Choosing the Right Accomodations for Your Boss: Ensuring the Hotel is Inhabitable

If you're making travel arrangements without the benefit of a service or someone to provide you detailed information about destinations and accommodations, you will have to do some research to ensure the arrangements you have made are comfortable and appropriate.

The question is: how? Where do you turn? Who do you know that can give you detailed information about hotels in a city you've never visited?

Here are three things to consider to help improve the chances that your reservations won't leave your boss wishing she had stayed home.

Ask Your Boss

Who knows better than the person you work for where she wants to stay? If she has traveled to this location before she might have a favorite hotel.

If this is her first time, you need to determine her personal needs. Not only do you need to find out how many nights she wants you to book, you need to determine what kind of accommodations she prefers.

Does she like ground floor versus higher levels? Does she want a garden view or an ocean view? Does it need to be a non-smoking room with a king-size bed or is she a smoker? Will she need business facilities such as a fax machine or data ports?

Keep in mind the hotel location, too. Will she be commuting to another location or is she staying on site? If she commutes, will someone pick her up, will she be driving a rental car or will she hail a cab?

You may also want to think about how hotels/motels are rated: one to five stars; five being the most luxurious and expensive. If you stay with three to five stars, you can expect better accommodations. One- and two-star accommodations are usually nothing more than a place to sleep.

Determine the Budget

A tight budget may mean a motel instead of a hotel. In this case you might want to stick to a well-known chain with a good reputation. Or if she can trim a night off her stay that extra money could go to a higher priced hotel room.

If price is a real concern, try bidding on Priceline. You won't see the name of your hotel until you've actually booked it, but you can get some good deals.

Be mindful that the more amenities, the higher the price. Things such as an in-room hair dryer, iron and ironing board, or a mini-refrigerator, will all make the room more expensive. In addition, pools, spas, workout rooms and laundry facilities add to the cost.

If you are unsure what amenities are available, you can find out online or call the hotel directly to ask. In addition, find out about things like current construction projects that might cause disruption or recent renovations that might have upgraded the quality of the facility.

Do Some Research

Once you have a budget and your boss's preferences, if you are still in need of a hotel location, ask coworkers, friends, and family for recommendations. Or you may just have to go on-line yourself to find the best accommodations at the best rates.

There are a variety of sites you can choose from including general travel sites that offer airfares, cars, tour packages and more - consider Travelocity, Expedia and Kayak - or hotel specific sites such as Hotels.com, which also provides guest reviews.

Speaking of guest reviews, there are on-line review services that allow travelers to contribute their comments about hotel accommodations. One of the more popular sites is TripAdvisor. You can also ask a question of other OfficeArrow members. If you're looking for accomodations in a particular area, ask what the locals would recommend. If you just want to make sure that the hotel you booked is up to snuff, ask if anyone has ever stayed there. However, keep in mind these are other traveler's opinions and they might not match your boss's preferences or necessarily be up to date.

One final word, if you are using a booking engine, you may want to see what they have available and check out their rates first, then go directly to that hotel's website to book directly. Sometimes you can get a lower rate.