee to use TripAdvisor to book hotels?
No. You can sign up for a TripAdvisor account and use it to look for hotels and other kinds of accommodations completely free of charge.
What is TripAdvisor’s price guarantee?
TripAdvisor offers a “lowest price guarantee,” which means that they’ll refund any difference if you find the same hotel for less elsewhere. Check out their policy here.
Some images in this article are copyrighted by TripAdvisor.
