All the steps you can take to find the lowest price on the perfect place to stay in Italy
- Use a booking engine. It's sad, but the best booking engines can often undersell the rates the hotel itself charges by a good 5% to 15%. Notice I was "the best booking engines." This rarely means the most famous names (like Expedia.com or Hotels.com). The best booking site by far—with tons of smaller, non-chain properties, B&Bs, and other alternatives—is Booking.com. Another good option: Hostelz.com (which actually lists more inexpensive hotels than it does hostels). » more
- Use your guidebooks. Hey, you shelled out $20 or $30 for the things. Use 'em. Read the reviews thoroughly and figure out which ones best fit your taste and budget. Then prioritize your top half-dozen or so choices by scribbling 1, 2, 3, etc. in the page margins. If your first choice is already booked, this saves you the time and hassle of huddling around a pay phone in the train station with your companions saying, "Well, how does this one sound, then?" while another traveler is busy booking that free room in what would have been your second choice if only you had found it sooner. » more
- Check hotel websites. Not only will a hotel's own website (usually) provide you with the rack rates (the top going prices for each type of room, often broken down by season)—which will allow you to comparison-shop prices better at the booking engines—but it will also feature sales and promotions found nowhere else. » more
- Use Tripadvisor.com — just don't trust it completely. Look: Tripadvisor is great. It's an invaluable tool for finding out the latest, greatest (and worstest) about hotels and such. However, crowd-sourced travel guides and wikis like this have one gargantuan flaw: they're written by amateurs. » more
- Call when you get to town. This is generally what I do. It almost never fails. If you're arriving in town without a reservation and haven't yet ranked those hotel choices (see step 2: guidebooks), do so during the train ride in. When you get to the station, buy a phone card from a newsstand, hit the nearby pay phones, and begin calling hotels immediately. This way, you get the drop on the many people who march out of the station lugging their bags and walk to the nearest hotel to see if there's room. I rarely have trouble finding a place by booking each night between around noon and 3pm that afternoon—which is usually the time by which I've decided in which town I'll want to be for the night.
- Use a local booking service. If you don't want to do the telephone legwork when you get to town yourself, a desk at the train station or tourist office usually runs a reservations service for a small fee (about $3 to $10). You tell them your price range, where you'd like to be in the city, and sometimes even the style of hotel and they'll use a computer database to find you a room.
On the plus side, they always speak English (so do most hoteliers, but these folks often have a surer command of it, and that helps), and they can almost always find you something when everything in your guidebooks seems to be booked.
On the minus side, the desk staff (usually) offer no opinion on the hotels, just locations and prices, so it's a crap shoot. Plus, some hotels charge higher rates to people booking through such a service—it's cheapest to contact hotels directly.
That said, I can assure you I've found wonderful little B&Bs in Ireland through the glossy promo cataloge the tourist office sent me. I've also had a Prague hotel agency stick me in what appeared to be a communist-era high school and/or hospital that took almost an hour (one metro and two tram rides) to reach from the city center and where the room made my freshman dorm in college look like a suite at the Ritz.
Just learn to read between the lines to cut through the promotional fluff, and ask tough, pointed questions when you call around. It seems silly to say so, but do remember this: if you don't like a room, you don't have to take it. - Ask to see different rooms. When you get to the hotel, don't take the first room they show you. Ask to see different ones. Open and close windows to see how well they shut out noise. Peek at the rates posted on the room door (usually there by law) to make sure they agree with the rate you're quoted and that's posted in the lobby. Ask about heating. Ask if some rooms are cheaper than others. » more
- Bargain. Room prices are rarely set, especially in mom-and-pop joints. If you're staying one night in high season, you'll have to pay the going rate. Off season and for stays of longer than three nights, always ask if you can get a discount. The more rooms a hotel has left to fill for the night, the lower they'll go. Also, many hotels offer weekend discounts. » more
- Ask for rates without breakfast. This will usually shave $5 to $15 off the price. Hotel breakfasts are always overpriced, usually just a roll and coffee or tea. You can get the same thing much more cheaply at any corner cafe or bar. » more
- Rooms without private baths are cheaper. If you don't mind walking down the hall and sharing a bath, you'll often save considerably. Except in hostels, rarely is a bath down the hall shared by more than two or three rooms (sometimes it's even your own private bathroom; it's just not located inside the room itself thanks to the constraints of medieval architecture and historic preservation laws).
- Double rooms with one large bed are often cheaper than ones with two single beds.
- A triple with a cot for a family of four is much cheaper than two double rooms. » more
- Settle all hotel charges at the outset. You needn't pay in advance, but do agree on the rates, whether breakfast, taxes, and showers are included, what phone rates are (remember, never call long distance from the hotel), etc. Also be sure the price they quote you is per room, not per person.
