Where are you going?

Start with a country, city, island, region or route. The more real-world context you add, the better the AI can judge comfort, location, recent reviews and practical trade-offs.

City or town (optional)

Leave blank to research the whole country. Enter a city or town to focus the search on it and the destinations within easy reach.

Search nearby towns by transport as well Include every town within 60 minutes by public transport (train preferred) of the city above, and don’t favour famous towns or tourist centres.

Great for finding better-value bases near expensive destinations — a quiet town one train stop away often beats the famous name. Needs a city or town above.

Travel dates or month (optional)

Add exact dates, a month, or a flexible season so the prompt can judge price and weather realistically.

Number of nights (optional)

Short stopovers and longer stays often need different hotel choices.

Trip scenario (optional)

Add the real context of your trip so the prompt can judge fit, not just price.

Deal-breakers (optional)

Tick anything that should strongly affect the shortlist.

Avoid poor recent reviews Avoid isolated locations Avoid noisy nightlife areas Avoid weak air conditioning Avoid hotels with dated rooms Avoid destinations with high safety or political risk Breakfast must be included or affordable Free cancellation preferred Walkable location preferred

What nightly price should the AI test?

Choose the price levels you want the AI to test. Lower prices are useful, but the prompt will still reject hotels with weak recent reviews, poor locations or unreliable basics.

EUR 50 Basic bargain Only worth using when recent reviews, location and basic comfort still look dependable. Included EUR 100 Good everyday value A useful ceiling for clean, central-enough hotels in lower-cost destinations or quiet seasons. Included EUR 200 Comfortable mid-range Allows better locations, quieter rooms and fewer compromises in many cities. Included EUR 250 Flexible comfort ceiling Useful for expensive cities, awkward dates or hotels that solve the practical trip especially well. Included

Select at least one price level. The prompt below updates automatically.

What kind of answer should the AI give?

Choose how detailed the output should be, then open and copy your prompt from the box below and paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.

Simple shortlist Best for choosing a dependable place to stay Deep research Best for comparing a full ordinary-hotel market

Generate your ordinary-hotel prompt

You are a practical hotel-finding assistant. Help me choose ordinary but genuinely good hotels for an upcoming trip to **[REGION]**.

By "ordinary but good", I mean hotels that are not trying to be luxury or special-occasion stays. I want clean rooms, dependable recent reviews, a sensible location, fair pricing, decent sleep, and no nasty surprises.

The hotel I'm hoping to find should make me think:

> "This is straightforward, well-run and exactly good enough for this trip."

I'm not chasing the cheapest room, a five-star label, or a hotel that looks impressive in marketing photos. I want the best practical hotel for the money. If a cheaper hotel is noisy, badly located, poorly maintained, unreliable, or full of recent complaints, reject it rather than trying to make it fit.

**A smaller, honest list is better than a padded one.** Do not invent weak options to hit a target number. If the market cannot support a good ordinary hotel at my budget, tell me plainly and say whether I should raise the budget, shift dates, change area, or use a nearby alternative.

---

### My budget

Always search these selected nightly price levels in order:
- **€50 or below**
- **€100 or below**
- **€200 or below**
- **€250 or below**

Use shoulder-season standard-room nightly rates, before taxes unless the source only shows tax-inclusive totals. Record the lowest selected level each hotel can meet, but do not promise that the rate is always available.

If a selected country or region has no credible hotel at **€50 or below**, do not leave the result blank. Display: **No credible hotel option found under €50**, then show the **next best 3 hotels above that level**, ranked by value and clearly marked as **Fallback above €50** results. Continue the wider search up to the highest selected level (€250). Apply the same fallback pattern to any selected level with no credible hotel options, using the matching fallback label for that level (**Fallback above €50**, **Fallback above €100**, **Fallback above €200**, **Fallback above €250**). If no credible hotel appears within the selected levels, list the next best 3 hotels above €250 and clearly mark them as **Fallback above €250** results.

When you check prices, assume a normal booking: 2 adults, a standard entry-level room, midweek nights in shoulder-season months unless I gave specific dates, and look at 1- and 2-night stays where you can. Note refundable and non-refundable rates separately if they differ a lot. If the only low rate is non-refundable, mobile-only, member-only, opaque, or a short-lived promotion, flag it and do not treat it as the normal price.

