Booking abroad. Booking hotels without prepayment and credit card

02.01.2022

Are you planning a business trip to the capital? Do you need to organize leisure activities during your vacation or weekend? Choose the best Moscow hotels in the extensive catalog of the VashHotel.RU website. Here are elite and cheap hotels in Moscow, all the necessary information is collected with real photos and objective reviews. It is convenient, very fast and does not oblige you to anything. Booking of hotel rooms is carried out instantly, no prepayment is required. All you need to do is simply apply online or call. VashHotel.RU services for booking places in all hotels are free!

VashOtel.RU is a reliable site that offers all the best hotels in Moscow, providing a convenient search service on the map and the possibility of instant booking. If you are going on a tourist trip or a business trip, then our site will be a great opportunity for you to plan your trip in advance and not worry about the place of residence in the capital.

What hotels in Moscow do we offer?

We provide only official and verified hotels.

Our company is a professional service offering hotel reservations in Moscow that have an official certificate and permission to conduct hotel activities, which guarantees high quality services and safety of accommodation.

The best hotels, hotels in Moscow.

Our service provides a unique opportunity to book rooms online in hotels that are classified as 4 and 5 stars. Such hotels offer a developed infrastructure, the highest level of service, luxurious rooms and exclusive accommodation options with a magnificent panorama of the city. You can be sure that a hotel in Moscow, which has 4 or 5 stars, is duly appreciated by professionals.

Inexpensive accommodation options.

Our wide database also provides the possibility of booking a hotel in Moscow at a low cost. Depending on your wishes and possibilities, we suggest choosing a mini-hotel, hostel or hotel 1, 2 or 3 stars. Here you can find various class hotels in Moscow, the prices and location of which will best meet your desires.

Corresponding to reality.

The list of proposed accommodations includes only those hotels that provide objective and up-to-date information about the rooms, as well as photographs that correspond to reality.

Why is it profitable to book hotels in Moscow with us?

VashHotel.RU is a free booking service that does not charge any additional cost for its services;
we have hotels of various categories, the location of which may be Moscow or the Moscow region;
we do not take prepayment - you can pay for services directly at the hotel;
you can see up-to-date reviews on hotels in Moscow from real customers, which will allow you to make your choice easier and faster;
our customers receive instant booking confirmation in a convenient way of communication.

You can book hotels in Moscow online on our resource

Updated: 03/13/2019

Oleg Lazhechnikov

The most important thing to start planning independent travel is buying tickets and booking accommodation. About tickets - a separate conversation. And now let's figure out where to start and how to book online accommodation for your trip, whether it's a hotel (inn), guesthouse (guest house) or hostel. Now there are many booking systems (such as Booking, Agoda, etc.) and services (for example,) where you can search for hotels and compare prices for it in different booking systems.

First, about everything in detail. At the very end of the post I will tell you how I book hotels myself, in what order.

What do you need

Booking a hotel on your own takes a little time and three simple things that most people already have:

- Access to the Internet. Now it is almost everywhere: at home, mobile, in cafes, shopping centers, hotels, etc.
— Bank card (debit or credit) Mastercard, Visa or similar. You need to do it in advance, before the trip, in your hometown
- Email. Her address must be specified when booking, where you will receive a confirmation letter and a booking code.

By the way, some systems now allow you to book a hotel without a card.

What is a booking system

A booking system is a website that allows you to book a hotel, in fact it is a database of hotels around the world. Hotels themselves are added to it in order to be able to rent out their rooms via the Internet. Booking systems do not charge users a commission for using its database, but receive money directly from the hotel. That is, as a rule, the cost of living in a room via the Internet or on the spot (at the reception) does not change for you. But it all depends on the particular hotel, because it is he who sets these prices, for example, he can hold a promotion that when you book in advance you get a discount (but there will be no discount on the spot).

In any booking system, you can select hotels according to different criteria - country, city, dates, number of people, availability of certain services. Payment is made by credit card (). After payment, you will receive an email with your booking details (booking confirmation).

Which booking system to choose? There are no clear rules here, it's a matter of habit, one interface is clear to one, another to other people. However, the number of hotels in different country in booking systems is different. Therefore, there is such an unspoken rule: there is more choice of Asian hotels, and more suitable for Europe and Russia.

