Where are the two-stars?

April 14, 2006 8:38 AM

Are there travel booking sites that have really cheap hotels that aren't hostels?

I'm looking for a place to stay for a week in Barcelona next month. I'll be with one friend and we're on a tight budget.

It seems that the big name travel websites have only three-star and up, and don't designate between Barcelona proper and resort towns 35 miles away. Hostel websites have mostly true hostels--difficult to find a private room with a bathroom for the dates I need.

The STA site lists a few places that look right for me, but I can't for the life of me get the website to work. (I put in all the info, click "continue" and nothing happens. Ever).

Are there websites other than STA that actually have one- and two-star hotels? Should I suck it up and choose between a hostel and a three-star? Should I go to an in-person travel agent? Any thoughts welcome.

posted by lampoil to travel & transportation (15 comments total)

Easyjet Hotels has a pretty wide range of prices and stars, and seems to have Barcelona broken down by neighbourhood.
posted by teg at 9:04 AM on April 14, 2006

Budget travel guides like Let's Go, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guides traffic in these sorts of things.

For websites, the site I've been using most is TripAdvisor. Their Barcelona hotels section seems fairly diverse.
posted by occhiblu at 9:06 AM on April 14, 2006

I used Rick Steve's Spain book to find plenty of cheaper, yet comfortable hotels in Barcelona. The guy seems rather dorky, but he does know where to find a good cheap meal or hotel. We stayed in a nice place called Hotel Lloret at the top of the Ramblas for around $80 a night. There were 10-15 more in his book all over different areas of Barcelona. Here is an example of the listing for the Eixample district (hehe).
posted by rabbitsnake at 9:08 AM on April 14, 2006

I've never used hotels.com for overseas booking, but I do tend to find great prices for US cities on it and it does list a bunch of places in Barcelona (though it also lists a LOOOT of places outside Barcelona). But it may be worth sifting through.
posted by occhiblu at 9:10 AM on April 14, 2006

In my experience you are always better to look at the high end of the hostel market rather than low end 1 and 2 star hotels.
posted by fire&wings at 9:14 AM on April 14, 2006

I have had extremely good luck with ( www.laterooms.com ). I use it frequently in the Uk and Ireland when we are not renting houses. I have consistently found it saves 30-50% from regular price. It also has links to Spain, including Barcelona. Mostly 3 and 4 star but I do believe there are some 2 star and entry level accomodations. One thing, I have never been let down on the availability or description of a booking. Good Luck
posted by rmhsinc at 9:17 AM on April 14, 2006

When we were travelling all over Europe last summer, we used hotel.de to book our hotels, usually a day or two before we would be arriving in what ever city. I found it an easy way to find hotels on the cheap and some places even had discounts because we booked through the hotel.de site.
posted by chrisroberts at 9:17 AM on April 14, 2006

I *have* used hotels.com for overseas bookings and can recommend them highly. You can sort by price and location and there's the extra benefit of peace of mind that your bill is paid before you even get there, so they can't tack anything on and there are no problems on checkout.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:21 AM on April 14, 2006

When we were looking in Paris, we found all we needed at Eurocheapo, who list 42 Barcelona hotels. Most of the Paris hotels Eurocheapo listed were ones that other sources were recommending as well, so their advice seems reliable.

Rick Steves' guides are great for inexpensive accomodations too, but he doesn't have a Barcelona city guide, so you'd want to check out his Italy guide.
posted by mendel at 9:27 AM on April 14, 2006

Or just book into a Formula 1, and be happy. No private bath, but so what? It's cheap, and it works well. I'd assume they're in Barcelona. Cheapest chain of hotels I've ever used. I've stayed at a couple, but can only recall Metz, France, for sure.
posted by Goofyy at 9:38 AM on April 14, 2006

What's your price range? My wife and I just got back from Barcelona, and I highly recommend the hotel we stayed at: The Banys Orientals Hotel. Great location, very nice rooms, decently priced, right next to the Metro, and dead center between the Gothic Quarter and Born.

It will run you about 95 Euro a night, which is more than a hostel, but much less than all those 300 Euro a night places.

I found them through secretplaces.com
posted by Gamblor at 9:43 AM on April 14, 2006

I was just in Barcelona a few weeks ago. I used this site to book a room with these people, here. Recommended.
posted by kickingtheground at 9:43 AM on April 14, 2006

You people go above and beyond. Thank you.
posted by lampoil at 10:30 AM on April 14, 2006

When I've stayed in 2-star hotels, I used Hostelworld to find them. Also, check out Rentalona for some cheap short-term rentals that might be an even better value.
posted by sixacross at 10:35 AM on April 14, 2006

I remember when I was in Spain that a lot of places were called "hosteles" (or "pensiones") but weren't dorm-room style hostels at all. They were private rooms (almost always with private baths), and were very cheap - this is seven years ago but - they ran around 20-35 dollars a night even in the cities. Many times they only had six or ten rooms, and/or were on the third floor of a building, or something like that so they wouldn't identify as a "hotel". I had a Let's Go Spain guidebook that I used pretty often, when I wasn't asking locals or just picking somewhere that looked clean, safe, and convenient when I showed up in that town or city. Budget guides like Let's Go or Rick Steves list a lot of these places that are either high-end hostels or low-end hotels.
posted by Melinika at 1:50 PM on April 14, 2006