How to Book Accommodation Ethically – Beragampengetahuan

How to book accommodation ethically from booking direct with lodgings to booking on accommodation sites that transfer your payments for stays promptly, we’ve got lots of tips for you. Whether you’re booking hotels, holiday houses, villas, apartment rentals, or bed and breakfasts, give a thought to the owners and operators struggling to get paid: ask yourself if you might just be staying for free.

Accommodation is an important part of a trip for many travellers. For others, it’s just a place to sleep, especially on a tight stopover or busy tour. But when you plan a holiday with loved-ones, with plenty of downtime to relax by a pool, cook meals with delicious local produce, or spend evenings sipping wine by a fireplace, where you stay can become a really memorable part of your holiday.

Some of our most treasured travel memories come courtesy of owners and operators of small lodgings, such as Marrakech riad manager Jamila, who taught Terence to cook tajine; Maria, who showed us how to make pasta and pizza in a woodfired oven at our Puglia trullo; Carl, the Perpignan apartment owner who took us on a town stroll; and Rusty Irons, our Austin holiday rental owner, who showed us how to make Texas BBQ pork butt.

So it’s hard to imagine that many of those kinds of more intimate accommodations that we all love so much, that managed to survive the worst of the pandemic when borders closed and flights were grounded, could be forced to shut down or might get repossessed, and are now struggling to pay staff, get laundry done or serve breakfast, because the booking site they’re listed on hasn’t paid them for guest stays for months.

But that’s exactly what’s happened to many small hotels, apartments, villas, B&Bs, and hostels around the globe listed on the world’s biggest accommodation website. Thousands of lodgings weren’t paid for months, including during the busy northern hemisphere summer high season, due to the site’s far-reaching payment problems. Many are still struggling to get paid. You can read this story on The Guardian about the whole mess and my editorial on The Guardian.

“Oh no…” you’re probably thinking. “What’s this travel writer asking us to do now?” Once upon a time when you booked accommodation for a trip, all you thought about was the cost, the location, if it looked nice, was it clean, did it offer breakfast, etc. Then travel writers like us started asking you all to consider whether the accommodation was eco-friendly, was it sustainable, and responsible, did it give back to its community, and so on.

Now we’re asking you to think about whether that online payment you’re making when you book a stay on an accommodation website is actually reaching the property you’re booking in a timely manner. Because, if the property isn’t being paid for months, you could essentially be staying for free. You have to ask yourself: is it ethical to book a stay on a site if you know that they’re not paying the property you’ll be staying at?

As a travel writer and guidebook author of decades experience, I’ve got lots of tips for you on how to book accommodation ethically, whether you’re booking directly with lodgings; whether you prefer to use accommodation booking websites and online travel agents (OTAs); and even if you still prefer to use the booking site notorious for not paying accommodation partners for months this year.

Of course, operating ethically as a travel company involves more than making timely payments, it requires honesty, transparency and fairness in dealings; prompt explanations and apologies when things go wrong; speedy fixes; people-centred communications not auto-replies from AI chat-bots; quick refunds and, if warranted, compensation. Worth keeping in mind when you’re reading the TrustPilot reviews. More on that below.

Before I share my tips to how to book accommodation ethically, I have a favour to ask. beragampengetahuan is reader-funded. If you find our stories and guides helpful, please consider supporting beragampengetahuan. You could make a one-off donation to our epic cookbook project on Patreon; buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever (we earn a small commission from purchases); or browse our beragampengetahuan shop for gifts designed with Terence’s images.

If you’re planning a trip, you can support our work here by using our affiliate partner links. We may earn a commission but you won’t pay extra if you use our links to buy travel insurance, book flights with CheapOair, Kiwi.com or Etihad; hire a rental car; book a transfer, tour or tickets to museums and attractions on Get Your Guide; buy train tickets on RailEurope, bus and train tickets on 12Go; or book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith.

Another option is to consider using our buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers, for which we also earn a commission. Now let me share my tips to how book accommodation ethically, so you’re confident that the property you’re staying at is actually getting paid for your stay.

How to Book Accommodation Ethically from Booking Direct to Using Booking Sites That Pay

Our tips to how to book accommodation ethically depending on how you’re booking – whether you’re booking direct with the hotel, or prefer to use accommodation booking websites and online travel agents (OTAs).

Booking Direct with the Accommodation

The only way that you can really be sure that the payment you make for your stay is going to the accommodation you’re staying at is to book directly with the accommodation and pay via their website or at the property itself.

That’s all fine if the property has a website and/or has facilities to accept a debit or credit card, which is how most travellers prefer to pay. If they can’t and you prefer not to use cash, ask what other payment methods they offer or suggest a transfer service, such as Wise or Moneygram.

If you’re not comfortable with that and still prefer to use an accommodation booking site or OTA – an online travel agent, a site that also offers flights, transfers, tours etc – then use a booking site that pays their listed properties on time.

Our Advice:

Contact the property directly to ask about payment options. If you decide you still prefer to use a booking site, ask the property which site they prefer you use.

