(Picture is Citizen M hotel in Rotterdam. Quirky, classy, high tech, affordable with great common spaces to meet people.) Before you go any further in this post, think about what “great lodging” means to you. If it’s an all-inclusive four star hotel on the tourist strip, then you won’t find my experience useful. Trip Advisor or Hotels.com or Expedia.com, etc, etc, will give you the names, the stars, and some beautiful photos. Read a review or two and voila! All you need then is money– lots and lots of money.
But if you are retired, or not rich, or money IS an object, then there is more to research. Especially if Motel 6 isn’t your top choice. Here are my criteria for great lodging, with varying weights given for each item, depending on other factors. Give yourself enough time (two months or more, depending on season, preferably) to do more than find the best deal on Booking.com.
- Location. I want to be where the action is, whether it’s downtown Bangkok, the Amazonian rainforest, or the Paris Metro. If I have to get in a car to eat, go hiking, do something fun at night, or get a feel for my surroundings, forget it.
- Price. I would rather use my annual travel budget to travel more and farther afield than on swank hotels or B&Bs. As long as the bed is comfy, there’s not an all-night party in the bar below, and the location is where I want to be, I’m good with staying under $100 per night (1-2 people) whenever possible. And it is possible, with some exceptions (Hawaii, are you listening?).
- That je ne sais quoi feeling. Is it cute, quirky, has some amenities that are fun (on a canal, great bar, romantic hot tub, interesting décor or art, great reading area with free books, nice kitchen if I plan to cook some meals, [insert your faves here]). For example, the night before the meet-up in Amsterdam of our bike tour group (see ABOUT for details) I stayed in an AirB&B room that was secreted behind a long wall of bookshelves, like a hidden room in a British murder mystery.
It was one of many quirky themed rooms in a converted Muslim education building behind a Mosque. The room was teeny with a splendid bed and great reading light, and when I turned out the light, it was as dark as a coffin. What a good night’s sleep! The Commons areas made up for the teeny room. - A chance to meet the locals, get some cultural immersion, and/or meet other international travelers. That criterion will have to wait for other posts. It’s complicated. But there are a lot of good stories for later!
So here are some tips for finding great lodging using my criteria. In the Internet age there is no excuse for settling for Motel 6 or Marriot-on-the-beach. Either one can feel soulless, not worth the price, and is no way to meet the locals or non-American travelers. Reading a two year old printed travel guide’s recommendations on lodging may give you a start, but in the 21st century, things change fast. There are myriad book-ing and review sites online, but before you start looking for deals, consider criterion 1.
Location. Where do you want to be? If it’s a big city like Sydney or Bangkok, read about the neighborhoods online. The city center may seem best, but is it dead at night and strictly for business? Finding a neighborhood that is the happening place means that more people will be on the street, there will be more restaurants, shops and street artists, and it will be safer to walk around after dark. Look at city maps to get the big picture. Then when you start looking at booking sites and hit the location map button, it will make sense.
For Sydney, maybe it’s not Sydney Harbor near the Opera House on your budget, but it’s in a happening neighborhood and is walking distance to the Harbor (Comfortable shoes please, with your four inch heels-if you must-in a bag). In Bangkok, the diplomatic district around Sukumvit Street is bustling, full of good low cost food, international, and right under the elevated Metro, which is English-friendly.
Hotel, Bed and Breakfast, AirB&B, VRBO, or ecolodge? You must check more than one booking site. You might just try Googling Ämazon tributary ecolodges” 
and see what comes up. Searching “Green hotels” also gets you some more environmentally friendly lodging. Some of the best places might not be on any group site. If they don’t even have a website, well…… it sounds like a horror movie plot.
If you are on the move, changing places every night or so, and cell coverage is iffy, you might just need to stop at a groovy restaurant and ask about places to stay. In Kas (kosh) on the Aegean Sea in Turkey, we got off the bus and started asking around at shops where tourists/backpackers go. No problem because every pensione had the same basic layout, the same basic price, and by walking around (with backpacks) we could see where we would like to be. Take a look at the room before you agree.
Price. I use booking sites a lot because of price comparison in relation to location and je ne sais quoi criteria. READ THE REVIEWS, lots of them. Only the most recent. Everyone judges their lodging a little differently, plus, maybe the lodging or reviewer just had an off day. Some people writing reviews want to feel like they are “to the manor born” in a lodging and take offense easily. If that’s not you, let them whine, and move on to the next review. Triangulation, it’s called. If two sources agree, you have a ladder. If three or more agree, you have a stool or chair which is much more reliable. Look for detailed reviews where the je ne sais quoi factor provoked a longer review. Beware of star-only and talking points sounding reviews. It’s a jungle out there, review-wise, these days.
Before our last trip to Kauai island, Hawaii, we heard that lodging was expensive and it was high season. One way we cut the cost was to get more condo and kitchenette places so we could skip restaurants one to three times a day. We bought fresh-caught fish and veggies and poké of all stripes at the market and ate like kings, with minimum effort. Better for the waistline anyway, am I right?
Je ne sais quoi. I find that looking at all the pictures, reading the amenities list and reading lots of reviews go a long way. If you are in the boonies, start with the location (state or national park, river, well known trail) and look for the tab for nearby lodging. There may only be one choice, but if you can walk out your door into splendor and it meets your budget and location criteria, go with it.
Have I goofed up? Surprisingly little, but there were two places on our Kauai trip. One place turned out to be too off the beaten track, unsafe, and really, really soulless. We turned our key back in, called Expedia, found a lovely but very expensive all-inclusive, and eventually got our money back on the dump. The other place was that “only-game-in-the-woods” choice and our cabin had not had anything changed or fixed since 1953. Still, location, location, location; price, price, price; je ne sais quoi? Je ne regrette rien.
Other states, other lives, other souls 
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