trivago (it is correctly spelled here with an annoying small 't') is a huge price comparison website for hotels around the world - you just put in the city or hotel you want plus the dates and it’ll list prices quoted by different online travel companies. Basically it saves bookers time looking on dozens of individual websites for the cheapest quote. And it is amazing how varied the costs can be. At the time of writing this, they have over 750,000 hotels registered and 200 websites.
I have used this site on a lot of occasions. I tend to read reviews on trivago and TripAdvisor first to get a feel for what I want - an honest look at how far the hotel is to the sights I want to see, how good the breakfast tastes, how nice the receptionist is and that kind thing. Then I use trivago to find me the best price per night the lazy way.
How to make it even cheaper
I’ve stumbled on a good way to make staying in a hotel a whole lot cheaper. By becoming a trivago hotel tester and getting back roughly half the price paid for the room.
What they are offering to hotel testers is the chance to do a detailed review of a stay in one of their selected hotels, and in return the tester gets a cash payment.
The way it works is - there are set hotels in certain cities offered at anyone time. Right now there are 30 European cities participating. As a traveller you make the booking for one of these hotels in the usual way on the trivago website, paying full price for it. Then you forward your booking confirmation on and you will receive back some preliminary questions. This part should take about 10 minutes and is to establish booking patterns, thoughts and considerations you might have. Then there are a number of detailed questions to answer during the stay as well, which take about 45 minutes. This is all done online. You do have to complete this part quite quickly after the nights in the hotel - there is a tight deadline so it's important to get it finished promptly. Once this is all complete, then the agreed cash is deposited straight into your bank account, usually within 14 days, which isn't too bad.
When you register you should be told almost immediately whether you have been accepted as a tester. You shouldn't progress to the next stage until this has happened.
When you log on as a tester, there is a list on the left-hand side telling you which cities are available and how many hotels are available to test. When you select your city it shows the hotels, the price comparison list, and the incentive amount. The selection isn't always that wide and there might not be anything on there that interests you, so keep going back until there is.
The only requirements seem to be that you have to be over 18 and you are limited to one testing a month. There is a lot of detail on their FaQ page and it all seems quite transparent. It’s worth looking through that before you book, just in case there’s something that you're not happy with.
