I usually book hotels online when I visit foreign places to save money.
This time, I plan to explore SE Asia. How do you backpackers find
good hotel rooms? Do you just ask the locals? Is it just a hit and
miss? I bought the Lonely Planet SE Asia book, it has hotel
recommendations, location, and prices. I'm hoping it will help. I
find that when you're going to stay in 3 stars hotel and above, booking
online is cheaper than walk-ins. However, booking online is impossible
when I'm going on a backpacking adventure where there's no set
itinerary. A lot of uncertainties such as bus and train schedule that
makes it impossible to be sure when and where I'll be at next.

How much preparation do you guys take before going? Do you make
detailed notes on what to do before you go or do you just fly there and
figure it out from there?

"Eskimator" <eskimator@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I usually book hotels online when I visit foreign places to save money.
> This time, I plan to explore SE Asia. How do you backpackers find
> good hotel rooms? Do you just ask the locals? Is it just a hit and
> miss? I bought the Lonely Planet SE Asia book, it has hotel
> recommendations, location, and prices. I'm hoping it will help. I
> find that when you're going to stay in 3 stars hotel and above, booking
> online is cheaper than walk-ins. However, booking online is impossible
> when I'm going on a backpacking adventure where there's no set
> itinerary. A lot of uncertainties such as bus and train schedule that
> makes it impossible to be sure when and where I'll be at next.

You can book online a few days before. If you have a place in mind, you
can also just walk into a travel agent elsewhere in that country and
they can get you the same prices. If you're just arriving, there are
travel agents in the arrivals area of almost every airport. They aren't
as cheap as the better ones in town, but they're generally cheaper than
walking into the hotel and paying rack rate.

On many occasions I have walked into a hotel, asked the price, walked
out to a travel agent on the corner, made a reservation, and walked back
into the same hotel a few minutes later with a voucher that cost me half
the front desk's quote.

The places listed in Lonely Planet, at the low end anyway, aren't
necessarily that great. Lonely Planet lists places, then they get a huge
influx of business, then they stop trying.

Also, in Southeast Asia there are usually a lot more places than listed
in Lonely Planet - sometimes 10 times more in heavily touristed areas.

I find books like Lonely Planet are more useful for locating the general
area of town where cheap hotels are concentrated, rather than for
identifying particular places to stay.

miguel
--
Photos from 40 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Malaysia; Thailand; Singapore; Spain; Morocco
Airports of the world: http://airport.u.nu

Eskimator wrote:
> I usually book hotels online when I visit foreign places to save money.
> This time, I plan to explore SE Asia. How do you backpackers find
> good hotel rooms? Do you just ask the locals? Is it just a hit and
> miss?

What do you mean "good"? Do you require air-conditioning? Or just hot
water and minimal standards for cleanliness? Or even less than that?

Most backpacker destinations have loads of rooms, so there is rarely a
problem finding a decent inexpensive place to stay. I normally ask to
see a room before committing to pay for it (mostly I just want to make
sure it's clean, no insects, etc.), and sometimes I test out the hot
water.

> I bought the Lonely Planet SE Asia book, it has hotel
> recommendations, location, and prices. I'm hoping it will help. I
> find that when you're going to stay in 3 stars hotel and above, booking
> online is cheaper than walk-ins.

If you intend to stay in 3+ star hotels, you can often book them
cheaply online from Internet cafes.

> How much preparation do you guys take before going? Do you make
> detailed notes on what to do before you go or do you just fly there and
> figure it out from there?

On a longer trip with a flexible schedule, I usually plan my stay in my
first and last city carefully, then do a lot of reading and make
general plans of and for places in between, but I don't plan every
detail and I often change my itineraries based on things people
mention, interesting places that I want to stay longer in, or hellholes
I want to get out of as fast as possible. I rarely book a place to
stay more than one city in advance.

However, if you are on a short trip involving many destinations, it
might make sense to do very careful planning to make the most of that
time.

Usually on arrival in a city/village, I pick a couple of options from
my guidebook, and if arrival is well before dark arrange a taxi (taxi,
tuktuk, motobike etc.) to drive me around, check those and pick one. If
arriving late at night I just pick one (or follow a tout with a good
story and pictures) and check other options the next day. Now, this can
easily be done in most cities and villages thru-out se-asia, as
generally their size is modest and tourist-accomodations are generally
concentrated in a few areas, however last year in China I found this
method not always feasible as the cities there are huge ... I wished I
had some kind of mobile internet device with me then; instead I hooked
up with an internet hotelbooking site, to which I'd phone/sms my
destination and wishes; this worked ok.

What also works is to just wing it, and on arrival ask locals (not
taxidrivers) where to go; this will often give you up-to-date info,
which may not even be in your guidebook.

When arriving on an airport/bigger bus/train-station, the hotel-booking
desk (if available) is a good option (if only for 2/3 stars and up).

Eskimator wrote:
> I usually book hotels online when I visit foreign places to save money.
> This time, I plan to explore SE Asia. How do you backpackers find
> good hotel rooms? Do you just ask the locals? Is it just a hit and
> miss? I bought the Lonely Planet SE Asia book, it has hotel
> recommendations, location, and prices. I'm hoping it will help. I
> find that when you're going to stay in 3 stars hotel and above, booking
> online is cheaper than walk-ins. However, booking online is impossible
> when I'm going on a backpacking adventure where there's no set
> itinerary. A lot of uncertainties such as bus and train schedule that
> makes it impossible to be sure when and where I'll be at next.
>
> How much preparation do you guys take before going? Do you make
> detailed notes on what to do before you go or do you just fly there and
> figure it out from there?