- Check different hotels. Many people don't want to bother with this method, but if you have an abundance of time but not of budget, try it. Don't assume the first hotel you visit is the best. If you've called around and housing seems tight in town, take a room when you get it. But if there seems to be plenty of room in a city, tell the first hotel you'll think about it and head to another one nearby. If you hotel hunt with your luggage left at the train station lockers, you will feel (and appear) more able to bargain and hunt effectively. Return to the hotel you liked best and ask what the best price they can offer is. They'll often come down if they think you have another option waiting around the corner.
- In a pinch: Wander If you can't find room, either use a booking service (above) or wander the streets checking each hotel you pass (the area around the train station is usually glutted with cheap hotels).
- Widen the scope of your search. Hotels outside the center will often have more rooms free and will usually be cheaper. Hotels in the next town over may be even cheaper (and give you the added plus of getting to see a second, often far less touristy city). That said, anything more than a 30-minute commute by train, though, and a hotel outside of town won't be worth the hassle and you should use it only as a last resort. This technique doesn't work so well for Rome (nothing that interesting is close enough), but can work gangbusters elsewhere. » more
- Booking.com - We have done extensive testing, and Booking.com is hands-down the single best booking engine, with by far the largest number of hotels (and other lodging options) in all price ranges.Partner
- Agoda.com - This booking engine, once just an Asia specialist, has recently rocketed to second-best all around the world.Partner
- HotelsCombined.com - An aggregator looks at the results of all the booking engines and presents the prices it finds at each side-by-side. It's a great concept (and works well for airfares), however in our tests the actual booking engines themselves often offered better deals on more properties.Partner
- Hostelz.com - A booking engine that specailizes in hostels and cheap hotels.Partner
- Hotels.com - Since Hotels.com absorbed its Venere.com sibling, it has been performing much better in Europe than it once did.Partner
- Priceline.com - Priceline not only offers decent deals on standard hotel bookings, but also "Express Deals" in which you only get to know the hotel's star rating and neighborhood before you pay for it—but the savings can be substantial (usually 18%–20%, though occasionally much higher).Partner
- Hotwire.com - Like its competition Priceline, Hotwire offers both straightforward hotel bookings as well as "Hot Rate" deals that save you 25%–65% on hotels that you book blindly, knowing only the neighborhood and star rating before booking (and paying) for it.Partner
- Residenzedepoca.it - An association devoted not only to highlighting accommodations of particular historical interest, but also banding together to preserve and promote Italy's artistic and historic patrimony (when you book at any member hotel, 10% of the proceeds to go promoting historical tourism).
- Localistorici.it - A constorium of historic hotels, restaurants, and caffès.
- Booking.com - One of the best general booking sites out there, and one of the few that includes B&Bs (filed variously under the categories of "Bed and Breakfasts," "Guesthouses," and "Inns"). By the numbers: 25,350+ B&Bs in in Italy, including 3,377 B&Bs in Rome, 600+ in Florence, 250 in Venice.Partner
- Agoda.com - This booking engine, once just an Asia specialist, has recently rocketed to second-best all around the world, with some 1,700 B&Bs in Rome alone.Partner
- Hotels.com - Another generalist lodging booking site with a decent representation of B&Bs: 922 in Rome.Partner
- Airbnb.com - Famous network of both official and unofficial B&Bs, homestays, room rentals, and apartment and house rentals. So many I can't even post total numbers here. Of course, Airbnb is less regulated than most official or online resources, and many of the places to stay are not registered with the local authorities—which helps make them cheaper, but they are not inspected, or subject to official compaints, and certainly do not pay taxes. Buyer beware.
- Hostelz.com - Aggregator bringing together from many hostel and cheap hotel booking engines. If you select "Guesthouses" as the Accommodation Type you will find plenty of B&Bs in there.Partner
- Bedandbreakfast.com - B&B specialist listing more than 4,400 bed and breakfasts across Italy. User reviews help you make informed decisions.Partner
- Bedandbreakfast.eu - Massive database of 153,000 places to stay around Italy (around 9.600 in Rome alone), but it is more of a classifieds site, with each property submitting and writing its own listing, and many are not, actually, B&Bs in the traditional sense. Still, a good resource for the room hunt.
