Agoda is an online travel agency for hotels, holiday rentals, flights, and airport transfers. It is one of the best at finding low prices for all your accommodation needs, with a strong presence in the Southeast Asian marketplace and Asia in general.

In addition to traditional hotels and resorts, Agoda lets you search for hostels, private houses, and even monthly stays.

When booking accommodation on Agoda, there are two types, free cancellation or non-refundable bookings.

Like its competitors, Agoda offers prepaid and pay-at-hotel options when booking.

Agoda has money-saving features geared towards the Asian market, like AgodaCash (Agoda's points/rewards program), AgodaVIP (its customer loyalty program) and Promo Codes (Explorer Deals and Everyday Deals offering discounts on hotel rooms in certain destinations) to improve user experience and showcase its best deals.

PointsMAX allows Agoda customers to earn miles towards an airline’s rewards program while booking their accommodation through Agoda.

AgodaVIP membership is automatic when you make two or more bookings (not nights) in two years. The more bookings you make, the higher your status, which means more deals, savings, and perks. There are four Agoda tiers ranging from Member status (when you create an account eligible for some benefits, such as AgodaCash and Promo Codes) to VIP Silver, VIP Gold and VIP Platinum, with listings discounted up to 12-25%, respectively. It is worth noting Agoda tiers expire after two years.

We are relatively new to using Agoda but have noticed they offer competitive savings on accommodation. We may consider Agoda more in the future if travelling back to Asia or elsewhere.

Airbnb operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking.

With Airbnb, you are dealing directly with the owner or an agent for the owner, not with a big-brand hotel chain. You can choose from renting a room or the entire property.

Although many travellers have stayed in Airbnb apartments or houses before, there is a whole sub-section of one-of-a-kind accommodations you can book for more memorable experiences.

With some digging, you can find seriously cool and quirky Airbnbs worldwide by sorting for unique listings - from Lord of the Rings Hobbiton Home in New Zealand to a sky lodge adventure suite in Peru to an eco bamboo home in Bali to an airship secluded in Scotland.

We tend to use Airbnb more extensively in Australia, finding the booking process fast and effective. As an added bonus, we love meeting and engaging with our Airbnb hosts, sitting down with a cuppa, sharing travel stories and best of all, getting local insider tips for the ultimate things to do in their hometown.

Often properties provide a complimentary basket of goodies upon arrival, such as bread, eggs, chocolates, and even bottles of wine, as a welcome gesture.

Typical Airbnb advantages over hotels include more space, better amenities, kitchens, a washer and dryer, and much more.

Options are unique and nearly endless. Unique, one-of-a-kind accommodation options are something that Airbnb offers in spades. Whether you want to stay on a boat, in a treehouse, in a glamping pod, in a cabin or even in a castle, you can find it on Airbnb.

Booking.com is an online booking hotel booking site that allows you to book flights, hotels, car rentals, attractions, and more

Get rewarded for your travels with Booking.com's Genius loyalty program. When you create a free Booking.com account, you instantly unlock a 10% base discount on approximately 390,000 participating properties. Note that it is 10% off the base price before taxes. Therefore the amount saved is less than 10%.

The more you stay, the better the Genious level (there are three), offering up to 20% off selected locations, free breakfasts and room upgrades and priority assistance for all reservations.

One of the better aspects of the Genius loyalty program is that you get your tier for life, it will never expire.

Over half of Booking.com members use their mobile app to complete a booking. So keep an eye out in the search results and on the properties page for the special badge offering exclusive discounts of 10% or higher exclusive to mobile users of their app.

As independent travellers, we regularly use Booking.com for accommodation abroad and have had no issues with bookings or the service provided.

With more than 28M+ hotels listed worldwide, competitive pricing and availability, Booking.com makes it a breeze to find and book accommodation wherever we go. Several payment options are available - from no deposit and free cancellation to paying a deposit and paying in advance to no deposit pay one to six weeks before arrival. All this flexibility helps with advanced travel planning and spreading your cash flow in line with your budget.

Bookings.com rewards the occasional traveller, like us, when looking at remote destinations, booking a boutique hotel or a unique property, or if we know we are one-off staying at a hotel chain, we'll never (or seldom) utilise again.

Expedia is an online travel agency mostly for booking travel accommodations. It aims to provide the lowest prices for any booking, backed up by its "Best Price Guarantee".

Use Expedia to search for and book all sorts of travel, including hotels, airfare, rental cars, cruises, activities, attractions and holiday packages. It also offers last-minute travel deals, co-branded credit cards and even an elite status program.

