Skip the Boring Hotels! How to Find Unique Places to Stay
When most people look for accommodation, they simply go right to their favorite booking engine or click on the first link to “the top hotels in x”. Well, if you’re wondering how to find unique places to stay, then this is not at all what you should be doing.
The best spots are often discovered through inspiration, not algorithms – and since we learned these small tricks we’ve stayed in everything from boutique hotels built int caves to glass capsules hanging off the side of a mountain. Booking a place to stay is oftentimes part of the adventure, and we’re here to make sure you don’t miss out on all the cool hotels & Airbnbs out there.
In this guide, we’re breaking down the exact ways we find unique places to stay around the world, using platforms and tricks that consistently lead us to memorable, non-generic accommodations.
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How to Find Unique Places to Stay: The Basics & What Makes a Place “Unique”
Before learning how to find unique places to stay, it helps to understand what actually makes an accommodation feel special. Many of the most memorable stays don’t label themselves as unique, and they’re often easy to overlook at first.
Once you know what to look for and why these places can be harder to find, figuring out how to find unique places to stay becomes much more intentional, and far less overwhelming.
⭐️ What We Actually Mean by “Unique Places to Stay”
Some of the most unique places to stay are defined more by details than by a broad category. This might be a family-run guesthouse, a thoughtfully designed apartment, or a small boutique hotel that reflects its surroundings rather than a global brand.
Some of the unique places we’ve stayed were special because they featured one thing that set them apart. Whether it’s wild animals roaming around, floating breakfasts, or incredible views for sunrise, there’s more out there than you can imagine! From glamping on a budget to staying in boutique hotels, there are so many things that can make a property unique.
Understanding that there are so many more options than hotels is the key to learning how to find unique places to stay, especially if you’re used to using basic booking platforms.
👩🏻💻 Why it’s Harder to Find Unique Places to Stay When You Search
When searching for accommodation, the algorithms really favor big corporations. There’s a reason that when you look up the best places to stay you always see places like Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt. These are worldwide brands – and while they’re in traveler’s comfort zones, they are far from the best.
One reason people struggle with how to find unique places to stay is visibility. The more unique, smaller accommodations, often don’t invest heavily in online marketing or paid search placement. So naturally, you’re going to see all of the big guys pushed to the top, while the smaller, more underrated accommodation options are more hidden.
This also goes for big publications and magazines. who tend to feature properties that are more well-known.
🙅🏻♀️ Why Traditional Travel Agencies Rarely Offer Unique Stays
Just like the top search results online, traditional travel agencies tend to work with large hotels, resorts, and all-inclusive properties. These businesses have the resources to participate in booking networks and offer discounts or commissions to agents.
Most truly unique places to stay are one-of-a-kind properties with limited rooms, which makes them difficult to sell through agency systems.
When we plan your trip, we don’t use bigger platforms. We do extensive research to find the most special and unique stays out there, so you’re not just staying in a mediocre hotel that looks like it could be anywhere.
🤸🏻♀️ The Role of Flexibility When Choosing Unique Accommodations
Flexibility plays a big role when booking unique places to stay. Smaller properties often have stricter availability, minimum stay requirements, or fewer open dates.
This is important to keep in mind because you may have to switch your dates around if you want to stay in a specific place. We had to completely flip our 6-week itinerary to stay in the hanging capsules in Peru, but it was totally worth it!
Being open to nearby neighborhoods or slightly adjusting your travel dates can make the difference between a generic stay and a memorable one.
How to Find Unique Places to Stay
This is where the search actually gets interesting. Once you stop relying only on just regular booking platforms and basic travel guides, finding unique places to stay becomes much more rewarding.
The methods below are the ones we use most often when figuring out how to find unique places to stays in any destination around the globe.
📝 Use Travel Blogs to Find Unique Places to Stay
Travel blogs are one of the best resources for learning how to find unique places to stay. Bloggers often share the exact accommodations they’ve personally stayed in, including smaller guesthouses and boutique hotels.
While the top results often show generic results, you can head to smaller bloggers to really get some cool places. We personally do a lot of research to share unique accommodation options, and some bloggers also do round-up posts where they get other bloggers to contribute the best places they know.
We only do hotel guides when we know a place VERY well. For example, we’ve stayed at and visited over 50 hotels in Cappadocia, and even though our guides don’t rank at the top, we’re confident our recommendations are better than the generic websites out there.
📲 Use Social Media to Discover Unique Places to Stay
Social media has become one of the fastest ways to see what a place actually looks like. Many creators share accommodations casually in reels and vlogs, making it easier to spot unique places to stay in real-life conditions.
Searching for phrases like “where to stay in” followed by a destination often leads to hidden gems that aren’t heavily advertised. Influencers are excellent at sharing hotels like this, especially because these unique places to stay are much more eye-catching than the basic hotels that pop up on Google.