---

### Output mode - Simple shortlist

Use this output mode as the main shape of the answer. Keep it traveller-first and practical.

Give me the 5-8 strongest ordinary-but-good hotel options only. Do not produce a long market scan unless it is needed to explain why the destination has very few dependable choices.

For each hotel, include:
- Why it fits my trip
- Value score and trip-fit score
- Typical price range
- What kind of ordinary hotel it really is
- Best for
- Not ideal for
- Main drawback
- What to verify before booking

After the shortlist, give me one clear recommendation: the hotel you would check first, and why.

---

### Step 1 - Where should I base myself in [REGION]?

If I have not named a specific city or neighbourhood, first suggest the places worth considering. Prioritise areas where ordinary hotels are reliable, well located for a normal traveller, and fairly priced.

For each possible base, tell me briefly:
- Why it is practical
- Whether ordinary hotels there are usually good value
- What it is best for
- A rough safety level for ordinary travellers: Low / Moderate / High

Skip anywhere you would rate **High** risk unless there is a strong reason to mention it. If you considered a place and ruled it out, note it in one line with the reason: poor hotel stock, weak transport, safety, dull area, too remote, or overpriced.

Treat serious safety or political risk as a hard filter unless I explicitly ask you to consider higher-risk destinations. For normal neighbourhood-level safety, reflect my traveller-fit priorities: a cheaper hotel in a less convenient or less comfortable area can still be mentioned, but it should lose trip-fit points and carry a clear warning.

---

### Step 2 - Find the best ordinary hotels

For each place worth staying, apply my budget above and find the strongest ordinary hotel options. Favour hotels with:

- Consistently good recent reviews
- Cleanliness and maintenance that still look solid
- Useful location for my trip, not just a low price
- Quiet enough rooms or clear room-choice advice
- Working basics: air conditioning or heating where relevant, Wi-Fi, beds, bathrooms, check-in, and luggage practicality
- Fair pricing compared with similar hotels nearby

Check Booking.com, Google Hotels, Tripadvisor, Agoda, Expedia, recent review snippets and the hotel's own site where useful. Before you trust a hotel's review strength, scan negative and mixed reviews from the last 12-18 months for recurring complaints: dirty rooms, tired bathrooms, poor soundproofing, weak air conditioning, uncomfortable beds, bad smells, weak breakfast, unreliable service, construction, surprise fees, unsafe surroundings, or misleading photos.

Do not include a weak luxury hotel or old five-star just because the rate looks low. A plain three-star or four-star hotel with excellent recent evidence can beat a tired higher-rated hotel for this task. Mark apartment-style stays, guesthouses, aparthotels and airport hotels clearly so I understand the trade-off.

---

### Step 3 - Score and compare the options

List the strongest options you find - up to roughly 8-12, or as few as genuinely exist in a small market. For each:

**Hotel name and location**

**What kind of ordinary hotel it is** (pick one):
- Dependable budget hotel
- Good mid-range hotel
- Simple chain hotel done well
- Guesthouse / small inn
- Aparthotel / serviced apartment
- Practical airport or station hotel
- Boutique or characterful ordinary hotel
- Borderline / only if very cheap

**Typical nightly price** (standard room, shoulder season or my dates, in EUR; note the rate you saw and roughly when)

**Lowest budget level it fits** (pick one):
- Under €50
- Under €100
- Under €200
- Under €250
- Fallback above €50
- Fallback above €100
- Fallback above €200
- Fallback above €250

**Review score** (Booking.com or Google, with the rough number of reviews so I know it is reliable)

**Evidence line** - so I can trust the recommendation:
- Review-score source and the date you checked
- Price source and the rough date you checked
- Recent reviews scanned? yes / no
- Recurring complaints found? yes / no, with one-line summary
- Your confidence: High / Medium / Low

Use at least two independent sources where possible. Do not rely on the hotel's own site alone for reviews, price or quality claims.

