Website on cheap accommodations?

I can find a lot of info on various places on the web, but what I'm looking for is a website that focuses exclusively on inexpensive places to stay in various towns and cities around the world. Anybody know of such a thing?

looking for hostels? i am going to be in europe next year..friends of mine and many ppl on this forum have suggested www.hostelz.com

I use www.hostelbookers.com and www.hostelworld.com . You can make reservations through the hostel sites so you don't pay booking fees, some of them don't charge.

When you have located a place on these portals (or anywhere else), then check directly at the hostels/hotels homepage - may both be cheaper and have more options!
Or simply go the the homepage of the official tourist office in the city/town in question - they normally have a searchabel database with all possibilities - often also reservation. You simply sort the results after price.
Normally the hostel portals only covers 1-10% of the cheap possibilities in a given city/country!!!!

all hostel booking websites charge a booking fee, and they have availability access to a limited number of beds so booking with the hostel directly is best. websites like hostelworld.com charge a booking fee and a deposit but both payments actually go to the website company and not the hostel! even hostelbookers.com misleads customers, their website advertises free booking and the same prices as the hostel itself, but the deposit you pay doesn't go to the hostel and there is no agreement between the hostel and hostelbookers to have the same bed price. try www.gomio.com which u have to pay a fee but u have access to more beds in the hostel. or the www.hihostels.com site which has lots of cheaper hostels affiliated with the not-for-profit organisation. the bugeurope.com site (has links to an asia and an australia page) has hostel reviews and contact info for various hostels.

I appreciate the advice, but none of the sites suggested really do what I'm looking for. I posted this question here because I find Lonelyplanet books are the best for finding cheap accommodations, but they can't begin to be comprehensive.

For example, two years ago I was in Liverpool. I was told by the folks at the visitor center the cheapest available room in the city was us$80 a night. This, I knew, ignored the fact that there was a Formule One eight blocks away. There were cheaper alternatives. As it happened, the visitor center is located across the street from John Moores University. On an off-chance, I walked across the street and asked if they rented rooms. Sure enough, they did -- private room with common kitchen, us$17 per night. That's the kind of thing I'd like to know about -- and for that matter, tell others about. So many of the websites are there to make a buck on reservations, which I support 100 percent. But it also means they ignore lots of options. Anybody know of any site that would have that kind of comprehensive info on cheap places to sleep?

I cannot guarantee for all - but most databases of the tourist offeces (those you easily locate on thenet) will list all hotels - incl. Formule 1 (that you always can check for directly at their homepage).
If you cannot locate the hotel lists yourself, then come with names of those cities you want to visit and I am sure that the ppl. here at Thorntree will give you the links to the non-profit lists.
Just an example - for Copenhagen try the "online booking" at http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/</a> after you get the results - click the "Sort by Rate" and you have what you want!

Hi

I think you may have already tried this link its called craigslist.com Incase you have'nt its pretty good and comprehensive and you can almost choose any city in any given country. I am myself a student so this did help me to locate places in Florence.

I've found impressive rates at hostelworld.com. Besides, the site has never let me down :).
Basically I think the key thing is to travel low-season or even no-season ;). That time i've booked many times a dorm bed in biggest mixed dorm available and got a double room for myself alone as the hostel has been quite empty otherwise... this works like a miracle for example in Italy marc/april, just avoid those weeks americans have their holiday from colleges.