Nigel ABC Intro Page

On Monday 30th October, Nigel Herbert from Australian Traveller was on the “Nightlife” programme with Tony Delroy on ABC local radio nationally.

If you have come to this page looking for more information on the accommodation star system, please click here. This is an article we recently published in Australian Traveller magazine.

If you are looking for tips on choosing your holiday accommodation please click here.

We have also written our tips on choosing a B&B, for advise on that more romantic accommodation.

In terms of booking accommodation online, there are a number of websites that are available to you.

Booking Accommodation Online

Websites that offer accommodation booking online can be loosely divided into two categories – the distress and non distress sites.

Distress Sites
Distress means that you will be staying in the next 28 days and the accommodation provider has rooms that it wants to fill and can offer greater discounts. That’s the theory but sometimes it can be more expensive so do not always assume that because you are using a distress site the rates will always be better. The most common distress sites include:
Wotif www.wotif.com.au
It is global in coverage but is much less comprehensive outside its home country of Australia.  It has the greatest share of the Australian online bookings.
QuickBeds www.quickbeds.com.au
Strongest in global coverage as it is part of the travel industry’s biggest player – Cendant.
Need it now www.needitnow.com.au
Australia & New Zeland Only

Further in the Future
The following sites allow you to make booking from today to a years time. Waiting to the last minute is not always a good idea as popular destinations can get more expensive the longer you wait. Do not assume that only the distress sites above would have the best rates for the next 28 days, often these sites can give you as good or better rates.
Go Stay www.gostay.com.au
Recently launched by Sensis, this site will redirect you to the distress or long term offers. The site is Australia only.
Last Minute www.lastminute.com.au
Global and you can package flights and car hire.
Ready Rooms www.readyrooms.com.au
Owned by Qantas it does lack properties on a global scale.

The best thing to do is try and compare all the sites. You will be very surprised, to find that the prices will vary dramatically between each of the sites.

The website for AAA Tourism, who do all the star ratings can be found here. If you want to check the star ratings of a specific property please click here.