Hotels & guesthouses:  Booking.com

I use Booking.com for 3 reasons:  (1) It keeps all my hotel bookings together in one place; (2) I've come to trust Booking.com's review scores; (3) Booking.com usually offers a clearly-marked Free cancellation option.  Free cancellation means I can secure hotels risk-free even before trains are open for booking, and if necessary I can change those bookings as my plans evolve.

Location, location, location:  If staying only a night or two, I look for a hotel near the station to make arrival & departure easy. You can enter the station name (e.g. Berlin Hbf) as search location.  If staying longer, I look for a hotel close to the sights, entering the name of a city attraction as the search location, then using map view.

Review score:  I then look for a hotel with a review score of 8.0 or over, any hotel scoring over that won't disappoint.

Hostels & cheap rooms:  Hostelworld.com

Hostelworld.com is the place for cheap but safe backpacker hostels in major towns and cities in Europe & worldwide.  Not just dorms, they offer budget private rooms too.

Rent a cottage

If renting a house or cottage for a week or two is what you need, for UK & Ireland I can recommend www.sykescottages.co.uk.

Air BnB:  www.airbnb.com

www.airbnb.com began in 2008 when two designers who had space to share hosted three travellers looking for a place to stay.  You can now book rooms in people's homes, or apartments, flats or houses people want to rent out.

Recommended hotels in European cities...

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