LateRooms

What we liked: The site is purposefully designed for people in a bit of a hurry, with the crucial aspects of booking displayed as soon as you log on. By scrolling down the homepage, you can view the latest deals, all of which must be booked that day and all offering hefty discounts.
LateRooms takes advantage of using the hotel industry's late-availability database and its prices regularly beat those of rival sites. Searches can be made by destination, postcode, hotel name or attraction; a drop-down menu of suggestions appears as you type to help speed things up further.
Search results are nice and clear, showing the price per night, the hotel quality and a guest rating. As a nice touch, the site shows you the price of the nights either side of your booking criteria so you can see whether staying a day earlier or coming back a day later would save you money. Further search options show you the best deals, top hotels and accommodation with disabled access for each destination.

How it can be improved:
The site's city guides cover 14 UK destinations but only nine cities across mainland Europe which is quite poor. Worse than that is the seven-night limit for bookings, which seems rather restrictive.

Our verdict:
Whether you want to book a bed and breakfast, cosy cottage, city apartment, guest house or luxury hotel, LateRooms will find you last-minute accommodation quickly and cheaply.