List of hotel booking systems

The most popular booking systems are: , Ostrovok , Hotels.com , Expedia.com . There are also booking systems specializing in hostels, but now Booking and Agoda have become very large services, and they have hostels, apartments, and even houses with villas.

And here are my instructions for each service:

You can search for hotels in different booking engines and compare results. Somewhere the interface is more convenient, and somewhere there is a larger database of hotels. Therefore, it is best to use Hotel search engines who are looking for all booking systems at once. In fact, such services do most of the work for you. About them in detail below.

Apartment booking system

I want to make a separate point Airbnb. This is a service that offers private accommodation. Mostly there are apartments, rooms in apartments or even houses local residents. This service helps homeowners earn money by being an intermediary between them and you. By the way, you can also rent your apartment in this way, if you wish (any person can participate).

If you are not yet familiar with the service, then be sure to read about it, where it is told about what it is, how to register correctly, how to book accommodation, etc.

So, Airbnb has some really cool options that are primarily of interest to families with children and companies of several people. Because often the apartment can accommodate not two people, but 4-6 or more. And with this approach (you usually pay for all accommodation at once) it comes out several times cheaper than in a hotel. After all, the hotel would have to take several rooms for such a number of people. Moreover, living conditions in an apartment can be much better than in a hotel. For example, most apartments have kitchens, and many also have a washing machine. These are very relevant points when traveling with children.

What is Hotel Finder

The hotel search engine is a service where you can search for hotels in all popular booking systems at the same time. That is, such a service searches for the hotels you need right away, both in Booking, and in Agoda, and on Ostrovka, and in other systems. They would have been tortured to sort them out manually. Hotel search engines are also called aggregators, metasearch engines. In fact, this is such a hotel Google.

How does this happen? You also set the search criteria you need (country, city, dates, room services) and the search engine gives you the results - a list of hotels. And further, by choosing a specific hotel, you will see the cost of living in this hotel in various booking systems (Booking, Agoda, Ostrovok, etc.), that is, you have the opportunity to compare and choose. When you make your choice, the search engine will redirect you to the site of the selected booking system, where you will make a hotel reservation. That is, the search engine itself does not sell anything, it only searches. There are no additional or hidden fees. The principle of operation resembles the already familiar to everyone. You can read more about services in my instructions:

One of the best hotel search engines in my opinion -. It has very good integration with Booking and other systems, it has everything desired filters, the rating of the hotel is immediately displayed. I also personally like the display of hotels on the map, as I often look for accommodation in a particular place. And when you move the map, the hotels are shown throughout the territory, even if I originally specified a different city in the search. Thus, it is easy to find hotels between cities or on specific beaches without even knowing their names. You can also try to search yourself using the form below.

Book a hotel in advance or search on the spot

Local search is more relevant for low-cost Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and where there are many small hotels at every turn. But in Hong Kong, Singapore, or Europe, it is cheaper and easier to book everything in advance. However, I still prefer, if possible (when I know the exact dates), to book everything in advance so as not to waste my time searching, there are all the tools for this, it’s foolish to ignore modern technologies.

When booking in advance, you will definitely be sure that you have an overnight stay upon arrival. You can adjust and plan the entire trip at once, and thus the chance of getting off schedule is minimal. This is especially true if you are going to a popular place during the season, you can just stay on the street and not find empty seats.
Again, during preparation, you can read real reviews from guests in booking systems and take into account all your wishes: distance to the beach, air conditioning, pool, WiFi, etc. On the spot, you will have to meddle in all the hotels in a row and ask what is available, and it will also not be entirely clear what service is in fact, do not ask people on the street.
The most important thing in booking in advance is saving time and effort. The fact is that searching on the spot is far from a romantic activity, and not everyone will like spending even 1-2 hours walking around various hotels in the heat and after a long flight. No, of course, if you are here for several months and you need to carefully choose accommodation for this period, then this may be justified.
It often happens that prices when booking online are less than directly on the spot. I remember that I made a reservation right at the hotel reception (it was almost 2 times cheaper), no matter how strange it may sound.
When applying for a visa, printouts from the booking system may be required to confirm that you have a place to live. For example, the French consulate (and many other European countries) accepts printouts from

Despite the fact that the databases of booking systems are huge and include hundreds of thousands of hotels, the smallest and cheapest hotels may not be available (sometimes such hotels do not even have their own website). Therefore, if you have time, and you are running out of money, then it makes sense to go and look for housing directly on the spot.

