Hotels and Planning

Unlike the buffet of cookie cutter brand hotels littered throughout each urban and sub-urban town state-side, finding a hotel in Germany is a far more daunting task however, for most people, a much more rewarding experience. Naturally there is a price, and while not cheap, those who can afford it will soon reap it's benefits.

Over the course of my soccer travels, I've stayed in hotels, hostels, mountain sides, and yes, even the floor of the Tokyo central station (after arriving back from Niigata after having witnessed England's 3-0 send off of Denmark). Most recently however, when I attended EURO 2004 in Portugal, I decided to stay in Hotel.

If I was my mother, this is where the panic would set in.

No fears, I just decided to use trusty Expedia for the days I wanted, set my desired price, and voila...hotel du jour. Except for one thing, UNAVAILABLE.

Don't you just hate that. Of course during most major sporting events, especially soccer/football, most hotels lock in rates through and organizing committe or through some designee firm appointed by the OC. Thus in the OC's attempts to generate additional revenue streams with larger margins, we find ourselves at the mercy of paying exorbitant prices, especially in a country we know nothing about. Let's get straight to the point, if you've read this far, you are pretty much committed to paying the higher prices to stay in a hotel rather then the alternative (hostel/campground/flat).

During the world cup, most hotels inside the major host cities will have their prices jacked up. Plan to pay more. The further from the main areas you are, the generally cheaper the hotels should be. When I start to search for a hotel, the first thing I do is generate a list of all the hotels that are within a certain distance of my planned location. Typically I will go on to Expedia, plug in the city, and print out the list within my designated price range. Next I'll look at certain amenities that I desire (be it a training facility or a pool) and cross off all that do not apply. Once I've done that, I typically log into TripAdvisor and start to read the user reviews of the hotels.

This third item is the critical part which requires the bulk of your time. Obviously you have certain preferences that you desire so, once you start to see a trend in the responses to a hotel, you can generally circle it or cross it off based on your decisions. Once your research is complete and you've narrowed your scope to a handful of choices, I would go ahead and start calling (or browsing the web sites for online booking forms).

This all sounds relatively easy, but the biggest thing that people forget to accomplish, subsequently ruining a vacation, is to do their RESEARCH. Take a half hour, make some efficient decisions and get on with it. Just a little bit of planning and research before the journey will make your trip that much more enjoyable.