The Bargain Hotel Finder website exists to help you find the cheapest hotel deals, both for business and for pleasure. When we asked a sample of 100 hotel guests why they had chosen the particular accommodation they had taken, 61% of them said it was because of the hotel’s location. Price had very little to do with their decision.

Bargain Hotel Finder Survey: Location Said To Be Main Reason For Hotel Choice

Bargain Hotel Finder discovered that only 21% of the guests we sampled over 12 London hotels in early November 2011, cited cost as their primary reason for choosing a particular hotel. This I find very surprising. But I don’t know why I continue to be amazed: whenever I stay at a hotel I am always shocked that other people are paying wildly differing prices for essentially identical rooms. Because I am “in the cheap hotels business”, I  know how to get a very good price, but I’ve known other guests pay as much as five times (yes, 5x) the price I’ve paid for rooms practically next to each other. Other articles on the Bargain Hotel Finder website reveal the secret methods I use, whether you’re booking cheap weekend breaks or a round the world trip.

Another interesting result in the Bargain Hotel Finder Survey was that five out of the 100 guests said that their company had booked their accommodation for them. So, surely the company would be looking to find the best possible rates and using their corporate clout to reduce rooming costs? Not in my experience. A few weeks ago I stayed at a Hilton hotel at a university town in England. I paid £98 a night for my fairly comfortable room (just don’t ask what the cost of the wi-fi was! Ludicrously expensive). The six rooms next to mine were occupied on a medium-term basis by visiting software designers (or something) from the USA, whose company had a research deal with the university. Even though they were six people staying for almost seven weeks (a total of 40 night), their rooms were being charged at £175 a night each. That works out to a massive 79% more. And their firm had signed an exclusive deal with Hilton in order to get the “best” prices!

I find that this is the problem when it’s someone’s job to book accommodation in a business environment: unless it’s their money they are spending, cost does not become a primary concern. Let’s assume that you and I are spending our own money when we book hotel accommodation and that we want the best deal. That’s what this website was set up for: to help you find the cheapest hotel bargains.

 Bargain Hotel Finder Survey: 5% of hotel guests “return customers”

Of course, cost should not be the only reason for choosing a hotel. Anyone who booked a flea-ridden room a hundred miles away from where they want to be, would be a jerk. The real secret of the Bargain Hotel Finder is to be flexible. Weigh up the three primary factors – location, price and quality – before you make your booking. Personally, I always aim for 4-5 star quality at 3 star prices.

The results of the survey are good news for those of us who are looking for he best hotel prices. Because the majority of people do not consider cost to be their primary concern when booking into a particular hotel, it means that the rest of us have the opportunity to get the better deals. The great think about being a bargain hotel finder is that it’s like playing a computer game – and when you get a really good hotel really cheap, the buzz is terrific!