Some nuances when booking

Specify the check-in time (usually around 14:00) and check-out time (about 12:00). Some hotels are very strict with this and may charge you for another night if you are late. You also need to understand that if you arrive earlier, the hotel will only be able to accommodate you if it has such an opportunity, otherwise you will be waiting.
Check the opening hours of the reception, otherwise, if you arrive late in the evening or at night, you can come to the closed doors.
Deducting money for a hotel or the possibility of booking a hotel without payment (with payment at check-in) depends purely on the specific hotel and its policy.
Please read the cancellation policy carefully, especially if there is a possibility that you will need to cancel your booking. Usually the reservation can be canceled without any penalty some time before arrival. In some cases (for example, there was a special offer), the reservation is not canceled and the money is not returned. All this is indicated on the page of a particular hotel. Also, in case of a no-show, they may begin to write off money for accommodation.
Sometimes it is possible to book a hotel not only without prepayment, but even without specifying bank card details. Of course, you can score and not cancel the reservation later, but I would not recommend doing this, there is a risk of getting a fine (the cost of one night). Alternatively, you can register a new account each time, but IMHO it's easier not to bring it to this.
If the type of bed is very important (large double or two singles), it makes sense to contact the hotel or at least read the reviews, since it is not always clear what is meant in the room description. Although personally I have never encountered problems.
It is best to always have a printout of the hotel reservation (voucher) with you or a file with it on your phone to show on the screen. But usually it is enough just to give the surname or the booking number.

How do I book hotels and life hack

Life hack for those who are used to . Look for a hotel on your usual Booking, copy its name and paste it into the search box for the dates you need. Thus, you will find out if the hotel is offered at a cheaper price, for example, on Agoda, Ostrovka and others.

After a little use of various sites, both booking systems and search engines, you yourself will figure it out. There is nothing difficult in finding and paying for any hotel or guesthouse. I am looking for accommodation in the following order:

In Thailand, if I don’t know exactly when and where I’m going to stay (for example, I’m driving 800 km by car), then I’m looking for housing right in the direction of the service. But again, not without the help of services. I have a mobile app from Hotellook (Android, iOS, Windows Phone) that has the convenience of being able to show hotels right next to your location. Sometimes it is enough to walk 100-200 meters and there will be the right hotel. Actually, these are not all the possibilities, there you can search and book hotels in advance, which I also do.

But in general, it’s better to book in advance, during the peak season in Thailand it happens that all the suitable hotels are already completely occupied on the day of the call and you have to settle where you would not have done in other scenarios.

P.S. Please add if you forgot :)

Life hack 1 - how to buy good insurance

It is unrealistically difficult to choose insurance now, therefore, to help all travelers, I am compiling a rating. To do this, I constantly monitor forums, study insurance contracts and use insurance myself.

Life hack 2 - how to find a hotel for 20% cheaper

Thank you for reading

4,78 out of 5 (ratings: 67)

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Usage the best services hotel reservations are a good way to find the most suitable accommodation for your vacation or business trip online. In addition, if we are talking about traveling abroad, at customs or when obtaining a visa, confirmation of the room reservation may be required. To avoid an overlay, it is important to use only trusted sites, the advantages and disadvantages of which are just considered in this rating, compiled on the basis of reviews from experienced travelers.

To compile this TOP, real reviews of tourists were taken. All contenders for the title of the best were compared with each other, their advantages and disadvantages were taken into account. Here is what was in priority when analyzing the opinions of travelers:

Wealth of choice of hotels;
Convenience of the selection filter;
Ease of searching;
The speed of issuing results;
Clarity of the interface;
Number of supported languages;
No hidden fees;
Time to confirm the booking;
Possibility of free withdrawal of the reserve;
Payment Methods.

Naturally, the technical support of the site and its readiness to meet the needs of customers in case of unforeseen circumstances were also taken into account.

Best Price Comparison Websites for Hotel Bookings

As the name of the category implies, these sites provide information about the prices of accommodation in hotels offered on the most popular resources for booking them. They save a lot of time, because you can immediately choose the most advantageous option in terms of cost and comfort and immediately make a reservation.

