Landing a good deal on flight tickets can be a great economic relief, but accommodation is also an important of your budget, particularly for longer holidays. Here are the best sites for land good deals on hotels, B&Bs, lodgings, etc.

Hotels.com allows you to search just one site for accommodations at hundreds of thousands of properties. You can find particularly good last-minute deals, which are updated daily. The site also offers big bargains with the site's seasonal sales, destination-specific deals and other special offers.

Hotels.com also has a rewards program that can save you a great amount of money depending on how much you use it. The site's Welcome Rewards Program's advantage is its simplicity. For every ten nights you spend at any combination of the program's 100,000 member properties, you'll earn a free night's stay worth up to the average daily rate of your ten nights.

Although Priceline.com offers standard online travel agent services, its Negotiator is customized to help you haggle for the best bargains on hotels. You can save up to 60% off published rates, and bids less than $100 a night on luxury lodgings often win, specially for last-minute bookings.

The downside to this system is that Priceline doesn't tell you which hotel you are booking until after you pay, so you won't be sure exactly where you'll end up. This kind of booking can be risky when you are visiting an unfamiliar area or staying overseas. The site uses the same system - Name Your Own Price - for flights and car rentals.

TripAdvisor is the most popular hotel-review site, offering millions of professional and amateur reviews of hotels from all over the world. All you have to do is search your destination, and the site will display a list of hotels, bed and breakfasts, vacation rentals and other lodging options. Use the filter to select what is closest to your search criteria. Is it hotels best for value? Is it family hotels? Or are you looking for other type of hotels, including business, romance or luxury? TripAdvisor caters for all tastes and needs.

Since the website is open to reviews from outsiders, keep an eye out for fake reviews, either from hotel on the article or its competition.

Even though TripAdvisor doesn't sell rooms or offer any bargains, it links you to other sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Hotels.com so you can check the rates of the hotel you are reviewing.

To focus on smaller inns or B&Bs, try searching BedandBreakfast.com where you can find extensive details on even the smallest inns. If you register your email address, the website sends you promotional codes and “hot deals” in your desired location. The site also allows you to search for specific amenities, such as a hot tub and fireplace or whether you can bring your pet along.

If you are travelling in a group, you might want to check out HomeAway.com for vacation rentals. With more than a million worldwide listings across its family of sites, including VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com, HomeAway.com offers the biggest section of rental lodgings. These vacation rentals are particularly good for groups as they offer more space and amenities for prices similar to or less than hotel rates.

If you are travelling alone or with a friend or two, you can save a large sum of money by staying at a hostel. This doesn't mean you have to join the backpacker and bunk-bed lifestyle you might associate with this budget-lodging option. As a matter of fact, many hostels offer more private, hotel-life accommodation these days. If you are now convinced of getting a hostel room, Hostelz.com can help you score a good deal, offering nearly 50,000 listings in about 9,000 cities, and includes reviews from professional and real travellers.

If you want t save money than you would at a hostel, your best bet is HomeExchange.com. This website provides the largest network of home swappers, with more than 55,000 listings spread throughout the US, Australia, Britain, Canada, France and Italy. All you have to pay is $119 a year and you can swap as many times as you want.

Are you looking for deals online for plane tickets, domestic or abroad? These are the best travel sites to visit to get the best bargains online and make the most of your money and holidays. These websites are free to use, which is always a bonus.

Kayak.com searches hundreds of online sources for the cheapest fare available. Your chances of getting a good deal increases the more flexible you are in terms of time and destination. Search for dates up to three days before and after your ideal travel dates and you'll improve your chances of getting a good bargain.

The site also features an Explore tool, allowing you to scan a world map for all the places you can reach within a specified per-ticket price range. It also lets you specify your preferred flight time, vacation activities and weather.

If you need further advice as to when to buy your tickets,the website also offers a price predictor that allows you to know when the prices will be at their lowest. However, this tool is not omniscient and it is limited to certain cities, round-trip, coach flights and specific time frames depending on your departure and arrival cities.

For those searching the Web for a deal and are ready to purchase a ticket as soon as they find a good bargain, AirfareWatchdog is the best website for this. Here users sign up for rewards programs to snag promotional codes and discount offers that can be passed on to

AirfareWatchdog users. Plus, the site includes fares from Southwest, Allegiant and other small airlines that may not appear on bigger search sites such as Kayak.

This site also offers another service called Hotelwatchdog, which searches hotel listings that offer great values, so they have prices lower than similar nearby hotels and good locations.

WhichBudget.com is great for those users eager to save on international travel. The website allows you to build an inexpensive, overseas flight plan by using local, budget airlines. The way it works is that you select your overseas your starting point, end point or both and the site will list airlines you've probably never heard of. So if you travel for one city to another in a foreign country, you'll get best fares offered by local airlines in that country.

There are many major airlines that will refund you the difference if the fare falls below what you paid for your ticket. The best way to keep track of these fares is by entering your information at Yapta.com. If the price falls below the threshold you specify, Yapta will shoot you an e-mail or Tweet and walk you through how to collect your refund.

Priceline.com uses a system where you can Name Your Own Price for flights. This allows you to haggle for the price you want. So you name your price for a flight and you bid on it, which might be the price you expected, better or worse, but at least it allows you to attempt to get a good deal, particularly when it comes to to expensive flights like international ones.

