LateRooms.com

Launched in 1999 in Manchester, UK, LateRooms.com currently offers bookings in more than 200,000 properties worldwide. They specialise in finding great last minute deals in unsold hotel rooms, however have recently branched into traditional online booking, allowing customers to make reservations up to a year in advance.

Finding a last minute deal using LateRooms.com is very easy, simply requiring users to enter their travel dates, destination and number of guests, after which they will be taken to a page containing a whole host of results matching their preferences. Here, there is a generous selection of filters to help narrow down these results, including price range, star rating, facilities, accommodation type and even ‘appeal type’, such as family friendly or romantic retreat. I found this to be a great addition, as you may like the look of the establishment yet be unaware that it is not appropriate for children or pets.

After selecting a hotel, you will find a more detailed description of the property and the room, as well as photos, a map and verified customer reviews from guests who have previously booked the property via LateRooms.com, and are therefore, in my opinion, far more reliable than TripAdvisor reviews which can be written without proof of ever having stayed at the hotel.

I also particularly like the LateRooms Blog, which contains a range of various articles on travel-related topics, offering tips, advice, recommendations and inspiration. The articles are generally well-written and have a comments section below where users can leave their own feedback on the subject matter. Each articles also features links throughout, meaning if you like the look of something, you will be able to click on the link to book a stay there.

One downside I found to using LateRooms.com to find last minute deals were the annoying pop-ups that continually appear, not only across the screen but in new windows, asking you to compare prices with other sites. In five-minutes on the website, this happened between four and five times, with new windows seemingly to open at random. I felt that this was very distracting and unnecessary, making the booking process far more stressful than it needed to be.

David Jones

I am a professional travel writer and travel enthusiast who traveled the world twice, so I am sharing my firsthand knowledge about everything related to travel and spending time abroad.