Authentic Flavours Blog

Giorgia’s top tips for choosing a great hotel

AUTHOR: Giorgia Dettoni

There’s nothing better than arriving at your hotel after a long haul flight and it’s everything you wished for. All too often we choose hotels that paint a pretty picture on the internet, but in reality they are poor choices. There are simple ways to prevent the disappointment of choosing incorrectly.

Here is my fool proof checklist for selecting a fabulous hotel;

• Location, location location is number one in my book, you need to be in the heart of the action, what you save on staying further out of town you will spend on never ending transportation, taxis, buses and metro! Better to spend those dollars on you. So stay central and in style, smack bang in the middle of shops, restaurants and attractions.
• Once you’ve found “the” hotel of choice it’s time to check reviews. Tripadvisor is fantastic for this, people load their own photos as well as the hotels professional photos, so you can’t be fooled by the property, people will not talk up their experience, they are more likely to point out the bad first. This is good, of course you can never please all of the people all of the time, but you’re looking for reviews from people with similar likes and dislikes to your own.
• Call the hotel and double check on additional charges such as resort fees or city taxes.
• When booking through a travel accommodation site choose the one that offers complimentary breakfast, my favourite sites are; Booking.com, Venere.com &  Expedia.com
• Some hotels also offer half board or full board, this is a great option when staying in expensive beach resorts or Alpine resorts, it will save you a great deal of money on restaurants outside the resort.
• Check yo see if your hotel offers complimentary transfers, this is a fabulous bonus if you can get it. Transfers are often costly.
• It doesn’t hurt to check for additional free services such as nights free, wine on arrival, 24 hour room service, a large quantity of bars and restaurants, anything to make your stay as comfortable as possible.

Tick these off your list when choosing hotels and you will be on your way to having a great holiday, and don’t forget to ask to be upgraded on check in, sometimes that is all it takes.

Happy sojourn.