There are so many ways that you can spend the night: hotel, hostel, airbnb, couchsurfing... They all have their own price range and we will specify each of them.
Hotel
The most known one among all. You have them in every price category starting at a couple of euros a night going up to thousand a night and more. It's always useful if you use a comparing site like Kayak, Trivago,... The sites that we use to book are hotels.com and booking.com. When which one? Hotels.com normally has the best rates due to the fact that they have a best price guarantee. If you find the same hotel with the same conditions cheaper they pay the difference back. And an extra plus: they have a savings program! If you've booked ten night with them within the year, you get a free night. The value of your free night will be the average price of the previous 10 nights you collect. You only pay taxes and fees. Great right?! Only downside, they don't always have the biggest choice. For that, you need to go to booking.com where you often find a bigger choice and also cheaper hotels/hostels. Best thing to do is always compare them next to each other before you book anything.
Hostel
In the dictionary you will find: an establishment that provides inexpensive food and lodging for a specific group of people, such as students, workers, or travelers.Most of the time you share a room and bathroom from 4 up to 15 people. Some hostels also offer you private room with or without private bathroom but if you book them like this they are more expensive then a cheap hotel room.
For us the best website is hostelworld.com, but a lot of other sites like hotels.com, Expedia and booking.com also show the rates. You just have to find which one suits you best.
Airbnb
Airbnb is an online marketplace and hospitality service, enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging including vacation rentals, apartment rentals, homestays, hostel beds, or hotel rooms. You can find real cheap accommodations but there are also a real gems on the site. Our first Airbnb experience was in Oaxaca city center: A nice big room with king size bed and a lovely host for only 11 euros a night. Much cheaper than the low class hotels in the city. If you want to check out Airbnb, you can get your first night free on us! Just click here and get swept away in the magical world of Airbnb. They also offer experiences: a wide variety of tours and events.
Couchsurfing
This is the ultimate saving tip for travelling! You can sleep for free and get to know the local way of living. Couchsurfing.com provides a platform for members to stay as a guest at someone's home (homestay), host travelers, meet other members or join an event. Unlike many hospitality services, Couchsurfing is an example of the gift economy; there is no monetary exchange between members and there is no expectation by hosts for future rewards. (wiki) Definitely give it a try, especially when you want to get to know a real culture and how people there live. Most of the time you also have a free guide who loves to take you around and shows you the most amazing places in the city.
There are a couple of thing that we always look at when choosing a host:
Profile picture: if there is one added the chance that it's a real person goes up.
A filled out profile: the person shows interest in the Couchsurfing program, otherwise they wouldn't loose their time filling everything out.
Reviews: this it the way you can know they aren't a creep or a serial killer :D If other people had a good experience, most of the time you will too. The more good reviews, the better!
Verification: Couchsurfing has different levels of verification - verified by other travelers, verified by mailing address, verified by credit card. We always choose persons who has all three if possible ( a lot of good reviews is also OK). The chance that the person is who he says he is, is bigger.
Camping outdoors
Another way of travelling is taking a backpack with a tent and a sleeping bag and just go out and explore nature. At the moment we haven't had a lot of experience with this kind of travelling but any tips are welcome!