Accessible through Expedia.com or its mobile app, Expedia allows you to search and compare prices and rates, read reviews from previous guests and save your searches for future planning.

You do not need an Expedia account to book travel. However, by doing so, you unlock many benefits, such as savings of 10% or more on hotels, the ability to earn Expedia Rewards and savings on bundling together products (like a flight and hotel combo).

Their customer loyalty program, Expedia Rewards, allows you to earn points redeemable for credit on future hotel bookings or flight and hotel packages. The program is ideal for travellers who want to earn rewards and benefits without staying loyal to a single brand or hotel chain. Expedia Rewards' wide-ranging opportunities to earn points and ability to stack rewards with other programs makes this a program that anyone who travels should check out.

Like many frequent-traveler programs, Expedia offers tier elevations delivering additional benefits to those who spend more with it. Members can earn Silver or Gold status by booking a minimum number of hotel stays, or spending a certain amount of money with Expedia in one calendar year.

Furthermore, for each booking, you can gain Trip Elements that rewards you with more savings and better-earning rates as an Expedia elite status member. It is worth noting Expedia Rewards points expire if you don't earn or use any for 18 months.

At Homestay.com, you stay with a local family's home as their guest, for a fee, in one of their bedrooms. Homestay.com offer a wide selection of rooms for both long and short-term accommodation offering great value for money and leaving you with more to spend enjoying your trip.

Booking a homestay is easy. Search for your destination, travel dates and number of guests. Select a homestay, choose a room, contact the host to check their availability and complete your booking.

It's an affordable accommodation alternative, ideal for independent travellers or tourists of all ages, slow travellers and anyone seeking an authentic travel experience. In particular, foreign exchange students love Homestay.com for its affordability, security and long-term stay options. As a guest, it allows you to experience the local community and culture of the place you visit.

Homestay.com offer the opportunity to get to know a destination you probably would not have explored otherwise. Not only could you find a neighbourhood, town or village yet to feature on the tourist map, but you'll learn about local customs and traditions, from eating habits to family routines.

Finding hosts with unique interests and hobbies similar to yourself further compliments the homestay experience. Their local insider knowledge helps you with local orientation, places to eat and things to see and do.

Some of our most enriching experiences have been hosting overseas guests at our home in Brisbane, Australia. As a result, we have developed life-long friendships with many of our guests.

With Homestay.com, we experienced another culture and lifestyle. Sharing our Australian traditions, trying different international foods and learning each other's language are just some of the many enriching ways we connected as hosts and guests.

If you choose a homestay, be prepared to abide by the house rules and be respectful of the customs of your host family. Also, all amenities, such as the kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, living room etc., will be shared with your host.

HomeExchange.com is a global social network for free home and apartment exchange holidays. With over 450,000 homes in 150+ countries, you can discover affordable, authentic and safe ways to travel the world.

To get started, sign up for free and introduce yourself to the HomeExchange community, create your home(s) profile with photos and dates available for exchange, and select your favourite destinations. Look for homes in destinations that interest you and send exchange requests. Become a member for a sign-up yearly fee to finalise and unlock member benefits and unlimited worry-free exchanges.

HomeExchange.com realises that it is sometimes difficult to organise simultaneous exchanges because the other person may not be interested in coming to your hometown or they won't be travelling on the same date. To solve this issue, they have two kinds of exchanges available.

The Classic Exchange is where two people exchange respective homes on corresponding dates (simultaneous exchange) or different dates (non-simultaneous exchanges).

Alternatively, is the GuestPoints Exchange (non-reciprocal exchanges) whereby the other person isn't interested in coming to your home, but their home is available.

In these situations, you can offer them GuestPoints to stay at their home. GuestPoints are credited points value per night assigned to and based upon your home's location, number of available beds, amenities offered (such as wi-fi, swimming pool etc.).

HomeExchange.com also has an Exchange Guarantee - if you don't find an exchange in your first year, the second year of membership is free.

We've opened our home in the past to international visitors via HomeExchange.com. In our experience, it was not only a fabulous way for our guests to live like Aussie locals and become life-long friends but to experience our Australian culture and lifestyle and see this fantastic country downunder we call home.

HomeExchange.com fosters an ethos of mutual trust and peace of mind when exchanging homes. Their motto is: Treat their home how you would like yours to be treated.

