Hotel Booking sites lack search depth
By Darren Cronian on Friday, January 11th, 2008

Despite the technology it still can be a frustrating experience searching for hotels, especially when you do not know your way around the destination. I’m searching for a hotel in Berlin because I’m hoping to attend the Berlin ITB and I’ve been invited to the PhoCusWright conference in March.

Hotel Booking sites lack search depth

What’s lacking is a hotel search where I can enter a post code or the nearest tube/train station and it finds me hotels around that area. At one point I had three tabs open; for Google map, SideStep hotel results, and trip advisor – thankfully, I am internet savvy.

I’d appreciate any suggestions for hotels, or hotel booking sites which will help me find a hotel easier.


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10 responses to “Hotel Booking sites lack search depth”

Philip Caines | 11 January, 2008 at 10:45 pm

Hi Darren,

I am in the same boat. I was looking for a location based hotel reservation site, and found a good one at:
http://www.hrs.de/?client=en__messeberlin&location=Berlin

It allows you to arrange hotels by proximity to landmarks, including Messe Berlin!

Good luck!

Phil

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Darren Cronian | 11 January, 2008 at 11:55 pm

Thanks Phil, that’s exactly what I was looking for!

Very useful hotel site. I have seen a few hotels with availability, one is only 5kms away, and within my budget.

Just a flight to find now!

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Darren Cronian | 12 January, 2008 at 12:00 am

Ok Sidestep is trying to confuse me now.

Type in http://www.sidestep.co.uk and you are directed to the Kayak site. I new they purchased them but wow that was quick.

All that hassle getting the sidestep.co.uk domain they had too!

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Claude | 12 January, 2008 at 12:10 am

I try Booking

search with the field: landmark: ICC Berlin Messe

around 2 or 5 km

I will try a bundle (air + hotel) with Expedia or Voyages SNCF

Will see

A bientôt at ITB

Claude

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Darren Cronian | 12 January, 2008 at 12:17 am

Claude,

I’m finding that the bundle of air plus hotel is more expensive than booking flight and hotel seperatly, but I am sure thats because the flight prices are so cheap.

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Don | 12 January, 2008 at 5:15 am

Darren: While I didn’t DO a search on either of these sites, I did see that on some brand specific sites you are able to search by “attraction” (or other location) on http://www.crowneplaza.com, and by postal code on choicehotels.com.

I also saw that both expedia.com and orbitz.com allow for searches based on “attractions” or “point of interest.” I didn’t see either of them on the list of search engines you tried, and wouldn’t know if they would be as useful in Europe as I find them to be in the U.S..

I agree with you, the third-party sites are not very user-friendly when it comes to searching this way.

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Darren Cronian | 13 January, 2008 at 7:35 am

I’ve always found Expedia to be more expensive than most other travel agencies, be it in the street or online.

Most of the hotel search sites have search based on attractions or point of interest, but not post code, and a mashup with Google maps would be nice too.

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Sarah Mac | 15 January, 2008 at 12:24 am

Hi Darren, I dropped you an email about meeting up at the ITS. I’ll be going on my own, so would like to meet up with a few people in travel.

I own a small travel agency in Ireland.

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Darren Cronian | 15 January, 2008 at 12:35 am

Sarah,

I’ve just replied to your email with my mobile number. I’ll be in Berlin from Wed – Sat, and will be wandering around the ITS on Friday.

Give me a ring and we’ll meet up.

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Cynthia | 15 January, 2008 at 5:38 pm

I love the skinny, little Penguin travel guides, which are almost nothing but maps — because, rather than offering pages and pages of hotel descriptions, they simply show all reasonably decent hotels right on the map. So you find your location or tube stop, look at the hotels on the map that are nearby, and then just do an Internet search for that hotel, to find out if it meets your needs. I’ve discovered some of my favorite hotels in Europe this way. And the range is from high-end to bargain/family owned — but they’re all decent.

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