Failing to do my research, I headed to a city with no hotel rooms available

Many years ago, on my first overseas trip, I arrived in Paris without a clue where I was going to stay.

It was not entirely my fault. The magazine I worked for had booked a room for me – they just didn’t tell me where it was. This was in the days before email.

So, when I arrived in Paris very late at night on the train from Milan, I still didn’t know what hotel it might be. I only had a vague idea of the names of a few hotels they were considering.

The writer arrived in Athens during peak season, the same weekend as the wedding of Princess Theodora of Greece.Credit: Getty Images

Luckily, I’d been chatting to an American woman on the train. She kindly offered me a ride in her hire car, and we drove around Paris going from hotel to hotel until we found it.

I’m embarrassed how naive I was to think I could lob into Paris and magically find accommodation.

I’m wiser now. Maybe.

Recently, I found myself once again about to arrive in a major European city without any clue where I was to stay.

I’d never been to Athens before, and I planned to spend a few days there at the end of a cruise. But my timing was appalling.

On that weekend, Athens was hosting the wedding of Princess Theodora of Greece, and minor royals and European high society were flying in to attend. Combined with high season in Greece, that meant an extreme shortage of rooms. (A word to the wise – check if there’s a major event in a destination before planning a trip.)

Usually, I have a little black book of contacts who can help. No dice.

I started to wonder if I might be sleeping in a share room in a youth hostel. Maybe bunk beds would be fun?

Two nights out I had no confirmed hotel bed that was affordable.

And then a contact at Booking.com came to the rescue.

Because of my work I tend to go directly to hotels to book rather than use third-party agents (Michael Gebicki has a good explainer here).

But even with its huge inventory, Booking.com had shown very low availability when I’d first looked. In the end, I found a little boutique hotel, The Gatsby, in a lively central neighbourhood, which had one room left. Phew.

It proved to be a gem. It was one of the member hotels in Booking.com’s free-to-join Genius program, which unlocks discounted stays at more than 390,000 participating properties worldwide.

Genius is similar to the loyalty programs run by hotel groups, except the choice is wider across hundreds of brands and independents. Only hotels with strongly positive reviews and higher ratings are accepted into the program and identified by a blue logo.

Genius members can earn perks, depending on their tier of membership – free breakfasts, room upgrades, priority support, discounted car-hire and free airport transfers.

So that I could experience how the program worked, Booking.com enrolled me in the highest category, Level 3.

Level 1 is open to everyone. To reach Level 2, I needed to complete five accommodation bookings within two years; for Level 3 it’s 15 hotel bookings in that time frame. I’d earn credits and vouchers from multiple stays. Each booking, whether it’s two or seven nights, is a stay. Once you reach a tier, you’re there for life.

Rewards can be paid to your credit card or electronic “wallet”. My wallet was loaded with credits, so I could see how it worked.

I got a 20 per cent discount on the hotel, not insignificant, and a lavish free breakfast. Some hotels offer free airport transfers.

It was easy to book experiences by transferring credits in the wallet. I was able to book a complimentary airport taxi, the hop-on-hop-off bus for 48 hours, a food tour, and entry to some of Athens’ museums, including the new Acropolis Museum. There was an array of tours and experiences on offer.

OK, I was sponsored and fast-tracked. Normally, I would have needed to make many hotel bookings over two years to reach Level 3.

The scheme is primarily for frequent travellers, as are most loyalty programs. If you are happy with a certain hotel brand you might prefer to stay with that.

For me, I thought the advantage was the choice of different kinds of hotels and apartments at a time when they were scarce.

I didn’t have to sleep in that bunk bed after all.

The writer was a guest of Booking.com