accommodation

Bed & breakfasts are back in fashion

When was the last time you stayed at a bed and breakfast? Are you planning to do it again soon? Or are you one of those travelers who have become so addicted to collecting points for “free” stays through hotel loyalty programs that you’d rather put up with monotonous chain hotels than visit smaller but more original properties?

If you are, then we are very much alike. The last B&B I stayed at was up in the Shetland Islands, in the very north of Scotland, 14 years ago. During the past decade, I’ve convinced myself that monotonous is not necessarily bad — in fact, although one could hardly distinguish hotels from the same chain in different cities or even countries, one always knows what to expect…

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Hotel rates too high? Get creative!

Is the room rate for your next hotel stay too high for your travel budget? No need to cancel that trip yet. There are creative ways to pay for your accommodation, and using your own money is just one of the options.

The creativity I have in mind involves more than just redeeming your hotel points with a loyalty program. In fact, let’s assume that you don’t have enough points for your intended stay. Mike Schlappig was recently in that position. He was planning a trip to Egypt next month and wanted to spend the last two nights at Le Meridien Pyramids in Cairo. However, he was unpleasantly surprised by the rate of $220 per day, which is relatively high for that market…

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