Finding Accommodations apps
 

I have the following installed:
Airbnb
CouchSurfer
iOverlander
Bookings.com

Are there others that I should consider? I know there's motorcycle oriented couch surf things on Facebook, but I haven't been able to find anything.

If you have an any suggestions, please let me know. Either apps, Facebook, or programs for PC - specifically to find free or cheap accommodations that work for a person going around the world on a motorcycle.

Thanks. I'm in Newfoundland now, and the weather has turned. 3 degrees and raining - forecast covers the entire province for a week....sigh...

In a provincial park, with wifi and a kinda heated bathroom, which is where I sit at the moment.

Bunkabiker could be worth trying…

I only use two apps, but that's because I stay in hotels or pensions - I don't stay in AirBnB or other private accomodations.

TripAdvisor - I find this app useful for determining what hotel / motel / pension sites are available in a neighborhood or city, what the going rates are, and to read reviews posted by others about these facilities. My experience has been that the prices quoted by TripAdvisor are generally accurate.

Booking.com - This is my "second choice" app if I don't find what I am looking for on TripAdvisor. My experience has been that Booking.com often lists inaccurately low prices when you look facilities up, and then if you go to make a booking (either via the app or by calling the facility), the real prices are considerably higher. So for me, Booking.com is a fallback option only.

I use these two apps for research, but I don't make the actual booking through the apps. I call the facility directly and ask them what they have available and what the cost is. Often, the price asked when dealing directly with the facility is less than what is shown on either of the two apps. If the facility quotes a higher price than what the app shows, I tell them that the app is showing a lower price and ask if they would like me to book through the app. Always, the facility will offer to match the app price because they don't want to pay the 15% (or more) commission to the company that runs the app.

Michael

Interesting, that's never been true for me other than the 1/2 euro per night in city tax in parts of Europe. I've never had a Booking.com quote *for the actual days I selected* not be honored. In fact, now that I'm on level 3 of their loyalty programme, Booking.com will (supposedly?) pay for part of my stay :)

One thing to know about Booking.com is that they are actively driving people to use their app, so they have "mobile-only" prices - often you can get the same room for the same days cheaper through their mobile app than their own browser version.

I don't like using AirBnB any more though, their service fees and cleaning fees have gotten out of hand, and the pricing is not at all transparent.

As a backup option, maybe go to the local tourist info center and ask them to help you find local accommodation in your price range. :)

In the past I've had much better luck with the "local tourist info center" approach than with any booking service or other internet search. Unfortunately, that requires arriving in town at a suitable time of day, a practice which seems to evade me in recent years.

I'd caution that Booking.com does indeed mess up from time to time, regardless of your position in their loyalty program. I've had conformed reservations which were never made, at least one price quoted for two days which the property owner insisted was valid only for one (and adamantly refused to honor), times when other booking agents were substantially cheaper for the identical rooms, burgeoning email spam which surged and receded according to my use, and most alarmingly two separate credit card hacks which were likely related to use of the app. The discounts for regular users are quite minor, though worth taking when offered.

In other words, don't get complacent.

Mark

Exactly.

I use the apps (TripAdvisor & Booking.com) to find out what is available "up the road" where I am going, to get an idea of what pricing is like in a community, and to identify facilities that are particularly good or bad.

Once you are at a location you want to stay at, the local tourist office is a great source of information, and they will often (but not always) assist you in making a reservation without charging the facility a commission for doing so.

And a lot of garbage properties dumped on the market.

I just spent six weeks travelling japan with the family and one out of five was acceptable and as described.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My tuppence worth on what the OP asked and a couple of others' suggestions:

Airbnb: Tried it in Spain the other winter. One host had good comms and was trustworthy, the rest were poor on comms and/or didn't know how to use the app = a big pita all round


CouchSurfing: Looked into using it in Central Asia, but was turned off by some of the host profiles, so never tried it


iOverlander: Used it in South America extensively. But beware when other users start talking about places being "big rig friendly" :D The same people think parking at a Walmart carpark is "wild camping" :rofl: Best to avoid their recommendations

Booking.com: Now my exclusive go to: Never been ripped off retrospectively on price. No card payment frauds either.

Trip advisor: Tried it once on a car journey around the western USA. Was ok, but only with someone mentioning it here, did I remember it even existed.

