Rick Steves Advises Travelers To Use These Helpful Services For Last-Minute Hotel Rooms In Europe

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Unless you want to sleep on a park bench, planning where you will stay when traveling is an incredibly important part of trip preparation. However, if your plans change or if you prefer to have a fairly spontaneous itinerary, you may find yourself looking for lodging last minute. Oftentimes, travel expert Rick Steves books hotels far in advance, but he has definitely booked accommodations on the fly throughout his decades of travel.

Among Steves' helpful tips for booking last-minute hotels is to use room-finding services, but only as a last resort option. These are often located at train stations and tourism offices in cities that receive high volumes of tourists. Keep in mind that they may inadvertently capitalize on the fact that if you're using this type of service, it means you may have limited time to secure a place to stay. "These services normally make no judgments about hotel quality or value, so what you get is potluck," Steves explained on his website. "They'll recommend places that have paid for the service but fail to mention cheaper options."

If you do your shopping by simply walking into a hotel which looks up to snuff, but there are no available rooms, hotel workers can help you find a place to stay somewhere else. Once you do have a room (at least for a couple of nights), hotel workers can also help you find your next one. Their knowledge of the hospitality industry could extend beyond your current city. "They may even be willing to call around to see what's available," says Rick Steves.

Included on the list of websites Steves recommends to find lodging during your travels is HotelTonight. This database focuses on last-minute hotel deals in destinations all over the world. Whether you're backpacking wherever the wind takes you or you simply want a spontaneous weekend getaway, this is one of many handy search engines for places to stay. Of course offerings on Booking.com and Expedia.com are always changing and definitely worth browsing if you're looking for a place to crash ASAP or sometime in the future.