Booking Hotels, Guest Houses, Bed and Breakfast (B&B), Villas, Houses, Cottages, Apartments, Rooms

Booking hotels, guest houses and bed & breakfast (B&B) is one of the most common uses of Canny Compare. When you first enter Canny Compare's main page, the option for hotel accommodation is selected by default. You can also find other types of lodging, such as vacation rental accommodation and home exchanges. This can include booking details for other accommodation such as private houses, villas, cottages, apartments and rooms.

You can search any location in the world. To enter the location you wish to use for the search, enter the location in the field below the text Where do you want to go? You should enter the first characters of the town or city you wish to use in the search. This field uses autocomplete which means that you get offered a choice of locations, depending on the characters you have entered. A drop-down list will appear showing the possible towns or cities which correspond to the characters you have entered. The more characters you enter, the name of the town or city becomes more precise.

Hopefully you will find the town or city you are looking for in the list. Make sure that you select the town or city from the list rather than trying to use only what you have typed in. To select from the list, either use the mouse if you are using a personal computer or use your finger if using a mobile device. As soon as the entry has been entered, Canny Compare will move the map to the location you have entered and start searching for whatever you have selected in the Options column on the left, such as hotels or restaurants.

The image below shows an example of a search for hotels, where just the town or city has been entered:

If you wish, you can additionally enter the name of the street or the area of the town, as shown below:

You can see that the map centres itself on the selected street.

The image below shows an example of a search where just an area of a city has been entered; in this example booking hotels in Soho.

Find Restaurant Reviews, Reservation & Contact Details

On Canny Compare you can also find restaurants, inns, pubs and bars. Find the reservation details. Read reviews and see the place on Google Street views

Find Businesses & Services

Find businesses and services. This can be high street shops, banks, post offices, doctors and dentists. It can be places for health, sport, entertainment, leisure or simply interesting places to visit such as museums and galleries.

Searching at your current location

When you first enter Canny Compare, the map in the centre of the page will show your approximate location. This location will not be accurate. To get your current location more accurately, select the blue locator button above the map. Your web browser may ask for permission to get your current location. The accuracy of your location depends on many factors. If you are using a mobile device with GPS, the position accuracy will be excellent. If you are using a personal computer, the accuracy will not be as good. In the worst case, the best location found will be that of your Internet provider, which may be in a different town. If the location is inaccurate, just enter the name of the town in the field above the map.

Using the map

Icons which represent the found items are displayed on the map. The icon indicates the type of the place, e.g. hotel, restaurant. You can zoom in/out the map using the scale on the left or using the wheel of your mouse (if on a PC). You can also move the centre of the map simply by selecting it with the mouse (or your finger on a mobile device). It's recommended to zoom in when possible. When you move the map Canny Compare performs an additional search which may provide more results.

Let's say that you are interested in a place to stay in Whitby in the United Kingdom. Ensure that the hotels option is selected and enter Whitby in the search field. Icons will appear on the map. If the map is too crowded with icons, you can delete all the results using the Clear Results button, which is below the Street Views

Reviews of Hotels, Bed and Breakfasts, Restaurants

You can easily browse reviews of hotels, bed and breakfasts and other accommodation, as well as restaurants, bistros, bars, inns, pubs, etc.

First choose a place which could be of interest. This is done either by selecting an icon on the map or selecting one of the entries in the list of results on the right. Select the tab Details, Reviews below the map. There you can see more booking information about the place you selected and reviews. You can browse through the reviews using the "Next Review" and "Previous Review" buttons. If there are photos available, these are displayed in a carousel below the review. If you think that the place is a "possible" for you, press the Add to my selection button. This saves the place and it can be seen in the My Selection tab.

Selecting Search Options

On the left side of the main page are the search options. The options are grouped into several categories: hotels, food & drink, product based businesses, services, transport, entertainment & leisure, health & sport and places to visit. The Hotels category is used to find booking details for all types of accommodation. The Food & Drink category is used to select places relating to food which includes restaurants, bakeries, take-aways, cafes, pubs, bars and inns.

Search Results

As well as being shown as icons on the map, the search results are shown in a list on the right side of the page. the example below shows search results and booking details for London hotels. Clicking on the title of any of the results causes the place to be selected on the map. The corresponding icon on the map will then bounce to show that it has been selected and the map will be centred on the selected place.

You can also add places to My Selection here, by selecting the "+ My Selection" button within the search result that you want to add. You can keep a temporary list there. Foe example, hotels which you are considering. At the end you can review your list and start the booking.

Street View

When a street view is available it is displayed at the bottom of the page. It is displayed in all four directions, north, east, south and west. You can select any of these street views and move it around to display a different view. You can see the street view of the hotel or whatever place is currently selected. These Street Views are provided as a free service by Google so thanks to them for that. There will be places away from roads where there is no street view available.

If you select the button Alternative Street View you will see a view very close to the same location, but taken from a slightly different perspective.

Details, Reviews

In this section you can see the details of the place, such as a hotel or restaurant, which is currently selected on the map. This includes the booking and contact details: address, telephone number and web site, reviews and photos.

You can also add places to My Selection here.

My Selection

This is a list of your possible places, for example hotels or accommodation. It's a temporary list to help you, so that you don't have to keep them in mind while you are looking at other places.

Information about how to add places, such as hotels and rental accommodation, for free can be found in the help section Adding your place

More information about Canny Compare can be found in the About section