LateRooms.com

While looking to see if I could find a better deal for a hotel which may be more reliable with my booking than the Paragon was on my last visit to Birmingham, I decided to check out some of the hotel booking sites offered on the various cashback websites I use. One which appears on all of them was laterooms.com.

So navigating to the site via the cashbacksite I am greeted by a fairly busy but easily negotiated home page. The bit which most interested me was the bright orange box on the right with a box for typing your destination, either postcode, town name or local attraction. Below this you can enter your arrival date, the number of nights you want a room and then the number of people you want to sleep in the room.

So for my purposes, it was Birmingham, later this month and 2 people. The next page shows you a simple map of the area in the centre of the screen with 'Quick Search' options down the side. Given the desire to not spend too many of my vodka tokens I click on the 'Best Deals' tab but there are also 4&5 Star, Big Savers, Disabled Access, 10 Rooms or less, and budget beds.

The results can be arranged in alphabetical order by hotel name, among other things. After name of the hotel is the distance it is from the chosen search option. The name of the location, the guest rating, the star rating, then the cost for the nights before and after the night you wish to start your stay on and that night.

From this table you should be able to work out which is a good option for your planned hotel stay, for further details on the hotel simply click the hotels name in the list. This page allows you to read the comments other people have made on the standard of their stay in the hotel . Maps and directions, a full description of the hotels facilities, a photo galler, a brief city guide for the area the hotel is in and location reviews to go with this.

From these details you should be able to choose a hotel that should meet your requirements, for me once again I went for the cheap and not so cheerful option, since once again my plan is to use the room for passing out after a hard afternoon/evening/nights partying. To book click the really difficult to find 'make a booking tab' where once again you are given a list of avaliable hotel room options.

Interestingly the price for the room I booked yesterday has gone up by over £10 already! So I'm glad I booked it when I did now.

Once you select which option and how many people (again) you can click proceed which takes you through to the payment page. At this point you need to give them the usual personal details, name, address, then the details of the person for whom the room is being booked (for example I've booked rooms for my boss through the site) then fill in card details to make the reservation, though your card wont be charged as you have to pay for the room on check out from the hotel itself.

Once the card has been verified you are given a printable page with a booking reference, but this is emailled to you as well.

Overall my experience booking online through this site has been good so far, unlike my previous attempts I have recieved a booking confirmation email. I fully understand my choice of hotel is about as grotty as the last one from looking at reviews but that isnt an issue for my purposes. The site is rather busy and does have a lot of information on it but if all you want is to check room avaliabilities its a very simple process.

And the cashback site has the cashback tracked within 24 hours.