Booking on Accommodation Websites and OTAs

Many travellers prefer to book a stay on an accommodation booking website or OTA than directly with the lodging itself. Other than the ability to pay with a credit card, there are a few more reasons for this, including a great package deal that properties can’t offer; lodgings that can’t be booked otherwise; a lower price; flexibility; free cancellations; and a loyalty programme.

Tempting Package Deals

Some accommodation booking websites have evolved into online travel agents, and can offer great value holiday packages that might include loads of perks, from transfers, welcome drinks, meals, and massages, for little more than it costs to booking the accommodation on the property’s website.

Go for it, just make sure that the site you’re using is an ethical operator. How can you know that? Check their rating and read reviews on TrustPilot, a reputable consumer review website.

One ethical accommodation booking site that we recommend which has evolved into an OTA, offering packages that include all kinds of perks, and which you can also include flights if you wish, is Luxury Escapes. It has a TrustPilot score of 4.8 out of 5, which is about as high as they get.

Luxury Escapes offers ‘luxury for less’, heavily discounted stays at luxury resorts, boutique hotels and villas, as well as holiday packages that include extras such as a bottle of wine, meals and spa treatments. They also small group tours, luxury train journeys, expedition cruises, and scenic flights.

Lodgings That Can’t be Booked Elsewhere

Many owners of smaller kinds of accommodation, such as holiday houses, apartment rentals and bed and breakfasts don’t have their own websites. Prior to accommodation booking websites and OTAs, they relied on promoting their properties through everything from real estate agents to guidebook listings and word-of-mouth.

When accommodation booking websites and OTAs appeared, those more intimate types of lodgings jumped at the chance to be listed on those platforms, as it meant they didn’t have to go to the trouble of paying someone to create and maintain a website and could get massive global coverage of a kind they’d only dreamt of before.

So in many cases, unless you’ve stayed in a property before, you live locally, or you get a great tip from someone who has stayed in the place, you might not find it anywhere else. There are countless properties that can only be booked on global accommodation booking sites and OTAs, many of which unfortunately score low TrustPilot rankings.

Another booking site we love for beautiful properties, many of which you might not see elsewhere, is called PLUM Guide. They actually have experts visit and vet their properties and provide local ‘in-house care’, people who are responsible for making your stay “exceptional”.

While their properties are often on the more expensive side, these are the kinds of gorgeous apartments and homes that many of us would book for a special holiday with loved-ones – from a honeymoon in a Parisian apartment to a multi-generational holiday on the Mediterranean. Their TrustPilot ranking is 4.4, which is excellent.

Lower Prices

Most travellers prefer to book accommodation on booking sites or OTAs, such as Agoda, Booking, Expedia, ebookers, lastminute.com, and Wotif simply because they can book a cheaper stay. Prices are nearly always lower than the room rates listed on a property’s website, and travellers can also book other elements of their trip, such as transfers, flights, etc. More on that below.

The reason room rates are lower is because accommodation booking sites and OTAs often contractually require that the property enable the accommodation website or OTA to offer lower rates than the lodging itself, in return for listing on their platform and the exposure that brings.

I’ve checked the TrustPilot reviews of all the major accommodation sites and OTAs. The average rating is 1.4 stars out of 5 stars, which is ‘bad’. Trip.com gets the best TrustPilot score of 4.1 stars (‘great’) based on almost 60,000 reviews. You can use the site to book all kinds of accommodation – hotels, resorts, B&Bs, villas, vacation homes, apartments, hostels, home-stays, camping sites, farm stays, you name it.

You can also use Trip.com to book flights, trains, hire cars, cruises, and tours, and buy tickets for attractions. Bundle bookings together and you get discounts. With such a high TrustPilot score, 61% of reviews being 5-star, and prompt responses from Trip.com staff, this is by far the most ethical of the big accommodation booking sites and OTAs.

Flexibility

Another reason for using accommodation booking sites or OTAs is the flexibility they offer. Many travellers like to have the flexibility to change plans or cancel bookings. It’s challenging for hotels and other types of lodgings to run their businesses when guests cancel at the last minute, as it’s rare these days to get ‘walk-ins’ so they can’t afford to offer last minute cancellations without fees.

Free Cancellations

Accommodation booking sites and OTAs will often offer rooms at different rates: the lowest rates are often ‘no cancellation’ rates to lock travellers into the booking, while higher rates give travellers flexibility to cancel until close to their stay.

Loyalty Programmes

Another reason is that accommodation booking sites and OTAs offer loyalty programmes. The more you book with them, the less you pay. Booking’s Genius loyalty programme, for example, offers 10%, 15% and 20% discounts on room rates – which is great for travellers but not so good for the properties pressured into participating.

Our Advice:

We completely understand why you prefer to book on accommodation booking sites and OTAs rather than book directly with properties, but before you do, please check if those booking sites are trustworthy and operate ethically.

We’ll update advice in this post as situations change. In the meantime, please do let us know in the comments below if you have any questions or tips to how to book accommodation ethically. We love hearing from our readers.