2.1K

Recently, while chatting with my best friend about travel, she started asking me questions about logistics and the order of doing things when it comes to trip planning. She asked for a simple chart showing where to start when planning her trip: booking flights or accommodations first. 

Once we got that out of the way, she then asked me, “But how do I know what kind of accommodation I should book? Can you give me another flow chart?”

Sure thing, bestie. Here you go. 🙂 

What kind of accommodation should I book?

To determine what kind of accommodation to book for any trip, I start with one question. 

How long will you be in that destination?

How many nights will you be staying in your destination? 

7 nights or less is a short stay, and leads to an increased travel pace.

7 nights or more is a longer stay; traveling slow can allow you to really settle in and get to know a place. 

Staying in one place for 7 or more nights

Let’s start with the slow travel option. 7 or more nights is easy. In most cases, outside of staying with friends/family or doing a home exchange, the more affordable option will be to rent an apartment. Most apartment rental sites offer weekly and monthly discounts. Staying more than 90 days and you’ll be able to find some good long term deals! 

Staying in one place less than 7 nights 

If you’re staying somewhere less than a week, I have a follow up question for you: how many beds will your travel party need? 

How many beds does your travel party need?

We need 3 or more beds 

If you need more than 3 beds, your best bet will be renting an apartment with enough space for your entire travel party. 

We need 1 or 2 beds

If you only need 1 or 2 beds, a hotel might be the answer, but I have one more follow up question: Will you also need a working space?

Do you need a working space?

We do need a working space 

If it’s just you, the hotel room is the most affordable option.  If your travel party only needs one private working space, such as a hotel room desk, or a public working space, such as a hotel lobby or restaurant, then you can get away with staying in a hotel room.  

But if 2 or more people need a quiet, private place to work, then renting an apartment will give everyone the space they need and probably be cheaper than getting two separate hotel rooms. Of course, this depends on the season and the location, so definitely do some price shopping to compare hotel vs apartment rates when looking for accommodations with two or more workspaces. 

For my husband and me, we could not work in the same physical space without him getting annoyed at me; I have a lot of meetings and am apparently a loud typist. So a hotel room would only work if only one of us was working or if one of us could go work elsewhere. But our short trips, that are less than 7 nights, are rarely workcations. 

We do not need a working space

If you do not need a working space, then a single room with 1 or 2 beds should suffice and will be the most cost effective option. In some cases, you may even end up with the equivalent amount of space as you would have in a small apartment.

This happened to us in Greece, when we stayed for two nights in a hotel in Athens; the “penthouse” suite, including a bedroom space, a living room space, a bathroom, and another bed area, plus access to the rooftop garden. Once, in Brugges, the cheaper yet more spacious option over a hotel room was a private family room in a hostel!

---

Take the quiz to find out what kind of accommodation you should book!