Modern technology has transformed even some of the most ancient practices that still exist in the world. The epitome case of this is that if you travel to China, you might find funny-looking, chubby, chatty robot monk dispensing Buddhist wisdom. This is the world's first robot monk and it can chant Buddhist mantras and interact with humans. Its name is Xian'er created by Xianfan and it attracts a steady stream of admirers and has taken the social media by storm.

Standing two-feet (60 centimeters) tall, Xian'er is based on a cartoon character created by a Buddhist master at Beijing's Longquan Temple. Masses of people have been drawn to the 1,700-year-old place of worship ever since the first shooting to fame of this robot on Chinese social media.

Master Xianfan carries Xian'er the robot monk at the ancient entrance gate of the Longguan Temple in Beijing. According to Master Xianfan, the robot is intelligent to chant Buddhist mantras and even interact with people. As a matter of fact, the robot can answer up to a hundred questions.

The chatty robot was introduced by Longquan Temple in 2015 in hopes of using cutting edge technology to spread Buddhism.The project was supported by tech companies which happily volunteered their expertise for the unusual experiment.

"Developing Xian'er wasn't for promotional or commercial purposes," said Xianfan, the head of the temple's animation studio. We only wanted to explore how to better fuse Buddhism with science, to convey the message that Buddhism and science aren't contradictory."

The strategy has succeeded among China's younger generation who are digitally savvy known for being digitally savvy. "It's super cute...I feel it is like a temple mascot, making Buddhism much more accessible," said Liu Jiyue, a college student who went to the temple to meet the robot.

Even though the robot attracts the younger generation to the temple, they are not necessarily drawn to the Buddhist practice. For instance, Liu admits she is not religious but enjoys getting her picture taken with the cute robot.

Xianxun, another master at the temple, says Xian'er isn't a mascot but it's natural that people are attracted to novelty. "It takes time for people to get connected to Buddhism from a white sheet of paper," he said. "They need to get interested in the first place."

Although it might take a while for people to look beyond the robot and become interested in Buddhism, the robot does succeed in bringing people to the temple and that is the first step for them to become interested, as they are exposed to the Buddhist practice.

If this robot hasn't brought Buddhism more followers, it has become a tourist revolution. Some have come from as far away as Shanghai to catch a glimpse of the robot. Furthermore, considering how the social media works, as this robot becomes more and more popular across borders, it is expected that people will travel to China just to meet this funny and interesting robot.

Xianfan, a graduate of the Chinese Central Art Academy, first conceived Xian'er (Xian stands for virtuous. Er means dumb in Beijing dialect but is a term of endearment) in 2013 as a cartoon character.

Longquan Temple's animation studio created models of the temple and monks with light clay, which are given to tourists as souvenirs.

Skyscanner Australia compared the economy seats of six of the most popular airlines that fly from Australia. These airlines are British Airways, Cathay Pacific , Delta, Thai Airways and Virgin Australia.

Leg room When it comes to leg room, British Airways takes the last place, with a 31 inches (just under 79cm) in their economy seats flying from Australia. Delta, Thai and Virgin have some planes with this length, but they do offer some roomier alternatives. If you are looking for a bit more space, opt for Cathay since they have a uniform 32 inches (81cm). Ultimately, if you really want to stretch out, fly Thai Airways with 34 inches (86cm) on its Boeing 747-400s.

Width of seats If you are looking for wider seats, fly Cathay Pacific. Like Delta and Virgin Australia, it offers seats 19 inches wide (47cm) on its Airbus A330-300 (333) models, but with a minimum offering of 18.2 inches (46cm). Virgin has the smallest economy seats departing Australia, with its Embraer ERJ-190 (E90) - often used for shorter legs of a journey - just 17 inches (44cm) wide. British Airways offer the tightest seats (17.5 inches) and Thai Airways give a bit more room at 17.7 - 18 inches.

Entertainment When it comes to entertainment, all of the airlines aforementioned offer a wide range of options on board. Each company offers hundreds of TV shows and films to watch, music, games and trivia. British Airways boasts a monthly changing schedule, Delta offers 18 channels of live satellite TV and Thai Airways provides small toys for younger children to play with.

Cabin luggage As to cabin luggage, 7kg plus one small item (such as a hand bag) is the standard offering, and Cathay, Thai and Virgin Australia all keep in line with this. In this case, Delta and British Airways offer better options as they both have higher weight limits. While BA lets you take on 23kg so long as you can lift this to the overhead locker yourself, Delta has no weight limits at all on most of its routes; this doesn't apply, however, if you are travelling to Singapore (7kg), South Korea or China (both 10kg)

Customer Feedback One of the key areas of this study is related to best economy seats and of the five airlines compared here, only one - Cathay Pacific - was in the top ten. Top of the list was Japan Airlines. Since each airline has a good reputation, deciding who you fly with comes down to personal preference, flight deals and convenience of flight times.

Prices If all you care about are the most economic fares, use travel search engines like edreams, Kayak, skyscanner, among others, or download their app, to search which companies offer the best deals depending on the day and the destinations, as these may vary.