- Homeaway.com - So many places it doesn't even bother listing rentals past the first 5,000—and that's just in Rome or Tuscany.Partner
- Vrbo.com - VRBO stands for "Vacation Rentals By Owner," a worldwide virtual classifieds section devoted to villas, apartments, cottages, houses, and other places to lay your head. Though designed to allow villa and vacation home owners to rent to the public directly—ostensibly cutting out the extra costs involved in working through a middle-man rental agency—in my experience plenty of small-fry local rental agencies use it as well (not that there's anything wrong with renting through those folks; just wanted to let you know that not every property listed is truly direct from the owner).Partner
- Booking.com - Listing nearly 66,000 apartments across Italy, including more than 5,300 in Rome, more than 2,700 in Florence, and more than 1,800 in Venice or Milan. Wow.Partner
- Hotels.com - Good generalist booking engine with plenty of "Apartments" options in the filter screens for each destination.Partner
- Interhomeusa.com - Some 3,530 rentals in France, of which about a hundred in Rome. Partner
- Airbnb.com - Tens of thousands of listings—but caveat emptor. Anyone can post a listing, so trust only the ones with lots of reviews.
- Agoda.com - Good generalist booking agency with a resepctable 238 apartments available in Rome, 130 in Florence.Partner
Tips
You will notice that all hotels, B&Bs, and other lodgingds (as well as sights and restaurants) on this site have a ReidsItaly.com star designation from ☆☆☆ to ★★★.
This merely indicates that I feel these accommodations offer a little something that makes them special (or extra-special, or extra-extra special, etc.).
These star ratings are entirely based on personal opinion, and have nothing to do with the official Italian hotel ratings—which have more to do with quantifiable amenities such as minibars, and not the intangibles that make a hotel truly stand out, like a combination of great location, friendly owners, nice style, and low prices.
In general, a pricier place to stay has to impress me that it is worth the added expense.
This is why I give ★★★ to some (official) "two-star" hotels or B&Bs that happen to provide amazing value for the money—and similarly have ranked a few (official) "four-star" properties just (★★☆).
Accommodations rates vary wildly—even at the same hotel or B&B—depending on type of room, number of people in it, and the season.
That's why here at ReidsItaly.com we simply provde a general price range indicating the rough rate you should expect to pay for a standard double room in mid-season.
There are three price ranges, giving you a sense of which lodgings are budget, which are moderate, and which are splurges:
€ | under €100 |
€€ | €100–€200 |
€€€ | over €200 |
Useful Italian for lodging
English (inglese) | Italian (italiano) | Pro-nun-cee-YAY-shun |
Where is? | Dov'é | doh-VAY |
...a hotel | un albergo | oon al-BEAR-go |
...a B&B | un bed-and-breakfast | oon bet hand BREK-fust |
...a rental room | un'affittacamera | oon ah-feet-ah-CAH-mair-ra |
...an apartment for rent | un appartamento | oon ah-part-tah-MENT-toh |
...a farm stay | un agriturismo | oon ah-gree-tour-EES-moh |
...a hostel | un ostello | oon oh-STEHL-loh |
How much is...? | Quanto costa? | KWAN-toh COST-ah |
a single room | una singola | OO-nah SEEN-go-la |
double room for single use [will often be offered if singles are unavailable] | doppia uso singola | DOPE-pee-ya OO-so SEEN-go-la |
a double room with two beds | una doppia con due letti | OO-nah DOPE-pee-ya cone DOO-way LET-tee |
a double room with one big bed | una matrimoniale | OO-nah mat-tree-moan-nee-YAAL-lay |
triple room | una tripla | OO-nah TREE-plah |
with private bathroom | con bagno | cone BAHN-yoh |
without private bathroom | senza bagno [they might say con bagno in comune—"with a communal bath"] | SEN-zah BAHN-yoh |
for one night | per una notte | pair OO-nah NOH-tay |
for two nights | per due notti | pair DOO-way NOH-tee |
for three nights | per tre notti | pair tray NOH-tee |