Whenever we see a cool hotel or Airbnb on Tiktok or Instagram we save it in a folder for that destination. Then when we wend up traveling there we already have unique places to stay and fit them into our itinerary.
📌 Find Unique Places to Stay on Pinterest
Pinterest works like a visual search engine, which makes it surprisingly effective for finding unique places to stay. Many boutique hotels and design-forward rentals gain traction here before they become widely known.
Searching by destination plus terms like boutique hotel or unique stay helps surface accommodations you might not find elsewhere.
📕 Explore Unique Places to Stay with Flipboard
Flipboard is one of the most underrated platforms when it comes to travel. It’s a place where articles are shared, and virtual magazines are created. It’s simple, organized, and full of guides that specifically highlight unique stays around the world.
I personally save articles in each destination, but you can also have a magazine which is compiled of all articles of unique hotels you find.
🗺 Search Google Maps Instead of Booking Platforms
Google Maps is an underrated tool when learning how to find unique places to stay. Zooming into specific neighborhoods often reveals guesthouses, apartments, and boutique hotels that don’t rank well on booking sites.
Reading reviews on Maps can also give insight into whether a place feels personal, local, or thoughtfully run. We’ve actually found some of our favorite guesthouses by using this trick!
💻 Use Booking Platforms Creatively
Booking platforms can still help when used strategically, and there are different ways of finding unique places to stay. Filters like guesthouse, boutique hotel, or apartment narrow results and remove large chain hotels, and you can also filter in Airbnb by unique stays, places with jacuzzis, and other filters that will narrow the results down for you.
A bonus? Once you find one unique place to stay, browsing similar properties often leads to even better options nearby.
Tips for Finding Unique Places to Stay & What to Avoid
Finding unique places to stay gets easier once you stop treating accommodations as a checklist item. A few mindset shifts and practical habits can make a big difference in what you end up booking.
This final section pulls everything together and highlights common mistakes to avoid when learning how to find unique places to stay.
🤦🏻♀️ Common Mistakes When Looking for Unique Places to Stay
One of the biggest mistakes is relying only on booking platforms and sorting by price or popularity. This usually pushes chain hotels and heavily marketed properties to the top.
Another common issue is searching too narrowly. When figuring out how to find unique places to stay, focusing only on city centers or exact dates can cause you to miss better options nearby.
🤷🏻♀️ Why “Top Hotel” Lists Often Miss the Best Stays
Many “best hotels” lists are driven by partnerships, advertising, or affiliate links. While some recommendations are solid, they often repeat the same places across multiple sites, meaning there isn’t a ton of variety or anything really that special.
The most unique places to stay are often discovered through personal experiences, smaller blogs, or social media rather than polished ranking lists.
🙆🏻♀️ How to Balance Unique Stays With Practical Planning
Unique places to stay don’t always come with 24-hour reception, daily cleaning, or flexible cancellation policies. Reading reviews carefully helps set realistic expectations before booking.
Unique stays don’t have to cost a fortune, and you can also find unique hostels like Selina which has bars, brunches, and yoga classes. There’s a common myth that hostels are just for young and single people – but you can also get private rooms in hostels too! This allows you to have your privacy, but also enjoy the social atmosphere that hostels have to offer.
One final thing to keep in mind: When learning how to find unique places to stay, it’s important to balance personality with logistics so your accommodation supports your trip instead of complicating it.
Final Thoughts on How to Find Unique Places to Stay
Figuring out how to find unique places to stay comes down to curiosity, flexibility, and a few small tricks. The more you explore different platforms and search styles, the more interesting options you’ll uncover.
By combining inspiration from blogs and social media with practical research, finding a unique place to stay becomes one of the most exciting parts of travel planning.
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👀 What’s Next?
Now that you know how to find unique stays, let’s help you with the rest of your travel planning.
Here are some other guides we have to help you be a better traveler:
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📆 When to buy your flight
🤑 Flight hacking for beginners
📆 How to plan your 2026 travels
🤑 How to visit expensive destinations on a budget
🍃 30 Ways to become a more eco-friendly traveler
📲 10 Travel apps that will save you time and money
📝 10 Travel essentials you didn’t know you needed
🧳 28 Life-changing packing tips
🎒 Top 6 backpacks for travelers
💻 Strategies for booking your trip
👩🏻💻 10 Tips for working remotely while traveling
So are you ready to start booking your accommodation for your trip? We hope that now that you know how to find unique places to stay, you’ll find some really incredible places to reside during your travels.
Want some other helpful travel tips? Check out our other planning and packing guides. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for all of our weekly guide updates, and to get exclusive discounts on our shop!
Still feeling overwhelmed with it all? We can plan your trip for you, or you can sign up for a one-on-one consultation where we spend time with you to help guide you through it all.
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