Making your own 'ski package'? Looking for a cheap hotel to add to a cheap flight? The rapid expansion of the budget airlines has fueled an explosion in weekend and short ski breaks. But booking the flight is the easy part; next you have to find a hotel....
Although there are lots of 'cheap hotels' websites, there aren't many good cheap hotels booking websites - many cheap hotels websites don't have online booking or online availability and the choice they offer is limited.
Here we recommend a collection of great hotels booking websites, offering an excellent choice and rock bottom prices - where you can book online.
We've split them between Europe and Worldwide, but before we get to them, we offer some advice and tips on how to get the best deal.
How to get the best price on a hotel room
Where to get the best price on your hotel
For European Hotels
Superbreak - have a choice of over 2,500 hotels worldwide, their main focus is the UK and Europe. A quick search engine. Find a cheap hotel quickly and simply then book it online. Room rates, facilities, grades, detailed descriptions and even photos are available for most hotels.
Active hotels - is one of Europe's leading online reservation providers. Book anything from 5-star quality leisure and corporate hotels to unique independent hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses in key European destinations.
Venere - a great choice of European hotels, they are particularly strong for France & Italy. This link takes you to a list of European destinations, click on your destination, enter your dates and you'll be presented with a wide range of hotels.
Hotel Connect - if you want to search and book a cheap hotel anywhere in Europe, try this excellent website. Browse their special offers and, once you've searched, click for a description and picture of the hotel and other essential information.
At Total Stay you can choose from more than 12,000 hotels in Europe and worldwide at up to 70% off published rates. Check the comprehensive hotel information and independent reports then book and get instant online confirmation. The website covers international chains and independent hotels.
Click & Go Now - 'Europes leading online hotel discount wholesaler', this site offers savings of up to 60% on over 60,000 hotels, online real time booking and guaranteed availability. After a quick and easy to use search you're presented with a broad range of hotels. Click on any of the hotels for a comprehensive description of the hotel and its location.
Cheap hotels - Europe and beyond....
Hotels.com / travelnow.com - one of the worlds biggest hotels booking websites, Hotels.com have a ski accomodation section during the ski season. They use their bulk buying muscle to offer 'special internet rates' - guaranteed rooms with 'best buy' prices. This link is direct to their hotels search page. Pick (or enter) a destination and your dates, for a long list of hotels. You can then sort the results by 'best value', 'quality', 'price' or 'A-Z' or refine your search to a specific area or near a landmark (there is a drop down list of landmarks).
Expedia - another mention for the UK's number one online travel agent. A very good site that's always worth a look, especially if you want flights too (or flights, a hotel and a car). If you book a hotel and flight together with expedia the whole thing can work out 20 - 30% cheaper than booking them separately via a discount flight and cheap hotel website. (But don't buy their insurance - which is automatically added into the quote - it's up to 4 times more expensive than those on our travel insurance page. Click 'already have insurance' and buy elsewhere).
Worldres / placestostay.com - this website provides the hotels pages of many well known brands, including some of lastminute.com's hotels and all of Opodo's. With prices up to 70% off published rates, for the last two years Forbes has called WorldRes "Best of the Web" in online hotel reservations.
OTC - have a database of over 70,000 hotels worldwide and a quick search engine. You can find a cheap hotel quickly and simply then book it online. As with expedia, you might look at their city breaks section, where you can add a flight and hotel and get a discount on both.
Lastminute.com - if you're travelling lastminute to a 'mainstream' destination such as Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, or New York, include lastminute within your cheap hotel search. A regular place for bargains, you might be lucky.
Opodo - another mention for the web site set up by a number of leading European airlines. As some of the biggest travel companies in their countries of operation, they use their buying power to negotiate excellent prices on hotels too.
Allrez.com - this link takes you to the allrez city hotels page. They have a 'refine search' section at the bottom of the page, but it doesn't work that well. The quickest way is to get an idea of the hotel you want with the companies above, then search for that hotel by name (and check the price) at Allrez.
Priceline - if you're comfortable naming your own price (and if you've been to the websites above, you should have a good idea of what that should be), especially if you're going to the USA, Canada, the Caribbean or Mexico, pop along to priceline and give them a target price for your cheap hotel. You'll know the result of the search in 15 minutes or less and the worst that can happen is that they confirm you've got a good deal elsewhere.
