Bav­ina Sookdeo

You have saved the mon­ey, searched for the per­fect des­ti­na­tion, know where you're go­ing to vis­it, eat and par­ty, and your flight is booked. You are fi­nal­ly tak­ing that dream va­ca­tion!

But where are you go­ing to rest your head? Are you go­ing for that 'home away from home ex­pe­ri­ence' or do you just need a place to sleep be­fore wak­ing up to an itin­er­ary of ad­ven­tures? To help you with your de­ci­sion, we have gath­ered some in­for­ma­tion on what to ex­pect when seek­ing hol­i­day lodg­ing.

Guest House

A guest house is larg­er than a typ­i­cal bed and break­fast space. The costs usu­al­ly in­clude break­fast with the room rate and are not li­censed to serve al­co­holic bev­er­ages. Some are quite sim­ple and in­ex­pen­sive while oth­ers are large and may be like small ho­tels.

This type of ac­com­mo­da­tion is rat­ed one to four stars (one to five di­a­monds in UK) based on clean­li­ness, qual­i­ty of food, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and ser­vice, and whether or not they of­fer at­tached bath­rooms. Un­like the bed and break­fast where own­ers and their guests live un­der the same roof, at a guest­house the own­er or man­ag­er lives sep­a­rate­ly from the guests.

Ho­tel

A ho­tel pro­vides lodg­ing, meals and many oth­er guest ser­vices and lux­u­ries such as Jacuzzis, gyms, pools, restau­rants, room ser­vice, ca­ble tele­vi­sion and In­ter­net con­nec­tiv­i­ty. Due to the large size, many ho­tels of­fer a shut­tle ser­vice. Ho­tels are clas­si­fied in­to stars (1 to 5 stars), which vary, but in gen­er­al the rates are like this:

�2 A 1-Star ho­tel, while of­fer­ing lim­it­ed ameni­ties and ser­vices, sticks to a high stan­dard of fa­cil­i­ty-wide clean­li­ness.

�2 A 2-Star ho­tel pro­vides good ac­com­mo­da­tion and bet­ter equipped bed­rooms, each with a tele­phone and at­tached pri­vate bath­room.

�2 A 3-Star ho­tel has more spa­cious rooms and adds high-class dec­o­ra­tions and fur­nish­ings and colour TV. It al­so of­fers one or more bars or lounges.

�2 A 4-Star ho­tel is much more com­fort­able and larg­er, and pro­vides ex­cel­lent cui­sine, room ser­vice, and oth­er ameni­ties.

�2 A 5-Star ho­tel of­fers the most lux­u­ri­ous premis­es, widest range of guest ser­vices, as well as swim­ming pool and sport and ex­er­cise fa­cil­i­ties.

Bed and Break­fast

This type of ac­com­mo­da­tion of­fers just what it im­plies � a bed and break­fast (break­fast is in­clud­ed with the price of the room). They range from sim­ple to lux­u­ri­ous, but usu­al­ly this type of ac­com­mo­da­tion is some­one's pri­vate home con­vert­ed for this pur­pose.

Most of the time with a bed and break­fast, the bath­room pro­vid­ed for the guest is shared with the fam­i­ly or an­oth­er guest. This is chang­ing, how­ev­er, as many guests re­quest a pri­vate bath­room. The good thing about this ac­com­mo­da­tion is that your in­di­vid­ual needs will be met (if pos­si­ble), spe­cial di­ets may be pro­vid­ed and there are no long lines at the reg­is­tra­tion desk.

Re­sort

If you re­al­ly want re­lax­ation, then a re­sort is the place for you. Stay­ing here will free you from your every­day re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. Staff will look af­ter you and of­fer mas­sages, meals, cos­met­ic treat­ments and live en­ter­tain­ment. Dif­fer­ent re­sorts pro­vide dif­fer­ent ex­pe­ri­ences. Some cater for na­ture lovers while oth­ers cater for the more ath­let­ic in­di­vid­u­als or even busi­ness­men.

There are those that are de­vel­oped like cities, with shop­ping malls and even long-term hous­ing for those who want an ex­tend­ed stay. This type of ac­com­mo­da­tion is al­so rat­ed one to five stars and this is based on ser­vices and ameni­ties of­fered.

So de­cide what you want for your va­ca­tion, choose wise­ly and en­joy!