I have settled into a routine of booking hostels or hotels ahead if I am arriving on a weekend, or I have a long ride that day and need to know I have a bed for the night. Otherwise I will do an online search of hostels/hotels in my target town, and if I see they have lots of vacancies I will note their location on gps and try them first when I arrive. For this I will either use Hostelworld.com or similar, or a site called Booking.com.
The problem with an Internet based booking system is that the hotel needs to pay attention to when they have a booking!
Case of point, yesterday!
I had a mondo day, a 350 mile ride from the town of Nazca to a tiny Southern rural town called Corire, which was to be my starting point to a few days of canyon exploring. The only accommodation I could find on the Internet for this town was the Hotel Pasada Picardo, which I booked on Booking.com and paid a non-refundable $30 - at least twice the base rate so far, but I wanted the security at the end of this long ride.
And indeed the ride was a doozy. As soon as I left Nazca I was on wide open, wind swept desert roads with a 20 mph head wind and wind blown sand everywhere. This went on for hours, and I was really relieved when after 300 miles of this, I finally turned onto a tiny canyon road that ran along the canyon base to the town of Corire.
I found the hotel easily using the gps location I had noted the day before, but ended up on a rural road at a set of closed gates about 1 mile out of the small town, on the other side of a maze of farm trails. The premises had no sign, no road name and no road number!?
After riding up and down the road a few times I realized this must be the place, but I could find no bell, and a main gate was locked. I asked a neighbour in a simple wattle home, and they confirmed it was the right place. After 1/2 hour I found a doorbell on an unmarked side door. No answer.
The sun settled lower, still no signs of life. I asked the 2 other immediate neighbours and no one knew where the owner could be. After 2 hours, with the sun behind the canyon walls and dusk arriving I wrote a note with my Booking.com reference and details, wedged it in the gate's padlock, and started to ride away to find a hostel in the town.
As I left, I passed 2 simple houses 1/4 mile away and I decided to have one last go .... Bingo, turned out that one of the tenents was the gardener for the hostel! He called the owner, and she was on her way. Meanwhile he unlocked the gate and we sat on a step and chatted over some peanuts whilst we waited.
She arrived 20 minutes later, expressing surprise that she had a guest, saying her Internet didn't work so she hadn't known about the Booking.com reservation.
Within 30 minutes of me settling in she was hosting a dinner party for 6 of her friends.
Feeling very awkward about asking for food, I retired to my room and had half a bag of mixed nuts and some water to wash it down.