This is an aggregator for finding the most the best hotels among various booking agencies. It gives all possible options, among which you can select the most profitable for yourself. The company is German, but do not rush to abandon it or take on a translator, it also has a Russian version. Very convenient is the option of selecting suitable hotels by rating, location in the city, distance from the center, number of stars and various secondary filters - free internet, parking, swimming pool, etc.

Of course, it is not possible to look at reviews and detailed characteristics of hotels on the site, but here are real photos of rooms, sometimes speaking more eloquently than the most detailed descriptions. Moreover, partners provide complete information, where you can complete the reserve. Among them, there are only proven services - Ostrovok, Agoda, Booking - those that are included in our rating of hotel booking sites.

Advantages:

Quick search;
Compare prices to the penny;
Using only free numbers;
Display of offers with discounts.

Flaws:

Users would like more detailed descriptions of offers.

Compared to other hotel booking sites from this rating, the Oktogo service took care of providing detailed information about the prices for rooms by mailing to subscribers. He also thought about the safety of his clients, conducting a thorough check of all candidates by the relevant service, which minimizes the likelihood of fraud.

The cost of booking a bed in a hostel or a room in a hotel is set not just like that, but according to the results of a long comparison of all prices in other agencies. At the same time, the service provides the final amount, without hidden fees, and this inspires confidence among users. Compared to competitors, it looks more interesting due to the provision of detailed information about the location of objects, services and amenities in hotels.

Oktogo does not have the simplest interface, but it is not difficult to understand it, especially since it is in Russian. In addition, there are clear instructions on how to act in order to do everything right. Comfortable Personal Area generally removes all sorts of questions, and bonus points upon registration are even more impressive. True, it will not work to get a reservation on this site, for this you need to use the resources of partners.

Advantages:

A large number of hostels;
Prompt resolution of customer difficulties;
Payment from cards and electronic wallets;
The speed of sending a voucher to the mail;
Possibility of calculation both at check-in and at the time of booking a room.

Flaws:

Not detected.

This is a simple and fast system for searching and comparing the cost of living in hotels with which the same Agoda, Hotels, Ostrovok, Booking, etc. work. Compared with alternative options, for example, Oktogo, here you can find a suitable option with a maximum discount of up to 60%. Most importantly, the service is completely free - it analyzes more than 700,000 guest houses, hostels, hotels around the world, from the US to Australia.

Compared to the prices on the websites of the hotels themselves, hotellook offers more favorable prices. At the same time, users have no complaints about either the design or the menu, everything is assembled as compactly and conveniently as possible. Among the advantages, it should be noted a large number of fresh reviews and photos of objects that are real.

The selection of the best results for booking a room is carried out here through a special filter that allows you to choose the appropriate currency from more than twenty. According to this indicator, Hotellook is clearly in the lead; still, after all, it takes only a few seconds to issue search data. Opposite each proposal, a rating is indicated that helps to make the right decision.

Advantages:

Download and work speed;
Several partners;
Analysis of multiple prices in different agencies;
Many languages;
discounts;
Filtering by type of accommodation, amenities and many other parameters;
Location map of objects.

Flaws:

Not detected.

The "Hotelluk" system automatically redirects to the websites of partners for booking rooms.

Rumguru is also an international search aggregator, only comparing prices on room reservation resources and displaying a few results. This significantly saves time on the selection of housing and allows you to save money. If we compare it with similar services from our rating, then it is interesting in that it offers booking not only from partners, but also on the official website of the hotel.

The creators of the Roomguru system were definitely not mistaken in making the division by cost. With this option, you can select only the options that are suitable for the price and search already among them. You can often see profitable offers from him, which are not available on every similar site. The ability to sort by guest ratings, which the service carefully checks, can also be called a plus.

A special advantage is access to a search by the name of a particular hotel and its location, taking into account the map. A very good mobile application simplifies the use of services, and is not inferior to competitors' applications from this rating.

Advantages:

Benefit for the wallet;
Saving time;
Various booking options;
Advanced search form.

Flaws:

Previously, when searching, Russian transliteration worked, now the flaw has been removed.

The best sites for booking hotels in Russia

Naturally, in the services presented in this category, you can book a hotel room or a bed in a hostel not only on the territory of the Russian Federation, but also far beyond the borders of Russia. It is the winning sites that have the most impressive selection of hotels in a given country.

