Choosing the perfect accommodation for your trip can play a huge role in whether or not your trip is a success—especially if you’re traveling solo (Read: Planning Tips for Solo Travelers).
In addition to the no-brainer factors to consider like budget, room size, amenities, and location, there are lots of other aspects to consider before you book: safety, security, and reputation, to name a few.
While staying in a hotel alone might be scary for some, the freedom to stay where you want, without having to check the opinion of other people, gives you a huge advantage of getting exactly what you want, be it an all-inclusive spa on the beach or a twin bed hole-in-the-wall to flop after a day out and about.
View of Amman from my hotel room.
With these insider travel tips, brought to you by ProntoHotel.com, you’ll be able to find the perfect hotel to fit all of your solo traveler needs.
Set a Budget
Probably the most important aspect of finding a hotel is your budget. Make a wish list of your hotel priorities and rank them in order of importance: free wifi (very important for location independent people like me!), breakfast included, pool, beach access, free bike rentals, free airport shuttle, locked lobby doors after a certain hour, etc.
The hotel in Brugges, Belgium was central, but it also cost over 100 euros per day!
With your list of desires and expectations in hand, figure out how much you can—or are willing to—pay to get all or some of them. Having a budget will let you take a realistic look at what kind of hotel you can book and what, if any, hotel wants you may have to cross off of your list.
Draft Your Itinerary
Before you book a hotel, get together a rough idea of what you’re going to be doing on your trip. If you’re visiting a city and plan to spend every day in museums, getting a hotel nearby will save you time and money commuting. If you have an early flight connection to think about, getting a hotel near the airport will be helpful.
Likewise, if you’re going to be dancing the night away, you’ll be happy once last call comes around knowing that your bed is nearby. Thinking about where you’ll be spending most of your vacation beforehand will save you time and energy once you arrive.
Location, Location, Location
With an itinerary and budget in mind, take out a map and see the lay of the land. Take into consideration your itinerary, both what you’re going to be doing and not doing. Sure, if you’re the aforementioned dance queen, you’ll want to be near the clubs.
However, if you’re going to be getting up early for tours or museum visits, you’re going to want to be far away from the nightlife hubbub.
If you don’t like sleeping in airports (this one’s in Frankfurt), stay at a hotel nearby.
Different locations will also mean different price ranges. A hotel in Times Square, for example, will be very convenient to Broadway shows, multiple subway lines, and Rockefeller Center, but staying right in the heart and soul of New York City will also cost you.
Heading away from city centers is something to consider if you’re looking to keep costs down. One last thing to keep in mind when picking a hotel location is the surrounding area’s safety.
In some places around the world, a distance of just a couple of streets will take you from super-safe paradise to down-and-out dangerous. Especially as a solo traveler, you have to do your research beforehand. (Read: Safety Tips for Solo Female Travelers)
Check Out Reviews
Once you have a list of hotels in your budget and fitting your wish list, look the properties up on review sites like TripAdvisor. Don’t forget to turn to travel blogs and websites, as well, including forums where you can ask members if they’ve had any experiences there.
Go Ahead and Book!
When it comes to making a hotel reservation, most people find the best deals online. While many travelers prefer to go straight to their hotel of choice to make a reservation, a lot can be said about booking through an outside website. For one, you’re more likely to get a cheaper rate than whatever the hotel is offering; and secondly, some sites will even compare hotel prices for you from a bunch of different websites.
Once you have your ideal hotel booked for the perfect price, all that’s left to do is pack up your bags and leave. Safe travels!
What’s your tip for choosing the right hotel when you’re traveling solo?
Hotel photo courtesy of John Stavely.
Aleah Taboclaon is a location independent writer, editor, and the travel blogger behind Solitary Wanderer. She's partial to slow travel, and prefers extreme adventures like hiking and caving over sightseeing. She likes running (completed one marathon, training for the next!), diving (PADI open water diver), and traveling with her Kindle. Follow her on Instagram and Pinterest!
