Use a page like www.agoda.com, search for your destination, sort by price (lowest first)

Screen for high ratings

Check pictures of inside rooms

Read the customer reviews, but don’t put too much emphasis on customers giving bad reviews, mostly due to minor observations, because a lot of people seem to never be fully satisfied and we are looking for the cheapest possible price here. Do take heed to observations about noise, smell, dirt and malfunctioning air conditioning, water heaters, showers and toilets. Do ignore observations about unfriendly staff, small rooms and no view.

Check the hotel location via map – location and logistics is everything and a hotel with slightly higher price will come cheaper than a slightly less expensive hotel badly situated, which might require taxi, bus, metro, car or motorbike rentals. A hotel in walking distance to your most favorite destination, a beach, clubs, public transportation hub, food market, atm/bank is worth gold. Aim to have each of those within a 1km radius. Everything more is doable once or twice, but will turn into a chore if it turns into an everyday affair (imagine carrying water more than 1km every day after walking 1km to get there).  

Make sure the room is available for the day of arrival, for the right amount of people, that it is a private room and not a dormitory and when are the check-in times to arrive there

Book a room for the lowest amount of nights possible – preferably one night

Upon arrival and after inspecting the room (cleanness of bed, air-conditioner working, hot water, clean water) if everything is fine, ask for additional nights and the best price they can give you. This should be the lower, the more days you plan to stay. Say how long you want to stay, but don’t book all the days at once, only 3-5.

If you aren’t satisfied, you can pull out or can search for a new hotel right away.

Always double-check on sites like www.agoda.com – sometimes they offer reductions, that the hotel has no knowledge of or infuence in.

And always treat people nice.