Since the time I quit my job and converted into a full time traveller, I am often in search of budget accommodations when I am travelling across India - places that are hardly listed in sites like www.makemytrip.com and www.yatra.com. Few weeks back when I came across some Stayzilla ads, I thought, “Let me give it a try.” And so it happened that I installed the Stayzilla app on my Android phone, only to be surprised by its pros.
Pros:
1. Budget Range - Stayzilla lists rooms as low as Rs. 300 per day. This is heavenly for travellers like me. Earlier it was hardly possible to find these places online. For that range, the best bet was to land up at a place and bargain hard on spot. But as I surfed through the App, I was quite surprised to find such rooms too.
2. Search Process - The search process is very user friendly. Once you enter the city or the location of the city around where you need the accommodation, your options are listed, which are more or less in and around that area.
3. Sorting – The accommodations listed can be sorted as per distance, price (low to high & high to low) and popularity. Now that’s an absolute necessity while browsing for hotels.
4. Filters – Once your results are sorted as per your need, you can further zero in on suitable options by using the filters. The most useful of the filters is of course the ‘Price Range’ one. Then there is the ‘Amenities’ filter which has many options, but the most useful ones are Wi-Fi, 24 hour check-in and Breakfast. The third filter, ‘Type of Stay’, lets you select the kind of accommodation you prefer out of hotels, resorts, homestays, guest houses and serviced apartments.
5. Guest or Host – Since Stayzilla has partnered with homestays, it goes without saying that if you have space in your home, you can easily list yourself as hosts too. And it’s not like just anyone will land up at your home. The Stayzilla App has a ‘Tribe’ feature, which lets you can find like-minded people based on common interests.
Cons :
1. Live Chat – The App has a ‘Live Chat’ option where you can shoot your queries at the Stayzilla representatives. Somehow my queries never got answered through the live chat.
2. Bugs – The App has some bugs that need to be fixed. Apart from hanging a couple of time, I couldn’t find a way to change my profile type. You are given 3 options when you login to the App for the first time – Guest, Host or Both. Looks like whatever you select is irreversible, as there is no profile change option in the App, which makes this a little tricky if you had initially selected ‘Guest’ and wanted to change it to ‘Both’, if later on you decide to host too.
If Stayzilla sorts these issues out, I’m sure it will be a nice ‘Go to’ website/App for booking budget accommodations in India.
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Disclaimer : This is an App review and not a complete review by booking and staying through Stayzilla.
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