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17 Comments. Leave new
Great advice again Aleah,
For my upcoming round the world trip I asked the booking agent to remove all of the private tours he had kindly added, and transfers and finally the hotels, I left only the flights for them to book which then became within my budget. (I realise I could have booked all the flights myself too but travel nation seemed to offer a good price for my trip and it’s less hassle) I used booking.com for every hotel (17 in all) chose by checking map location, ultimately the other reviews, budget scale which you could filter and all but 2 hotels allowed free cancellation and no deposit! I’ve made a few amendments to the trip and swapped a few hotels about or added destinations and it hasn’t cost a penny. I’ve got a real mix of nightlife location (New York/Bangkok/Phuket) mixed with more peaceful (Chiang Mai) often breaking up a 9 day tour of a location with 2-3 hotels that vary. Treating myself to 4 star all inclusive for a couple of days after sight seeing to just chill and lap up flowing drinks and lazing in the sun before turning up the pace again. Variety is the spice of life as they say.
Forgot to mention: watch out for bait and switch pictures! Read the reviews, lots of them, keep going past all of the positive ones that may be paid by the hotel and see if there are comments on rooms not matching pictures, rude staff and scams on currency conversions, sometimes booking.com list price in $ but you pay in local currency dependant on the exchange rate at the time of arrival, so if the hotel convert to Mexican pesos for example they could add on lots of extra dollars! I’m loading up a revolut travel card before I go, best exchange rates and you can take out up to £500/$700 at an ATM per month no charge. So I can pay in local currency with my card on arrival and get best exchange rate no charge
These are some really valuable tips for anyone planning a solo trip! A lot of people (myself included) don’t ever consider the location of the hotel, just that it’s in the right city. But considering transportation options, being right in the center of everything you want to do is a HUGE benefit. Thanks so much for writing, I’ll keep all of this in mind as I search for a hotel.
@ Rob: That’s a really important advise, that is, following your intuition. It’s especially important if you’re a woman traveling alone!
my tip: check hotel reviews. if you paid for a 3 star, don’t expect 5 star amenities and services of course. then, rely on your gut feelings, remember you are ALONE. if you don’t feel safe – GET OUT!
@ Alice: Thanks. Feel free to share this 🙂
Great advice! I will certainly be keeping all of them in mind when I finally go on a trip by myself! =)
@ Gelo: Don’t rely 100% on TripAdvisor. Lots of reports of companies gaming it. They hire people to write reviews!
@ Photo Cache: That is so true!
you pretty much covered the topic. i don’t travel solo, but for us it’s always budget topping our consideration. nothing wrecks a good vacation than running low on the budget.
i agree with all your tips! i also go for accessibility, cost and rely on majority’s review particularly on tripadvisor.
@ Meri: Thanks, and have fun planning! Don’t forget to check out my post on that. 🙂
@ Shalu: Yeah, you really have to weigh the pros and cons of being in the city center. For me, I don’t mind being out of the way for a bit, especially if there’s a big difference in the rate.
Nice tips Aleah. I think judging the hotel by its signs is a great tip. If hotels can’t be bothered for its presentation, I wonder how their services would be. Location is important as well but then don’t want to end up paying a lot.
Great post! I’m planning a solo trip next month and am in the lodging phase of planning–that site prontohotel.com looks like it will be very helpful! I will have to get back to you with any tips of my own.
@ Lauren: Yeah, finding one to split the cost is a good idea. Traveling solo can get really expensive!
@ Salika: I agree. My top priorities too, aside from the wifi. hehe
You have covered pretty much all the bases, Aleah! I’d book a reputed city hotel where there are many other tourists stay. So, location and budget 🙂
My tip would be follow your gut, use sale sites and try to find another traveler who’ll split the cost with you. I booked a hotel with a complete stranger, (well she was a fellow blogger who i stalked two days before we met) and we ended up ditching the hotel in favor of a hostel. 😀 It was fun!