Is breakfast included? | É incluso la prima colazione? | ay in-CLOO-soh lah PREE-mah coal-laht-zee-YOAN-nay |
Is there WiFi? | C'é WiFi? | chay WHY-fy? |
May I see the room? | Posso vedere la camera? | POH-soh veh-DAIR-eh lah CAH-mair-rah |
That's too much | É troppo | ay TROH-po |
Is there a cheaper one? | C'é una più economica? | chay OO-nah pew eh-ko-NO-mee-kah |
Basic phrases in Italian
English (inglese) | Italian (italiano) | pro-nun-see-YAY-shun |
thank you | grazie | GRAT-tzee-yay |
please | per favore | pair fa-VOHR-ray |
yes | si | see |
no | no | no |
Do you speak English? | Parla Inglese? | PAR-la een-GLAY-zay |
I don't understand | Non capisco | non ka-PEESK-koh |
I'm sorry | Mi dispiace | mee dees-pee-YAT-chay |
How much is it? | Quanto costa? | KWAN-toh COST-ah |
That's too much | É troppo | ay TROH-po |
Good day | Buon giorno | bwohn JOUR-noh |
Good evening | Buona sera | BWOH-nah SAIR-rah |
Good night | Buona notte | BWOH-nah NOTE-tay |
Goodbye | Arrivederci | ah-ree-vah-DAIR-chee |
Excuse me (to get attention) | Scusi | SKOO-zee |
Excuse me (to get past someone) | Permesso | pair-MEH-so |
Where is? | Dov'é | doh-VAY |
...the bathroom | il bagno | eel BHAN-yoh |
...train station | la ferroviaria | lah fair-o-vee-YAR-ree-yah |
to the right | à destra | ah DEH-strah |
to the left | à sinistra | ah see-NEEST-trah |
straight ahead | avanti [or] diritto | ah-VAHN-tee [or] dee-REE-toh |
information | informazione | in-for-ma-tzee-OH-nay |
Days, months, and other calendar items in Italian
English (inglese) | Italian (italiano) | Pro-nun-cee-YAY-shun |
When is it open? | Quando é aperto? | KWAN-doh ay ah-PAIR-toh |
When does it close? | Quando si chiude? | KWAN-doh see key-YOU-day |
At what time... | a che ora | a kay O-rah |
Yesterday | ieri | ee-YAIR-ee |
Today | oggi | OH-jee |
Tomorrow | domani | doh-MAHN-nee |
Day after tomorrow | dopo domani | DOH-poh doh-MAHN-nee |
a day | un giorno | oon je-YOR-no |
Monday | Lunedí | loo-nay-DEE |
Tuesday | Martedí | mar-tay-DEE |
Wednesday | Mercoledí | mair-coh-lay-DEE |
Thursday | Giovedí | jo-vay-DEE |
Friday | Venerdí | ven-nair-DEE |
Saturday | Sabato | SAH-baa-toh |
Sunday | Domenica | doh-MEN-nee-ka |
Mon-Sat | Feriali | fair-ee-YAHL-ee |
Sun & holidays | Festivi | feh-STEE-vee |
Daily | Giornaliere | joor-nahl-ee-YAIR-eh |
a month | una mese | oon-ah MAY-zay |
January | gennaio | jen-NAI-yo |
February | febbraio | feh-BRI-yo |
March | marzo | MAR-tzoh |
April | aprile | ah-PREEL-ay |
May | maggio | MAH-jee-oh |
June | giugno | JEW-nyoh |
July | luglio | LOO-lyoh |
August | agosto | ah-GO-sto |
September | settembre | set-TEM-bray |
October | ottobre | oh-TOE-bray |
November | novembre | no-VEM-bray |
December | dicembre | de-CHEM-bray |
Numbers in Italian
English (inglese) | Italian (italiano) | Pro-nun-cee-YAY-shun |
1 | uno | OO-no |
2 | due | DOO-way |
3 | tre | tray |
4 | quattro | KWAH-troh |
5 | cinque | CHEEN-kway |
6 | sei | say |
7 | sette | SET-tay |
8 | otto | OH-toh |
9 | nove | NO-vay |
10 | dieci | dee-YAY-chee |
11 | undici | OON-dee-chee |
12 | dodici | DOH-dee-chee |
13 | tredici | TRAY-dee-chee |
14 | quattordici | kwa-TOR-dee-chee |
15 | quindici | KWEEN-dee-chee |
16 | sedici | SAY-dee-chee |
17 | diciasette | dee-chee-ya-SET-tay |
18 | diciotto | dee-CHO-toh |
19 | diciannove | dee-chee-ya-NO-vay |
20 | venti | VENT-tee |
21* | vent'uno* | vent-OO-no |
22* | venti due* | VENT-tee DOO-way |
23* | venti tre* | VENT-tee TRAY |
30 | trenta | TRAYN-tah |
40 | quaranta | kwa-RAHN-tah |
50 | cinquanta | cheen-KWAN-tah |
60 | sessanta | say-SAHN-tah |
70 | settanta | seh-TAHN-tah |
80 | ottanta | oh-TAHN-tah |
90 | novanta | no-VAHN-tah |
100 | cento | CHEN-toh |
1,000 | mille | MEEL-lay |
5,000 | cinque milla | CHEEN-kway MEEL-lah |
10,000 | dieci milla | dee-YAY-chee MEEL-lah |
* You can use this formula for all Italian ten-place numbers—so 31 is trent'uno, 32 is trenta due, 33 is trenta tre, etc. Note that—like uno (one), otto (eight) also starts with a vowel—all "-8" numbers are also abbreviated (vent'otto, trent'otto, etc.).