Features

• Online marketplace to find cheap local accommodations.
• Advanced search based on various filters available.
• Get detailed information about the room and reviews from previous guests.
• Book online through credit cards.
• Similar websites: Istopover

Check out AirBnB @ www.airbnb.com (via Lifehacker) (By Abhijeet from Jeet Blog)

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• iStopOver: Affordable Short Term Rentals From Owners
• Roomorama: Marketplace For Short-Term Rentals
• PadMapper: Easy Way To Search Craigslist For Rental Property
• MyApartmentMap: Find Affordable Places to Rent in US
• HotelWorldOnline: Compare Hotel Prices From Top Hotel Reservation Sites

Enter the name of the city and it will display a list of hotels available along with the prices offered. You can compare the prices and select the best deal for yourself. It also provides hotel description, images, location on the map and reviews of the hotels.

The hotel listings can be sorted on the basis of popularity, price, stars, name and distance. Moreover, search results can be refined further using criteria such as distance from specific location, hotel brand, amenities and more.

Hotel World Online boasts of a database of 900,000 global hotel deals from over 30 merchants, and access over 1.5m consumer reviews, 3m hotel images, 2m hotel descriptions and maps.

Features :

• Check hotel availability and rates.
• Compare prices offered by different booking sites.
• Provides hotel description, images, Google map and reviews on the hotels.
• Hotels can be sorted by a number of factors.
• Similar sites: HotelDiscovery, HotelCalculator and HostelBookers.

Check out HotelWorldOnline @ www.hotel-world-online.com (by Abhijeet from Jeet Blog)

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• Roomorama: Marketplace For Short-Term Rentals
• iStopOver: Affordable Short Term Rentals From Owners
• AirBnB: Find Cheap Local Apartments
• WhatsOnWhen: Local Event Guide For Over 500 World Destinations
• UniversalPackingList: Online Traveling Packing List Generator

As you can see in the above screenshot, I have searched for hotel rooms availability in New York. The result is displayed in the following manner.

Feature overview:

• Quickly check hotel room availability for anywhere worldwide.
• Saves time as you not need to browse for hours to look for the best offers.
• Reliable booking systems chosen to offer the cheapest proposal.
• Results sorted by price, the cheapest being the first offering.
• No need to sign up or create an account.
• Similar sites: HotelCalculator, HostelBookers, iStopOver and SeeYourHotel.

Check out HotelDiscovery @ www.hoteldiscovery.org (By Abhijeet from Jeet Blog)

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• HotelWorldOnline: Compare Hotel Prices From Top Hotel Reservation Sites
• CouchSurfing: Stay With Locals Wherever You Go
• WhatsOnWhen: Local Event Guide For Over 500 World Destinations
• UniversalPackingList: Online Traveling Packing List Generator
• TripLittle: Free Budget Calculator For Your Trips

How It Works:

1. Browse listings by city, stay period and number of guests or post a ShoutOut. The ShoutOut is a message that appears on the homepage where all the hosters can see it and contact you with offers. You don’t need an account to post ShoutOuts.
2. Pay online for the stay in the apartment. Receive a payment code.
3. Give the payment code to the hoster when you arrive to the spot before you check-in

You can filter listings by neighborhoods, max. daily price, room type and extra amenities. Click to view apartment pictures and read description, and inquire further details with a single click. Sign up required.

Features:

• Peer-to-peer short term apartment rentals.
• Rent your spare room to strangers risk-free through innovative online payment system.
• Instantly post “looking for room” messages online and get offers from hosters. (No account required).
• Service available in major metro areas including New York, Miami, Lost Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, San Francisco, Vancouver and Washington DC.
• Free, sign up to inquire about apartments or list your rooms.
• Similar website: iStopOver.

Check out Roomorama @ www.roomorama.com

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• iStopOver: Affordable Short Term Rentals From Owners
• AirBnB: Find Cheap Local Apartments
• HotelWorldOnline: Compare Hotel Prices From Top Hotel Reservation Sites
• RentBits: Rental Property Search Engine
• PadMapper: Easy Way To Search Craigslist For Rental Property

In many cases staying with locals is much better than staying at a hotel because the locals know better which places to visit and can tell you more about the history and local customs of their city or town.

Site members (called CouchSurfers) share their travel experiences on the site, are open to meeting people from different cultures and usually speak multiple languages, including English.

Currently site has more than 1 million members, with 2000 new members signing up daily. Register to message members in host cities, join and create groups, meet fellow travelers, find out about events and more.

Features:

• Stay with locals almost anywhere worldwide.
• Connects travelers and locals in 56, 858 cities in  231 countries.
• More than 1 million registered members.
• Meet people in cities you are planning to visit.
• Find a place to stay or someone to show you around the city.
• Register to browse members by countries, send messages, view photos, join groups, events and more.
• Site available in all major European languages and also in Chinese and Japanese.