Bunk a biker: Used it in Spain and Portugal, where there are only very few people offering a bed/ tent space. Met some really nice people. I'm also a "host"/ offerer of assistance in Bulgaria: I found that people struggle with reading and understanding what I've written or are just a bit thick. If people are speculatively spamming lots of people, they should a.) Read the offer and b.) Customise their message so it doesn't look like spam/ learn the intricacies of their email software.

I'll also suggest: Advrider Tent Space thread (big in North America: met several nice people who hosted me. No one has ever contacted me in the UK, nor Bulgaria) and Horizons Unlimited Communities (many comms to these communities just seem to end up in a black hole. Does anyone check the continuing validity of email addresses? Most recently in Vietnam and Cambodia last winter when asking about sharing a coffee, I got one reply from 5 messages sent. I'm still a member of a Brazilian, UK and Bulgarian community. I'm lucky if I get an inquiry every couple of years on any of them. (I've had the same email address for the past 20 years). The most recent time earlier this year someone wrote to my Bulgarian one, I took the time to compose a detailed and useful reply and received Jack in thanks. Probably won't bother next time...:thumbdown: )

The software automatically removes bounced email addresses. The Community lists are checked that there are valid email addresses in them. Given there are 800+ Communities that doesn't happen often. :( But many people report great success, and I often see excellent replies when replying to "all", and thanks too. Nothing is perfect...

I've used booking.com for several years now- extensively - and have been extremely satisfied. I've used it in many places in the world: US, Canada, Spain, Peru, Tajikistan, Turkey, Mexico... Many small accommodations in out of the way places list with them, as they have no other way to advertise their existence.

I'm cheap and generally sort the list by price and choose the lowest that gets decent reviews. I have never found the price to be different from what was stated on the app (they include taxes and fees in their quotes). I find the reviews to be useful and representative, as long as I throw out the ones that start out whining about how 'rude the desk clerk was to me'.

I also have never arrived at a place and been told they did not have my reservation and that no room was available.

I have also used their airport transfer service 3 times, to get me from the airport to a distant hotel or moto rental place. It was awesome, really. Same price, or slightly cheaper, than a local taxi, the driver waiting for you at the airport, prepaid including tip. Very professional service.

This is not an ad for booking.com ....just a very satisfied user.

.............shu

I have also used Booking.com for many years, several different continents and for hundreds of bookings. Only one time did my confirmed booking fail and at that time it failed miserably. It was in Siem Reap - Cambodia and the staff at the place I had a confirmed booking just laughed at me and pretended to not understand me and offered me a inferior room (than my booking) for twice the price. The manager had to be called twice, the aircon wasnt turned on other than the first time, hot water in the shower didnt exist, the onsite restaurant had been closed for years etc etc. But what happend later surprised me a lot was that when I wrote a long email to Booking.com and explained the matter I was refounded all the money and given a thorough excuse and the hotel was removed from their booking site.

So after all my Booking.com experience have been very good.

Just another vote for booking.com - I use them all the time, including just a couple of weeks ago.

I used AirBnB when I did my trip in the Balkans and found it to be ok, that was a few years ago now, the last time I used it was in Singapore which was about 4/5 years ago. I cannot say what it's like now.
On my travels in Thailand I use Booking.com as I find the prices to be fair and again I have never had an issue.

Wayne

AirBnB is great because it's easy to ask the host if they have secure parking.

I used booking.com going round Europe for a few weeks recently. My only complaint is that it's bloody hard to find hotels in Europe that aren't either horrendously expensive or total hovels - sometimes both. The app worked fine though I guess.

If anyone is travelling in Russia, ostrovok.ru is good.

I use booking.com and Agoda for my accommodation needs.

Booking was my preferred choice as I find the reviews are more genuine but I am going to use Agoda more often now.

Contacting Booking.com customer service is a nightmare.
Each email you send will be replied by some dumbwit who does not even bother to read the email contents and just sends a standard reply. And when you reply to the email from booking they will start all over again.
So frustrating!

I stopped using Tripadvisor quite a while back. After some very bad experiences travelling in Scotland where the Tripadvisor information was just plain wrong. I learned subsequently just how important their advertising revenue is to them. There's far too many fake reviews on it and paid advertisments masquerading as independent reviews.

In addition I know first hand that Tripadvisor just don't react to complaints about their content. I had a freind who ran a restaurant and he got some awful accusations of food poisoning against his place on Tripadvisor. We tracked down the new user who posted it and it was identified as a local competitor. Tripadvisor were given all the information but did nothing and wouldn't remove the lies posted by the other person. All I'd say is there are much better options out there than Tripadvisor IMHO.

