Entrance to a foreign university affects a lot of issues that involve entrance examinations taking, visa processing, purchase of air tickets and hotel booking during the time of staying in a foreign country. The hotel searching should be carried out in advance, as for the embassies of some countries the availability of hotel reservation is an essential requirement to get a visa. So, how to find a good hotel being far away and not to make a mistake in your choice? The answer to this question can be found in our article. We have prepared a selection of the best services for hotel searching and booking in different countries around the world.

Looking for a hotel — what to start with?

What are online reservation services?

You can find and book a suitable hotel room with the help of special online reservation services that collect information about offers (places, prices, dates) of hotels located in different parts of the world. Such resources help to find the most profitable and beneficial offers.

Recommendations for hotel searching and booking via the Internet

  • When you book a hotel room from 100 USD per 24 hours and more using a meta-search engine or booking service, you should visit the hotel's website. Quite often on the site of the hotel you can find good discounts and special offers (for example, 3 nights for the price of one, etc.).
  • Take advantage of the best price offer. If, having booked a hotel room for 60 USD per 24 hours, after a couple of minutes in another search engine a user comes across the same room that now costs 55 USD the client has a right to claim compensation. This service is provided by some booking services.
  • When you book a hotel, pay attention to the prices. The matter is that search engines can show offers with the lowest prices without tax being included, therefore it is necessary to add 17% to this sum.
  • Free reservation cancellation. Our life is full of unpredictable situations when you have to postpone or completely cancel the trip. Therefore, before making payment for the hotel, you should carefully read the terms and conditions of hotel room reservation cancellation. Some resources offer free cancellation of the reservation if a client informs about it 3-7 in advance. Some services consider this to be an unacceptable luxury, so they return only part of the paid sum of money.
  • Advertising tricks. On the hotel sites you can often find special offers with a crossed out price (a discount of -50% and so on). Do not be in a hurry to book a room. You should read the terms of the reservation carefully, most likely it's just an advertising trick, although, of course, sometimes hotels do offer good discounts.

How not to fall into the trap of scammers?

Very often when buying goods on the Internet users of the network come across the tricks of scammers, and the online booking of hotels is not an exception. The most common type of fraud in the network is the creation of clone sites of existing hotels. In order not to take the bait of swindlers, it is enough to know a few indisputable rules which we have described below:

Choose more famous hotel chains

When you order a room in one of these hotels, the probability of deception is significantly lower. However, you should not expect a unique location and unusual design of the room. As a rule, large hotels offer comfortable rooms, but they charge a good price for them.

Reviews checking on the Internet

In search of hotels many users turn to meta-search engines or booking services which is very convenient, but do not forget about scammers in the network and one-day sites that disappear immediately after payment. Therefore, before ordering a room, you should study carefully the reviews about the chosen hotel on the Internet.

Contact the hotel before payment

Before making a payment of the room, you should contact the hotel to confirm the bank data and payment details, the amount of money paid and the time of check-in. You can send an email or call the contact numbers given on the hotel's website. It is the only way you can make sure that the room is really booked and the hotel staff is friendly and ready to answer the questions of a client.

Checking the reliability of the hotel site

It is not always possible to call the hotel and make sure if the staff is decent, so before you book a room, it is worth checking the reliability of the hotel's website. One-day websites, disappearing immediately after a user informed criminals of the data of his/her payment card, will not spend money on the purchase of SSL and TLS-certificates, and you should take this into account. The information about the hotel’s license and documents of a body corporate registration should always be present on the hotel’s website.

Using a Virtual Bank Card

To pay for air tickets and hotels, you should use a virtual bank card that protects a simple consumer from the actions of scammers. You should not pay for purchases on the Internet by a card that is tied to a real bank account where a large amount of money is stored because scammers can get access to your funds.

Verification of the browser address bar

Before paying for a hotel room, you should check if the address bar of the browser has additional characters in the entry before the unique URL (https: //). The absence of third party letters more or less guarantees that the information about the transaction will not be transferred to third parties.

Checking mobile devices for viruses

Today, mobile gadgets have almost replaced conventional computers. Smartphones’ users can easily book air tickets and hotels, make purchases on the Internet using small gadgets, so cases of mobile fraud have become more frequent in recent years. To avoid a virus attack and not to lose your funds from your bank account, you should check if the gadget has harmful software. What is more, you should avoid using suspicious applications.

When you book a hotel, remember that the savings should be reasonable. It is not worth pursuing low prices, as it might cause not the most pleasant consequences — a spoiled trip, unjustified expectations and a loss of funds.