Check out CouchSurfing @ www.couchsurfing.com

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• SeeYourHotel: Find A Hotel Close To Any Address
• Roomorama: Marketplace For Short-Term Rentals
• iStopOver: Affordable Short Term Rentals From Owners
• HotelDiscovery: Check Hotel Room Availability Worldwide
• HotelCalculator: Compare Hotel Prices on Multiple Travel Sites

To search simply type in the location, select number of days and guests and then hit the Enter tush. HotelCalculator will bring list of results that can be narrowed down by price, type, hotel star rating (1 to 5) and amenities (Internet access, swimming pool, air-conditioning… etc).

You can also view hotels on a Goolge Map, see its distance from the city center and hotels in nearby towns. To book the hotel, just follow the link and complete the order at the provider’s website.

Furthermore you can add the hotels you liked to a “shortlist”. Shortlist lets you filter and compare hotels from the overall list.  You can save the shortlist and access it later through a provided link

Features:

• Compare hotel prices in over 13,000 cities all over the world.
• Data aggregated from multiple hotel and travel info providers including ActiveHotels.com, Agoda.com, AlphaRooms.com, Booking.com, HotelClub.com, OctopusTravel.com and others.
• View hotel listings, narrow results by price, hotel star rating (1 to 5) and amenities (Internet, swimming pool, air conditioning etc).
• View hotel location on a Google Map.
• Add hotels to a shortlist and access them later via provided link (link valid 7 days).
• Easy to use interface and no registration.
• Similar sites: HostelBookers, iStopOver and SeeYourHotel.

Check out HotelCalculator @ www.hotelcalculator.com

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• HostelBookers: Find Budget Hostel For Your Backpacking Trip
• SeeYourHotel: Find A Hotel Close To Any Address
• Roomorama: Marketplace For Short-Term Rentals
• PadMapper: Easy Way To Search Craigslist For Rental Property
• MyApartmentMap: Find Affordable Places to Rent in US

Travelers can search for place by specifying where they want to stay with the check-in and check-out dates and in return get results with all available places. The results can be sorted by type, price, ratings and filtered by distance, WiFi, laundry, parking, smoking… etc.

Home owners on other hand can create an attractive listing and list their homes or rooms with complete control over pricing and who can stay. iStopOver handles all payments on behalf of the home owner and charges 9% for every successful lending.

Furthermore both traveler and home owner can can review and rate each other to provide feedback for other users.

Features:

• Lists affordable accommodations from home owners.
• Travelers can search for commendations by area and date.
• Rental can be sorted by type, price and ratings.
• Home owners can easily list their homes and rooms.
• iStopOver handles all payments exchanges.
• Travelers and home owners both can leave and receive reviews.
• Free for travelers, but home owners are charged 9% for every successful lending.

Check out iStopOver @ www.istopover.com

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• AirBnB: Find Cheap Local Apartments
• Roomorama: Marketplace For Short-Term Rentals
• PadMapper: Easy Way To Search Craigslist For Rental Property
• MyApartmentMap: Find Affordable Places to Rent in US
• HotelWorldOnline: Compare Hotel Prices From Top Hotel Reservation Sites

To find a hostel, drill down starting from the destination country and then to the city you are planning to visit. Once you have located the city, you will be able to see all available accommodations in as a list mode or view them on the map (Google maps).

Features:

• Find a cheap place to stay on your backpacking trip.
• Search for hostels or browse them by countries.
• Sort hostels by price or ratings.
• View result as a list or map view.
• Lists over 2,500 destinations worldwide.
• Check out ratings and reviews for each budget hostel.
• No booking fees or registration required.
• Also see: SeeYourHotel – Find A Hotel Close To Any Address.

Check out Hostelbookers @ www.hostelbookers.com

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• HotelCalculator: Compare Hotel Prices on Multiple Travel Sites
• SeeYourHotel: Find A Hotel Close To Any Address
• Roomorama: Marketplace For Short-Term Rentals
• PadMapper: Easy Way To Search Craigslist For Rental Property
• MyApartmentMap: Find Affordable Places to Rent in US

As they mention, “Using the power and ease of Google Maps technology, you can now find a hotel, then view actual pictures of the rooms and facilities, compare with other hotels nearby and then make your reservations all from one convenient site.”

I’d say they are doing a good job leveraging Google Maps technology to fetch hotels in the US and Canada region. You can also filter hotels by price and standard or use their toll free numbers given at the top right of the page, to get in touch with them.

Check out SeeYourHotel @ www.seeyourhotel.com ( Contributed by Abhijeet from Jeet Blog )

• New: Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Recommended!
• MakeUseOf 'Geeky Fun' - Hillarious Geeky Pics and Videos from different parts of web.

• HotelCalculator: Compare Hotel Prices on Multiple Travel Sites
• UMapper: Create and Share Route Maps with Friends
• TravelMapGenerator: Highlight Countries & Create Shareable Maps
• The Route Planner: Get Route Map & Directions Online
• SubwayMaps : Printable Metro Maps