"Sorry, the Community listings are currently closed
We have jast moved the entire website to a new server, and the mailing list system is completely different. So, we have a very significant rebuild of the old system to the new system, and while we expected it could take a couple or three weeks, it's taking much longer. With any luck the Community lists will be back soon.

In an emergency, write me, Grant, directly, and I can write to the Community members directly for you. Be sure to tell me which Community you want to contact - basically, roughly where / what area.

Thanks for your patience while we work through the massive task of moving and adjusting / editing 250,000 files, plus massive databases!

Grant and Susan"

How are things progressing?



PS.

Re Booking.com reviews

Try this one for size: 11 x on the same day by the same illiterate user at 10/10... Someone else left a recent review :) and complained about the place. Nothing was done...

https://www.booking.com/Share-WP7QPk

https://www.booking.com/Share-WP7QPk

well if you want free accomodation find gas station that has a yard that simple

After the initial email I've never received anything from the HU system ... and we'd be happy to put people up and/or show them some of the cool places to ride near us

Slowly. :(
I need a volunteer with nothing to do to manually create 700+ communities in the new system, about 6-8 minutes each. Yes that's around 90 hours, which is why it's not yet done.
Again, write me direct to contact a Community and I'll forward.

I'd be happy to do 2-3 hours a week to help out, I have form for this sort of thing. Can it definitely not be automated?

Likewise, I don't mind helping out if I can be of assistance.

I will be wrapping up my Sumatra tour next week and flying back home.

:scooter:

Thanks guys! I need to look closely at that idea, but I think it might be possible - there are privacy and security considerations here. :) I'll get back asap in PM and here.

Fair enough, my official security clearance is about 10 years out of date so the best I could do these days is sign an NDA and photograph it with my passport or something.

After a bunch of fruitless exercises, I have come round to the conclusion that this is going to be me. It can't be done without full admin access to the server, and obviously that's a bad idea to give to anyone, especially over a long period of time. There is no way to admin the lists only, which is enormously stupid and frustrating.:(
Thanks for the offers of help, it's greatly appreciated. I'll keep your offers in mind for future!

Accomondation in South America
 

For me it often works better to talk to people, than using apps.

Google maps shows if there are villages or not.
If there is a village, I ride to the plaza that all villages has in the middle of the town. Park the bike and walk a loop around the plaza: Often there are accomondation there. Else I talk to people and ask. And I very often get help.
There are so much more than what is in apps.

In Europe I camp. Ues google maps and looking for signs.

Also the GPS has both hotels and camping sites that I can search for.

@grant johnson,

No worries!

:scooter:

Grant - That's a pity, the offer stands should you ever find a way around it! Still, these days it's better to make an effort to keep people's details secured wherever possible and I'm glad you're taking that seriously :)

Seems like a huge pita to migrate data from server to server.

What about starting again from scratch? Like on the Advrider tentspace thread connected to a Google (my?)maps page.

Invite, via email, previous hosts to complete their up to date details again regarding what they're "offering" (accommodation, coffee, road side assistance etc). The map will grow embrionicly. And has a fighting chance of being up to date. Case in point the Ho Chi Minh City HUBB person I contacted last winter who had moved to a different Vietnamese town more than 10 years previously!



Hence nothing to do with your server and HU hosts do the "work". A trusted volunteer/s could "man"/"woman" it with few security issues.

Humourous annecdote?: My advrider tentspace pin disappeared off the map around the time, during covid, that I edited my contribution that I insisted that anyone I helped had to show me their vaccine certificate before I would help them (because of health concerns for myself). :clap:

Thanks! :)

Agreed - we're super careful about privacy, always have been. We don't, ever, sell or give away anyone's information, period. And we keep as little as possible on the web, and never collect or keep financial info. Susan is also the privacy guru for a major Canadian university. :)

Yes, I have thought about that, all I need to do is find a system that will do it nicely without months of work and $£€ creating it. It ain't easy... suggestions appreciated.

Politics, my bet. NOT a good sign of equitable and fair moderation hmmm?

This is what they do over on advrider:

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/t...ap-v2.1215147/

Doesn't look expensive. Would require someone to manually populate/ update/ edit a Google map based on contributions from the "sign up" thread.

Am unconcerned that my pin was removed. In the several years that the pin was up, no one contacted me anyway :innocent: