How to find cheap or free travel accommodation all around the world

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Why not to save money on accommodation or stay for free while travelling?

We’ve compiled a list of useful websites where you can find the best prices of hotels or stay for free.

During our travels we have used almost all of these websites and have had positive experience of finding free or cheap travel accommodation.

If we have missed something, please comment below and add your tips.

1) TripAdvisor

Trip Advisor is a great site to start planning your trip. Not only you can book accommodation for a good price on this website, but there are also millions of reviews on hotels, restaurants, places and things to do. All these reviews are other travellers’ opinions.

It’s worth checking out this website to save up to 25% on your hotel & see millions of reviews before setting off.

2) Booking.com

Booking.com is also a good resource of hotel reviews. It’s a booking site for hotels, guest houses and hostels. We like this website because the booking process is straightforward, most hotels are cheaper here than if booked directly at the hotel and there are always special deals.

Tropical Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

3) Agoda

Agoda is one of the best sites to book hostels and hotels all around the world. You will find all kinds of accommodation here, from low budget hotels to luxury ones.

This booking site is easy to navigate and is full of discounts.

Agoda has got a nice reward points system too. When you book through Agoda you earn points for every booking (4-7% of the booking) which are converted to cash value and can be used in your future bookings.

4) Hotels.com

Hotels.com is another handy hotel booking website on which you can see special deals and discounts. They have got a reward programme – collect 10 nights and get 1 for free.

5) HostelWorld & Hostelbookers

HostelWorld and Hostelbookers are two best hostel booking websites with lots of hostel reviews and information for budget travellers. It’s easy to book.

If you want to meet other travellers and don’t mind staying in a dormitory, then these two websites are for you. In most hostels you may book a room just for yourself too, but a bed in a dormitory should be a cheaper option if you travel on your own.

Stunning landscapes of South Island, New Zealand

6) AirBnb

Airbnb connects travellers with people who rent out their homes or other properties. You can rent a room, a studio, a bigger flat or even a whole house for any length of time.

Staying in Airbnb place might be different from staying in a hotel because you have a chance to meet someone local, if you rent just a room. The flats or houses are often in a part of the place you are travelling to which is not so touristy, and you get all the comfort of a home.

If you sign-up for Airbnb using the link here, you’ll get 25 USD off your first stay anywhere in the world!

Free travel accommodation all around the world

7) Home Exchange

Have you heard about Home Exchange?

Home Exchange is an alternative way of spending your holiday; you stay in someone’s home while they stay in yours. With 65,000 house listings in 150 countries of the world, Home Exchange is the best house swapping website available on the Internet, and also the most economical one (currently the annual membership costs 150 USD).

Once you agree with another member of Home Exchange, accommodation in their house is free while they stay in yours. Cars are often exchanged, too.

How does it work?

If you like the idea of spending a holiday in someone else’s house, whether it’s in the next city or on the other side of the world, you just sign up on Home Exchange, list your house there and start browsing other listings.

Once you find your ideal house for a home exchange, contact the owners. You will be contacted by members of Home Exchange who like your listing and are interested in swapping their house for yours. When you find each other, simply arrange your home exchange.

Home Exchange allows you to swap your house as many times as you want and live like a local in exciting locations!

Fabulous beach in Ulladulla, Australia

8) Trusted Housesitters

Trusted Housesitters is a house sitting website.

What is house sitting?

When home and pet owners from all over the world go away (on a holiday, a business trip, or to visit a family abroad), they need a house and pet sitter to take care of their house or a flat and their pets (dogs, cats, fish, rabbits, turtle, even horses) if they have any.

It’s for free for both sides, but sometimes the owners ask sitters to pay the bills if they house sit for a longer period of time.

We have done a research on all house sitting websites that are available and consider Trusted Housesitters to be the best one because it allows you to browse though house sitting opportunities from all around the world for free.

You are asked to pay a fee to join the website if you want to contact the homeowners, after you have gone through all the listings and have decided to become a house sitter.

Other house sitting websites don’t let you view the house sitting opportunities until you pay a fee.

We registered at Trusted Housesitters about half a year ago and have house sit three times since then (in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand). The fees were different from the current ones.

Now you have three options and the cheapest one is to pay a membership for a year ahead which costs 7.99 USD per month. Considering that you can house sit for weeks or months at beautiful places, very often in luxurious houses and/or exotic destinations, the fee is insignificant.

Here you can sign up if you’d like to become a house and pet sitter, or just browse through house sitting opportunities on Trusted Housesitters.

House sitting is suitable for long-term travellers, as well as short-term travellers who would like to visit interesting places like London, Paris, Greece, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Seychelles, New Zealand, Hawaii … (the list and opportunities with Trusted Housesitters are endless) and save money on accommodation.

9) Couchsurfing

The main idea behind Couchsurfing is a cultural exchange and meeting people from other parts of the world.

Couchsurfing is a website which connects travellers who want to meet the locals and/or stay with them, and local people who are interested in meeting or/and hosting travellers who are just visiting their town/area.

You can sign up and create your detailed profile for free and then send requests to hosts in the place you’re going to. Staying with hosts is for free too.

Sometimes you get a real couch in a living room but very often a separate room.

We signed up a few years ago and since then have met lovely local people in different countries all around the world. We like Couchsurfing; we have made friends all over the world thanks to it and are still in touch with some of them.

To read more about Couchsurfing and our experience, read our post How to use couch surfing to travel the world

10)Warm Showers

Warm Showers is a community for cyclists and hosts. The concept is similar to Couchsurfing, but the hosts offer their place to touring cyclists only. We don’t have any experience using Warm Showers but have heard good things from travellers on a bike.

11) WOOFing, Work Away, Helpx

The concept of these three websites is to volunteer 4-6 hours daily Monday to Friday in exchange for accommodation and food.

On WOOFing you can find volunteering opportunities on farms all over the world. There is always a fee to pay for a year long membership. This fee differs depending on a country.

WorkAway offers volunteering opportunities in teaching English, helping in hostels and animal sanctuaries, gardening, farming etc. If you want to join the cost is 29 USD for 2 years for a single person, or 38 USD for two years for two people who are travelling together and want to volunteer.

HelpX has similar projects. It’s free to create a helper ‘s profile so that hosts can contact you if they are looking for helpers. If you would like to contact hosts, there’s a fee 20 euro to be paid for the Premium membership which is valid two years.

12) Sleeping at the airports

If your flight out is in the morning or you are flying in late in the night and you need a place to stay, one option is to sleep at the airport. It might sounds weird, but believe it or not, there’re a lot of travellers who stay at airports overnight before or after their flight, get (mostly) free wifi, have a shower and some sleep.

Sleepinginairport.net is a website with information and reviews about airports all over the globe.

13) Camping

If you carry a camping gear with you, you have the freedom to camp at places in the nature where other travellers don’t go because of the lack of accommodation options. Some official camp sites require you to pay a fee but you always find your own spot to avoid paying.

We love camping; it’s always so relaxing to spent time in the nature surrounded by nothing more than stunning landscape, sounds of birds and stars at night.

Our favourite spots for free camping have been a free campsite called The Pines by Lake Pukaki in New Zealand, a free campsite in Penang National Park, Chao Mai beach and Ko Tarutao island in the south-west of Thailand.

To be independent and free to camp, you just need:

a waterproof tent that is spacious enough for you and your backpack/s; if it’s two of you travelling and going to camp, get a tent for 4 people otherwise your backpacks won’t fit
a sleeping bag, especially if you’re camping at places where it gets cold at night
a camping mat
a camping pillow

and/or a hammock.