The Ostrovok hotel reservation site is not inferior to Booking in terms of the number of housing offers, and in its types, maybe even surpasses it. Here you can not only book a room in a hotel or hostel, but also rent a room in a guest house, as well as apartments, villas and even a place in a campsite. It is not necessary to pay for the reservation right away, it can be done upon check-in.

Unlike booking, prices are more strictly controlled here, and they are not overstated for popular destinations. This service also deserves a place in the TOP of the best hotel booking sites due to the provision of personal discounts up to 20%, which not all competitors can afford. It stands out against the background of similar sites and the security of online payments due to working directly with leading and trusted banks and payment systems.

The ostrovok website has a fairly simple and intuitive interface, making it easy to navigate. Everything is organized here and there is a convenient search filter that includes a full range of options - from the type of accommodation and the number of beds to the services and entertainment provided. Of course, compared to the same Booking, translation from Russian is available only in 3 languages - Danish, English and Spanish.

Advantages:

Bonus points;
Convenient sorting;
Entering the options you like in a separate list for quick search;
Real reviews of guests;
Placement in catalogs of available hotels around the world;
Possibility to choose an object taking into account the distance from the city center.

Flaws:

Not detected.

Agoda

This site is regularly included in the ranking of the best hotel and hotel booking services due to the fact that it conducts an open pricing policy, without hidden fees, and at the same time provides truthful, comprehensive information about accommodation options. Undoubtedly, the descriptions of resorts and areas of various cities practiced by him are useful, according to which it should be easier to make a decisive choice.

Special attention at Agoda deserves discounts for registered users, which can reach 30%. It is rare to find such a convenient division into countries, cities and even regions, which speeds up the process of choosing the right housing option. Otherwise, the site does not differ much from competitors, it is just as practical - there are free applications, round-the-clock chat support, quick feedback.

In the Agoda service, prices are indicated without taxes, so you still need to add a certain percentage to them.

Advantages:

Speed and convenience of site search;
Bonus system;
Efficiency of obtaining information;
Transparency of conditions;
Flexibility of pricing policy;
Choice of offers.

Flaws:

You can lose a little when paying in another currency due to conversion;
You can only see taxes in your personal account.

As the reviews show, agoda is very often used to search for accommodation in Asia, although there are many interesting options for accommodation in Europe, the USA, and Australia.

It is rather difficult for other systems to compete in the number of the best offers of the day with this service. On the main page, there are always available accommodation options in the most popular cities in the world with an unrealistic discount of up to 70%. Moreover, for one reservation, miles are credited to the account, which can be exchanged for a discount.

True, if it is not necessary to register on Booking to make a reservation, then it is impossible to bypass this stage with IGlobe. But this should not be taken for a minus, because it takes only a few seconds. In the form you need to fill in the last name, first name, email address and phone number. In the case of low fares, the prepayment made in case of no-show is not refundable and changes cannot be made after that.

Advantages:

The service is responsible for the information provided;
You can pay not only by card, but also bonus miles Aeroflot;
Electronic money accepted;
The speed of debiting funds and confirmation;
You can immediately book a hotel and air travel.

Flaws:

There are cases of overestimation of rates;
Phones do not work around the clock, in which iGlobe loses to competitors.

The reviews write that you need to be more careful with paying for services through the site with a card if you need to write out documents for travel. The fact is that they are provided through a Swiss company, and they may not be accepted by the accounting department in Russia.

The best websites for booking hotels around the world

Perhaps this is the most famous and one of the oldest hotel booking systems in different parts of the world. It was founded in 1996 and since then has been confidently holding a leading position in this service market. Everything is done here for the convenience of users - a choice of 43 working languages, the absence of mandatory registration to reserve a number.

The booking service is interesting because right on the site you can read real reviews of tourists, see many photos of a particular accommodation option and select suitable offers based on their user rating. Thus, you can exclude settling in an initially bad hotel and not spoil your vacation.

One of the advantages of this hotel booking site is simply a huge database of hotels, guest houses, hostels for both the budget traveler and wealthy people. At the same time, you can reserve several rooms at the same time, and before leaving, you can cancel the reservation for free, this helps to make sure.

