Traveling and hotels are one of the biggest industries in the world. UNOH’s hospitality program helps students become industry experts by providing them with the skills and knowledge to work in a variety of hotel, restaurant, travel, gaming and resort jobs.
In addition to hotels, there are other types of lodging like hostels and private homes. Depending on the location and style of accommodation, prices can vary significantly. In some cases, the best option for a particular trip may be to book a home exchange or timeshare stay, where owners are allocated usage rights at different times of the year.
Online booking websites are a great place to start your search for the perfect accommodation. For example, many of the same sites that display flight options also have a hotels tab at the top, allowing you to instantly compare prices for your chosen destination and dates. Kayak, Skyscanner and other similar websites all offer this functionality, along with the ability to track prices over time for a given destination or specific property.
Another popular website is Airbnb, which has a wide range of accommodation options to choose from. These range from ultra-luxury hotels, to sleek urban destinations and tried-and-true chain standards. Airbnb also has a “Plus” property designation, which is intended to provide a level of quality control that’s not available with traditional hotels. Both hotels and Airbnb generally have flexible cancellation policies, although this varies between properties. It’s important to understand the fine print of these policies before booking to ensure that you don’t end up with any unexpected surprises down the road.