Hostelworld is a global online travel agent for booking hostels and cheap accommodations for budget-conscious travellers and backpackers.

Accessible through Hostelworld.com or its mobile app, you can search more than 36,000 hostel properties in 178 countries.

Typically, when you think of hostels, you think of 20-something backpackers - but that is simply a myth. Hostels are budget accommodations where guests of all ages can rent a bed, typically a bunk bed in a dormitory. While configurations vary, the most common are dorms with four, eight, and 16 bunks, each sharing a dorm bathroom. Dorms are mixed-gender, though, in recent years, many hostels have begun offering female-only dorms. Furthermore, many hostels now offer private rooms with en-suite bathrooms.

Hostelworld is a user-friendly online platform. Input your target location and travel dates to generate a comprehensive list of hostels. You can further narrow down your search results by filtering them according to price and ratings made by other Hostelworld users.

With over 13 million verified guest reviews, we recommend you consider hostels with not only good ratings but those with a significant number of good reviews.

When checking hostel prices for the best deals, we suggest using Hostelz.com - a free price comparison tool comparing Booking.com, Hostelworld, Hostelsclub and others. If you find a cheaper deal on any other website, Hostelworld has a Best Price Guarantee and will refund you the difference.

In hostels, guests have a shared fully equipped kitchen to refrigerate groceries and prepare meals. Most hostels offer complimentary breakfasts, and some go a little further with free snacks, drinks or even meals.

Whether you are a solo traveller or like to make new friends, there is almost always a common-room lounge or gathering area where people from all nationalities can mingle and share meals.

For the security-minded, most offer metal lockers to secure your possessions while you’re away for the day, but be sure to bring along your padlock.

Staying in a city can be pretty pricey. However, hostels are often centrally located, are well-appointed to the main attractions and public transportation, offer amenities and perks and are significantly cheaper than hotels in the same area.

HotelsCombined is a metasearch engine and aggregator hotel booking site finding the best deals on over 800,000 hotels and homes worldwide, airline tickets, holidays and car rentals.

You can compare deals from all top travel websites plus direct rates from hotel websites.

You can use the HotelsCombined app on most mobile and tablet devices. The app is available for users in more than 40 languages and 28 currencies, saving you time looking for translation tools or currency converters.

By taking advantage of the HotelsCombined user-friendly app, you can set Price Alerts on as many hotels as you like and receive notifications when prices drop by at least 10%. Email and push notifications are available.

All their hotel and home written reviews are by verified guests, which means HotelsCombined has confirmed from each property that the reviewer has stayed there and is an authentic visitor.

Register an account with HotelsCombined, and you will unlock even more benefits, such as access to secret deals with exclusive rates, access to searches across all your devices, and the ability to create and share lists of your favourite hotels with your friends.

Their Trips free feature assists with planning, building and managing your trip itinerary - by keeping all your bookings in one place with real-time updates and collaborating with others on the same trip.

Accor is the parent brand for Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis and other hotels. Accor Live Limitless (ALL), their loyalty program, has several European frequent flyer airline partners, as well as the major ones in the region for Australia.

John has been an ALL Gold member for over a decade. Many complimentary romantic and celebratory staycations have been thanks to our yearly membership renewal at ALL participating hotels.

When planning our next trip, we often search the ALL affiliate database of over 4,200 hotels in 95 countries — from economy to luxury brands — taking advantage of their membership discounts on hotel stays and their food and beverage.

Immediately we are notified by email of any event packages offered by participating hotels as exclusive members.

Take advantage of ALL exclusive benefits as soon as you join as a Classic member. And with every stay, you get closer to a higher status level (there are five levels) and enhanced benefits.

You can earn Reward points and Status points from each stay. For example, their Dining and Spa Rewards allows you to accumulate money spent and redeem voucher points on food and beverage (bar, restaurant, mini-bar, in-room dining, etc...) or spa services in the hotel. This benefit is offered from the Diamond status of ALL.

As a Gold status of ALL (level three), we get hotel members' rates, free Wi-FI, exclusive offers, partner benefits, welcome drinks, priority welcome, early check or late checkout, guaranteed room availability and room upgrades. For example, when making a reservation at the Ibis Styles Heraklion Central hotel, Crete, the website stated the hotel had no rooms available. Upon direct contact with the hotel and advising them we were an ALL member, a hotel room became available immediately. What is not to like?

Become an Accor Live Limitless Classic member of the ALL loyalty program and get discounts in more than 4,200 hotels starting with your first reservation. Join now - it's free!