Choosing a place to stay during your travels in China can be a daunting task. My father, who lives in America, is fond of looking up all the options online – scouting out cute bed and breakfast places, looking at websites with short term rentals, and sharing his finds with me, his daughter, who is not always so patient with his finds. Last week I opened up Skype to find my father excited about a rental property he’d found in Beijing’s central business district (CBD). “Only $35 a month!” he said. I sighed inwardly, wondering what sort of scam he’d stumbled upon, because $35 a month short term rentals don’t exist anywhere, at least not anywhere my dad would enjoy staying, and certainly not anywhere near CBD. I asked to see the link for this mythical apartment and did some digging. As it turns out, the advertisement was deceptively listed as a monthly rental, when in fact the price was per-day. Another time, my father sent me a link to an admittedly gorgeous looking hotel in Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, a city which my parents had visited with me in 2006. The hotel was asking 700RMB a night for the cheapest rooms. I reminded my father what we had paid in 2006 for our modest, clean room – 30RMB a night. Of course there was a big difference between the 30RMB a night room and the 700RMB a night room, but was there really a 670RMB difference? I didn’t think so.

Photo: Dennis Wong

Part of the problem with searching for accommodation ahead of time in China is that a lot of what is written in English, sites for hostels, hotels, tour guides, etc. assumes that anyone searching in English is going to be on a typical foreign budget. I never look for apartments on English language sites because invariably the apartments offered will be way out of my price range, the assumption being that foreigners want luxury and have deep pockets. The same principal applies, in general, to searching for hotels. The budget accommodations, or the great little finds that offer both atmosphere and affordability, will almost never be listed online, and what is listed in English will almost exclusively be either rather luxurious and expensive accommodation, or backpacker-style hostels. By far the best option for finding a place to stay in China is to simply show up and see what is available. This also gives you the option of bargaining, which is almost always effective in getting a slightly reduced price, given the hotel has vacancy. Bargaining for a hotel room works the same way as bargaining for anything else. Sometimes the hotel staff will ask you how long you intend to stay, and if you plan on a longer stay, you might get a better deal. You also might get a good deal if you agree to stay for only one night. At times, hotels will have a room available that, starting tomorrow, is booked for a week solid. They would like to book the room for tonight, but can’t promise you’ll be able to stay much longer, and so will sometimes give you a cheaper rate. When you’re searching on the ground for a hotel or hostel, always ask to see the room before you agree to stay – this is the single biggest advantage to searching on the ground versus booking ahead of time, you can see the goods before you purchase! Confirm that there will be hot water when you need it – some hotels will cut it off during certain hours (this is important, don’t forget to ask!), that the TV is usable, and make sure you’re clear on when checkout time is.

Sometimes though, especially if you are traveling during peak times (the first week in October, the first week in May, Jan-Feb and July-August), searching on the ground for a good deal can be risky and frustrating. If you have access to a credit card, there are several sites out there that aimed at budget accommodation, but which actually offer a wide range of hotels and hostels to suit any budget. I used Travellerspoint last January to find the Sunny Sanya Family Inn in Sanya. The site pointed me in the right direction, and then I contacted the owner directly and negotiated a discounted rate through e-mail, since we planned on staying 10 days. Prices listed are usually the base price, so if you find a hotel you like online it is worth doing a quick Google search to see if you can’t find the contact info for the hotel online, and negotiate down. Of course, Chinese language skills help with this, but lots of hotel operators have basic English. Caddie at Sunny Sanya, for example, is practically fluent in English and was very helpful, answering my questions about her hotel as well as providing info for us on train timetables and flights. For our trip to Sanya I was very glad we’d booked ahead of time, even though my husband scoffed at the idea, being a die-hard on the ground hotel search kind of guy. When we arrived in Sanya, we found that the entire island was practically booked solid, and that the price we’d gotten from Sunny Sanya for booking in advance was very reasonable (For those interested, Sunny Sanya also offers family-style rooms, with a large bed for the parents and bunk beds for the kids in a 2 room suite). The main drawback to online booking is that while sites like Travellerspoint offer a different selection from what you might find on mainstream sites like eLong or Travelocity, you are still limited to hotels and hostels which typically host international travelers. The small local hotels like the place my parents and I stayed at for 30RMB a night in Jinghong are not going to appear on any internet search engine, no matter what language you use to search.

For people with time on their hands, I always recommend the show up and look method, but since I’m a parent now myself, I know that for families this just isn’t possible. Time constraints can also make hoofing it impractical. While it is hard to know if you are getting a good deal or not when booking ahead of time for a city you’ve never been to, what you can do is make sure you see pictures of the room, and compare prices across a wide range of hotels to see what the average is. Finding a travel forum and asking questions of people, or asking for recommendations and contact info is always a good idea too. Recommending people, being recommended by people and promising to recommending a hotel in the future is also a good way to get discounts on rooms. We’ve used the “we’ll tell all our foreign friends about your place” line many times to get a good deal, and telling the owner the reverse, “my friend XX sent me, he said you’d give me a good rate” is also an effective method. Many small hotel owners and operators work on word of mouth, so they’re happy to reward those who help their business. In the end, there’s really no reason to pay outrageous prices to stay at the Chinese equivalent of the Holiday Inn when there are so many good options out there for those with either the time or the patience to find great lodgings.
 

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