Advantages:

Convenient, clear and simple interface;
Many offers of any level around the world;
Reservation without payment;
Free cancellation;
Email confirmation speed;
Exclusive and special offers;
Convenience of the selection filter (by city, price, number of stars, etc.);
Compliance of photos and reviews with reality;
Possibility to rent a car here and buy air tickets;
Detailed descriptions.

Flaws:

Fraud protection would not hurt;
There are some price fluctuations.

According to user reviews, Booking has excellent technical support, if any questions arise, they respond in time and give detailed answers.

Expedia

Among the best hotel booking services there are also resources on English language- for those who are well versed in it. He could be given the first place in our TOP because of the lowest prices associated with the redemption of blocks of places in different hotels around the world. The system has been working for a long time and reliably, so, according to reviews, there are practically no problems with mandatory prepayment. But, despite this, the company meets the needs of customers and develops a version of depositing funds upon check-in to the room.

It is unlikely that Russian services can afford the same "trick" as expedia, which guarantees compensation for the difference between its price and that of its competitors, and also gives a 50% coupon. But there is a catch - more low price must be found only in US systems, and offers must match by arrival date and room category.

What can we say, this is the largest platform of its kind in the United States, the advantage of which is the provision of other services - the purchase of air tickets and car rentals around the world. The search for suitable options is carried out quite quickly compared to the same Agoda. The booking procedure is standard, in a few clicks.

Advantages:

There are both inexpensive and luxury hotels;
To check into the room, it is not necessary to present a printout of the reservation;
The cost is even lower than the hotels themselves, there are preferences;
Wide range of possibilities;
Exact match of the results to the request;
Quick output of information of interest;
The practicality of filters.

Flaws:

There is no Russian-language interface.

In the case of expedia, you need to be careful when canceling a reservation, this service is free, but if there is a currency conversion, you can lose on the difference.

This is one of the best hotel booking sites, it can be distinguished in the TOP because of the most complete database of facilities for accommodation during leisure or business trips. Where else can more than 1.6 million profitable and interesting offers be collected on one resource! To be among the leaders allows him and instant confirmation of reservations from hotels, as well as prices below the official rates. This is one of the few services where there is no commission, you do not need to pay an intermediary.

Hotels gets a big plus for its user-friendly interface, everything is in order in the system, there is a minimum and maximum cost threshold, a hotel placement map, a choice of reservations without a bank card, with the possibility of canceling it. Information about the distance to the metro, train station and other important places in the city is very valuable. If reviews were located on the page of specific offers, and not separately, it would be even better.

Advantages:

Safety;
Good mobile applications;
Availability;
Clarity of actions;
Operational technical support;
Filter quality for selection;
A variety of offers for tourist accommodation.

Flaws:

Not detected.

Which hotel booking service is better to choose

Those who want to find the best deals should first use a search aggregator that compares prices in different hotel booking services. When choosing a suitable system, see that you can cancel the reservation for free or with a minimum commission. Watch out for the absence of hidden payments - taxes, interest for checking the performance of the card, etc.

The simplest and most convenient service, especially for a novice traveler, will be booking.
Those who want to find something good among hostels can pay attention to ostrovok.
Those who want to save money and choose the most cheap option accommodation, you should use the price comparison services oktogo, trivago, hotellook.
For those who want to find a good discounted room, agoda, roomguru and hotels are good options.
expedia is recognized as the most reliable and proven system, here you can not be afraid to make an advance payment.
If you frequently use Aeroflot and have accumulated a large number of miles, they can be exchanged for paying for a number on iGlobe.

All online hotel booking systems are very popular, in particular among Russian tourists. They have a good reputation and mostly positive reviews.

Excellent hostel.

Excellent hostel. Very convenient location, close to Red Square and other attractions. No problems with booking, polite administrators. Everywhere is clean and tidy. The toilet and shower are clean, I was pleasantly surprised. Bed linen is clean and smells good. There are small disadvantages, foreign guests are accommodated in the same room with Russian guests, this is very inconvenient! The Chinese do not understand when they are asked not to make noise and act as if they are alone in the room, talking on the phone in the middle of the night and ignoring requests to be quiet from the administration. Also, the taxi does not drive close to the hostel, you have to walk 100 meters on foot. A huge request from the hostel administration to explain to their employees, in particular to the cleaners, so that they do not resent and swear at the guests of the hostel that they have not removed their belongings somewhere or have not signed their products in the refrigerator! They took the job and knew what was in store for them. If you are not satisfied with the work, let them make room for more educated staff! Such employees spoil the mood and opinion about the hotel as a whole.