**Value score out of 100**, built from these six factors:

| What I'm judging | Max | Score |
|---|---:|---:|
| Cleanliness, maintenance and recent review consistency | 25 | |
| Location usefulness for this trip | 20 | |
| Price fairness vs comparable ordinary hotels nearby | 20 | |
| Sleep comfort and noise risk | 15 | |
| Room practicality, breakfast and facilities | 10 | |
| Hidden drawbacks, safety and booking risk | 10 | |
| **Total** | **100** | |

Score each line and total to 100. Do not award points for looking luxurious unless it also improves the practical stay.

**Rating** (from the score):
- 85-100: Excellent ordinary hotel
- 75-84: Very good practical pick
- 65-74: Good with caveats
- 55-64: Only if the price or location is unusually useful
- Below 55: Reject for now

**Trip-fit score out of 100**

Also give each hotel a separate **Trip-fit score /100**. This should reflect how well the hotel fits my specific trip details, traveller profile, priorities and deal-breakers. Do not merge this into the value score.

Use this scale:
- 85-100: Excellent fit for this trip
- 75-84: Strong fit
- 65-74: Good fit with some compromises
- 55-64: Conditional fit
- Below 55: Poor fit for this trip

If I have not provided many trip details, base the trip-fit score on general traveller practicality: location usefulness, safety, recent review consistency, comfort, ease of arrival, and whether the hotel makes sense for a normal short stay.

**One line on why I'd book it**
**One honest line on what might annoy me**

---

### Step 4 - Rule out the weak options

Drop any hotel that:

- Has weak or inconsistent recent reviews. As a guide, prefer Booking.com 8.0+ or Google 4.2+ unless other current evidence strongly explains the score.
- Regularly prices above €250 per night even in shoulder season, unless included only as one of the clearly marked fallback hotels requested because no selected price level produced credible hotel options
- Looks cheap mainly because it is run-down, poorly maintained or badly located
- Has recurring recent complaints about cleanliness, noise, air conditioning, beds, bathrooms, service, safety or surprise fees
- Is inconvenient for the trip I described
- Is in an area you would flag as unsafe for an ordinary traveller
- Uses misleading photos or confusing room categories

Tell me which tempting hotels you dropped and why.

---

### Step 5 - Give me a shortlist

Rank the survivors by value score in a clean table:

| Rank | Hotel | Place | Type | Lowest budget level | Price range (EUR) | Value score | Trip-fit score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---:|---:|---:|---|

Then for my **top 3-5**, add a fuller picture:

- Why it is a sensible practical pick
- What kind of traveller it suits
- The best nearby area, transport, restaurant or sightseeing advantages
- The main drawback or room type to avoid
- What I must verify before booking
- A direct booking link (clean Booking.com, Google Hotels or hotel URL) so I can check the live rate

---

### Step 6 - Honourable mentions and traps

Briefly list any hotels I might be tempted by but should probably skip - name, location, and the one reason to pass. This saves me from booking something that looks good but is not actually dependable.

---

### Bottom line

In 2-3 sentences, tell me straight: does **[REGION]** at my budget genuinely deliver ordinary but good hotels, or would I do better to raise my budget, change dates, or choose a different base? If there is a clear winner, say which hotel I would check first.

---

### How to answer

- Be direct and practical.
- Only suggest hotels you can actually verify. If you are unsure of a price or score, say so rather than inventing it.
- Prices change constantly with season, demand, room type, taxes, cancellation policy and promotions, so treat every figure as indicative and remind me to check the live rate before booking.
- Use the exact category and rating labels above.
- Keep the shortlist table clean and easy to copy.

Choose a destination to make the brief copy-ready.

Factor	Weight
Cleanliness, maintenance and recent review consistency	25%
Location usefulness for the trip	20%
Price fairness versus comparable ordinary hotels	20%
Sleep comfort and noise risk	15%
Room practicality, breakfast and facilities	10%
Hidden drawbacks, safety and booking risk	10%

Find ordinary
but good hotels

From a practical need to a dependable shortlist

Name the place you need to stay

Set a realistic nightly ceiling

Tell us what good means

Pick the AI you trust

Copy it, paste it, avoid regret

Answer five questions, get one useful prompt

Suggested manual searches

Before booking, check the basics

How the ordinary finder judges hotels

The scoring system

What gets rejected

Verdict labels

What to check before booking

Need something more special?

Try the luxury-value finder

Find your best month

Find ordinarybut good hotels