The holiday journal
Look beyond the nightly rate: compare location, usable space, access, meal plans and booking conditions.
Four nights is long enough for a kitchen or extra living space to be useful, but short enough that fixed fees and arrival arrangements can change the comparison.
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A cheaper room outside the center can be excellent value when its transport link fits your plans.
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Meal plans are easiest to compare after you have a rough idea of your days.
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An all-inclusive stay is most convincing when you want to spend much of the holiday using the property.
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The lowest room price at a hotel may describe a substantially different stay from the room featured at the top of its website.
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A lower nonrefundable room price is a tradeoff, not automatically a bargain or a mistake.
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Accommodation prices are easiest to compare when every necessary charge is visible in one total.
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A Lisbon address can look close to everything on a flat map and still create a tiring return to the room.
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The room with the Douro view and the room that makes arrival easy may not be the same room.
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Madrid accommodation works best when it connects the parts of the city you will use repeatedly: the first morning's outing, dinner and the airport journey.
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A Barcelona trip with one beach afternoon needs a different base from a beach holiday with one sightseeing day.
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For a Rome stay, draw two routes before comparing room photographs: the route from the station with your bags and the route home after dinner.
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