Fly budget, stay luxury – or vice versa? The hotel choices travellers make, and why
- Accommodation choices vary between travellers and depend on personal preference, the purpose of a trip and budget. Whatever the pick, first impressions matter
- A hotelier tells us why they book the best they can afford, and travellers why they do and don’t value luxury and the factors they weigh when making a booking
The moment Beijing-based Inna Nolde opens the door to her hotel room determines how she is likely to feel during an entire holiday. And the Russian has learned the hard way not to take any chances when it comes to choosing accommodation.
When she stayed at a rat-infested Airbnb property in South Africa with her mother, the owner denied the problem and asked: “Don’t you have rats in Russia?”
Her pre-travel research now consists of checking not only the photographs and reviews on booking sites but also YouTube videos posted by previous guests.
“The pictures and reviews of the hotel I had originally chosen for a recent trip to Koh Rong, in Cambodia seemed great but in some of the videos, you could see that it was right by the busy pier and that the swimming pool was way too crowded,” she says. “So we picked another hotel.”
Nolde usually books top-rated accommodation, but when travelling in European cities where certain facilities like swimming pools are not a necessity she will sometimes settle for three stars.
