Selecting the Right Hotel

Finding and selecting the best hotel for your travel will be a significant step toward a successful journey. Our mission with respect to helping you select your accommodations will focus on finding a home away from home. Whether you are a novice or an expert traveler, you will want to be familiar with your lodging prior to your arrival. Familiarity will lead to a more efficient trip, quicker decision-making and a completed agenda. Accomplishing all of your business goals is at the foundation of your reason for traveling in the first place, so setting yourself up for success will ensure you achieve just that.

Understand your own Needs and Expectations

Making the most of your time away from home starts with understanding your own desires. Be keenly aware that the hospitality industry works for you. The business model for any good hotel chain strongly focuses on meeting or exceeding the expectations of the customer… you. Take a moment and consider those qualities and amenities that will translate into an enjoyable, restful stop over.

Perhaps your requirements are very specific, like special meals or handicap access, or perhaps they are simply preferences. In either case, you will want your host to graciously provide you with your every want. Throughout this article, we will describe many of the options available to you, but it is up to you to decide which options are most important.

Location, Location, Location

Once again, you will want to consider your agenda when selecting a hotel location. View the hotel as your base of operations. Using a map, determine an area that is central to all the destination points of your oddysey. Include the businesses you plan to visit, the airport, local shopping, restaurants and entertainment when you focus on a location for the hotel.

Once you have a general idea for a location, begin to consider the safety of the area. This is where the “satellite” feature of Google Maps will help immensely. View the surrounding area using this satellite feature. Note items such as the size of the parking lot, surrounding areas, nearby businesses and general activity.

Search the hotels reviews for real life experiences of others that have stayed before you. People will absolutely convey a bad experience in a customer review. “Construction outside my window woke me up a 6am” or “People in the local area made me uncomfortable” are some red flags that may help you make a decision. Keep in mind that you will be “rolling the dice” if you do not thoroughly research your hotel selection. Also remember that making changes regarding your accommodation may be difficult to impossible after the fact.

Luxury versus Price

When selecting a hotel you will ultimately be faced with the question of luxury versus price. Particularly if you plan to profit from your trip, you will want to focus on ROI. Your travel expenses will impact the bottom line, so determining that impact may be a serious consideration. With that said, the mind wants what the mind wants. And we are attempting to get the most out of our travel dollar. So closely follow the steps outlined in this article to find a hotel that meets your needs.

When choosing a hotel, it is sensible to categorize your options into three price ranges, we will classify the ranges as value, mid-range and luxury. And as the titles suggest, you will be evaluating the differences based on a specific price range. In this way you will not be comparing the Taj Mahal to the Bed & Breakfast. While completing this exercise, you will also be developing your own preferences. You will naturally be determining what is more important to you, price or luxury.

Local Flair and Sight Seeing

If you are like me, you will have a desire to get the most of your travel experience. Do not overlook the experience of being in a new part of the world. When I travel I always want to experience the local flair.  If possible, I will want to visit local attractions and learn more about everyday life in this new town.  Finding the local attractions will be easy, vertually every motel, lodge and rest stop have brochures for local attractions.  The real trick is finding the “local haunts”, where do the towns people call home?

Customer Service

Business Travel Gadgets recommends that you personally call the hotel you have selected. Pay close attention during the first few moments of your phone call with your perspective hotel.  Get a general feel for the level of customer service.  You can do this in just a few minutes, listen for the following:

• When you call are you put on hold?
• If so, where you told how long the wait time will be?
• Do you feel that your questions are being answered hastily?
• Does the staff use words like “absolutely”, “certainly” and “glad to help”?
• What is the tone of voice used?
• Is the staff willing to research a difficult questions?

First impressions are often correct, in this case you are trying to determine the level of customer service prior to making a reservation.  To do this you need some form of communication with the hotel staff.  In general, if the level of customer service during a telephone call does not meet your expectations, neither will the service when you arrive.

Ease of Booking

When making hotel reservations, accuracy is critical.

Special Offers and Upgrades

Check for special offers.  Now how to recieve upgardes.

Images from the Internet

Look at the images.

Conclusion

This is how you pick a hotel.