Choosing Accommodations an Overview

Solo frugal travel in the U.S lends itself to creativity when choosing accommodations. I read many articles on sleeping in your car, living out of your van and so forth. Believe me I've thought about it, however for my own personal comfort at this point I prefer a bed in a hostel, Airbnb or as a last resort a hotel/motel. If you are looking for how to travel and sleep in a car then you may want to check out Handy Tips for Living Out of your Car.

I try and budget $40.00 or less for lodging and hopefully that will include some form of breakfast or at the very least coffee. This is when traveling in the U.S. When traveling overseas this budget will drop significantly in most countries. In Thailand for example you can usually find hostels for as little as $3.00.

First up is looking for a hostel, not that easy to find in the U.S., but certainly not impossible. Start you search at Hostel World and Hostel International. Then move on to Booking.Com and narrow your filter to hostels. Hostels sometime advertise on Airbnb as well, especially smaller hostels not using HW or HI. Another way to find a hostel is to search "hostels" in the Google Maps search bar. I have now found three hostels that were fantastic using this method.

Great stay at the Green Tortoise in Seattle, WA. Will give a full review in a later post.

When reviewing listings at all booking sites it is important to read the cancellation policy in case your travel plans change. This sometimes will cost a bit more if you end up using the lodging, but no fees charged if cancellation takes place in the given time frame.

Airbnb has added many additional fees to cover taxes, booking and now some hosts charge a cleaning fee, be aware of the final booking price. I recently choose a booking listed has $38.00 for a single night and the cleaning fee was $10.00 regardless of how long I stayed. With taxes, and fees the final cost was going to be about $55.00. This was not in my budget, so the search continued. I did find a great place will over 30 positive reviews. Final cost $40.00. Right on target.

Hostels are a wonderful way for the solo traveler to meet interesting travelers from around the world. Again when reading through the information be sure to understand the sleeping arrangements. There are usually female dorms, male dorms, and co-ed dorms, as well as private rooms, which is great for couples and small families. I prefer female only dorms and I love a top bunk. Extra privacy.

In a later post I will go through and describe how I determine the validity of reviews at the accommodation websites. For now I'm off to plan and book my summer cross country trip.