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Anonymous Russia

8,0

In two days I managed to visit several places.

In two days I managed to visit several places. Since we settled near Red Square, we decided to start from there. We walked along the clean and cozy streets to the Red Square, visited the Armory and Cathedral Square, then by metro we got to shopping center Filion, the most delicious Pokrovsky gingerbreads are sold there, there is a company store, from there take the metro to the hotel. On the second day we reached Timiryazevskaya, changed to the monorail and went to VDNKh, along the way you can see the industrial zone and sleeping areas and Ostankino, quite curiously. VDNKh is very beautiful, the place for walking is very good, there are many places to eat for every taste, music plays, you can go rollerblading, there are interesting exhibitions, you can spend the whole day there, then by metro from VDNKh we got to Kropotkinskaya, we wanted to see the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. From there, walk along the streets to the Arbat. We didn't see much in two days, but we had a lot of fun.

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Elena Russia

8,0

Over the Christmas holidays, I was able to show my wife and son the most...

During the Christmas holidays, I was able to show my wife and son the most iconic places in Moscow, while almost all of these places from the China City hotel can be reached on foot! All our meals were organized in the "Mu-Mu" cafe network, well-prepared dishes with an average price tag for lunch of 350-450 rubles per person. The nearest cafe to our hotel is on Maroseyka Street 12 (we used to have dinner there). The most impressive event for all of us was the meeting of the New Year on the "Singing Bus" tour at the Patriarch's Ponds and a night tour of Moscow with singing guides - Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden. Near the hotel there is an Orthodox church "All Saints", where the service is held according to the canon of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. I advise you to visit the service, very unusual melodies of prayers and the rite itself. The Moscow Planetarium was also impressive, it made a strong impression on our youngest son (he is 17 years old).

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Igor Russia

Beloved Moscow forever!

We went to visit not historical monuments, but to visit parks and modern places. Best Places convenient location to the metro: Tverskoy Boulevard - especially beautiful in the evening, Sokolniki Park (for active tourists), Red Square, Alexander Garden, Izmailovsky park, Victory Park. Far from the metro station Gorky Park, Vorobyovy Gory. They took the bus. sightseeing tour rental at the main attractions. They were not very satisfied with the zoo - huge areas for walking, large animals are located at a fairly far distance from the field of view, many cages are empty - because. the animals are sleeping, there is no full-fledged hot food on the territory - only hot dogs and all that. We will definitely return to visit the Tsaritsinsky Reserve and Chistye Prudy.

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Anonymous Russia

The Kremlin, especially the tour of the Diamond Fund, the Armory...

The Kremlin, especially a tour of the Diamond Fund, the Armory, Red Square, the Church of the Ascension and the Palace of Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye, Tsaritsyno, the Historical Museum and the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812, the Tretyakov Gallery, the MU-MU cafe network. Special thanks to the cafe staff! Well done!!! Thanks to the staff of museums and exhibitions, very polite and attentive! I did not like the location of the seats in the Kremlin Concert Hall (they sat in the fifth row, the ballet "The Snow Maiden"), complaints came from everywhere! As well as the low culture of the Moscow audience, during the performance they ran from place to place, at the end of the event, instead of applause, they turned their backs to the artists and left the hall. Nightmare!

As a rule, the two most significant costs in travel are airfare and hotel accommodation.

A lot has been written about how to save on flights (), and many already use search aggregators to find good air tickets.

At the same time, for booking hotels, it turns out that the majority, in the old fashioned way, use the usual services, and few people think about the fact that you can also save money on this (well, or find the best option for the same money - it's up to you as you like).

We conducted a small survey among our acquaintances and found out that many people use the booking.com and agoda.com systems for searching, while the second is often argued that this service works better in Asia.

I decided to check whether it is advisable to search for hotels through these booking systems or, nevertheless, it is better to use aggregators and did a little research - I will tell you about its results in this article.

What are search aggregators?

First, a little explanation - what are search aggregators.

There are 3 levels of search:

Hotel websites.
Booking systems that have contractual relationships with hundreds of thousands of hotels around the world.
Search aggregators (metasearch engines) that search for offers among a variety of booking systems.

Each next level covers more hotels than the previous one. There are several dozen booking systems, in addition to the most famous ones, which are well known to everyone, there are many popular in a particular region, but unfamiliar to many in Russia. For example, have you ever heard of such systems as laterooms.com, asiarooms.com, easytobook.com, hotelclub.com, hrs.com, hotel.info, splendia.com, hotelopia.com? So we have not heard =) But they exist, and tens of thousands of people use them.

All of them enter into contracts with certain hotels, and it is clear that each of them individually is not able to cover absolutely all hotels (even such mastodons as booking.com and agoda.com, which have captured the vast majority of the market).

And here search aggregators come into play, which search for most booking systems, and thus provide the end user (i.e. you and me) with the most complete selection of hotels with the greatest variety of prices for the same rooms.

Search aggregators themselves do not process hotel reservations, their only task is to search. Those. as a result of their work, you will see a selection of hotels and for each a list of booking systems in which this hotel is presented.

It is worth noting that for the same hotel, in different booking systems, prices may differ, and not always the same one will be cheaper - it depends on many factors, the main thing is that you can see the prices offered by all booking systems , compare, and choose what you like.

Comparison of search aggregators and booking systems

For comparison, I chose 2 booking systems - booking.com and agoda.com, as well as 2 aggregators - the largest international aggregator roomguru.ru (aka roomguru.ru) and the Russian project hotellook.ru (daughter of the Russian airline tickets aggregator aviasales.ru). As regions - several popular destinations in Asia, Europe and the USA.

I will not bore you with screenshots, I will give just one, for example

Hotellook does not show how many hotels are available, it gives them out in one list, and places the busy ones at the very end, therefore there is a dash in the corresponding columns.

What conclusion can be drawn from these comparisons?
Firstly, agoda in Asia, indeed, most often produces more results than booking.com, but not always - for example, in Ubud, it turned out that booking’s database is larger.

Secondly, in Europe and the US booking.com overtakes Agoda.

Third, it is pretty obvious that in all cases, without exception, aggregators find more hotels than booking engines. Actually, what was required to prove =)

Hotel Booking Tips

If you book an expensive hotel (from $100 per day and more), then after you have chosen the right one, check out their official website. Sometimes, on the hotel website, you can find good discounts and offers - for example, we booked our “wedding room” in this way for a promotion of 3 nights for the price of two. Some hotels offer free shuttle service when booked directly on the hotel website. But sometimes it happens the other way around - on the official website, the discounts provided by the booking system may not be visible.

Agoda.com and roomguru.ru offer a “Guaranteed the best price". Those. if you found a hotel through roomguru and booked it for $50 per night, and then saw it for about $45, then they promise to refund the difference ($5 in this case) - we never used this option, though.

Rates on agoda.com are tax-free, so it may seem cheaper there, but usually you need to add about 17% to the price (the exact amount is indicated in the room description)

Please read the cancellation policy carefully. On agoda.com, as a rule, you can only cancel a reservation with a loss of some amount (from $15 and above). On booking.com, cancellation is often free of charge if you do it no later than 3-7 days before arrival. Not always, of course, there are areas in which free cancellation is also impossible.

Reservation systems often use the strikethrough price trick - " special offer, 50% discount, 2 last issues left". Do not rush, without thinking, grab such a "hot offer" - often this is just a trick to attract attention. But, however, sometimes discounts do happen, just study carefully.

It is also worth considering that in addition to hotel search and booking systems, there is also a service for booking private accommodation airbnb.com - and this is from hundreds to several thousand offers in each city (I talk about this service in more detail in separate articles about and about ). By the way, they also have hotels in their database, for example, we somehow booked through them nice villa on the island Lembongan(in Indonesia), and also booked an apartment through them for a month in Phuket. And considering what you can get bonus when registering (here) - in general it turns out very profitable.

That's all for me. I wish you to find a great accommodation and spend your vacation unforgettable!

How are you looking for housing? Write your choice in the comments!
P.S. Please note that the links to booking systems and aggregators in the article are partner links, which means that if you follow them and make a booking, we will receive a partner reward (the price for you will not change). We use these systems ourselves and recommend them because we find them useful and trustworthy.