As Hotels.com's regional director for Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, Katherine Cole knows a thing or two about the hotel industry. Travelling on a fortnightly basis to all corners of the globe, she's stayed at hundreds of hotels and has learned a few tricks along the way. We asked Cole to share her top hotel hacks with Lifehacker readers, from the best time to book your hotel to the hidden costs you need to watch out for.

Thongs are quintessential Aussie footgear - especially on stinking hot days. But are they considered appropriate to wear while driving a car? Let's take a look at what our road rules say.

The days of remembering to top up your Opal card or carrying loose change are ending: from today, ferry and light rail users will be able to pay for fares using contactless payments. Here's what you need to know.

A sparkling organic kombucha drink containing probiotics to aid digestion is just one of the ways Qantas hopes passengers will survive the 17-hour nonstop flight between Perth and London when it kicks off later this month.

I've been driving in Japan for over 15 years now. One of the things that always resonates is how polite people are on the road, especially the way drivers say thanks with their hazard lights.

Most of us definitely haven't thought about what a car would do if we put other liquids in an engine that runs on petrol. But cars are running on all kinds of stuff these days, right? Like electricity, and so on? That's what I hear. It's worth a try to put Coke in the tank, in case fuel prices go up and we all get desperate.

When was the last time you had a really good holiday? If you're currently scratching your head, take note: With a little strategic planning, it's possible to score five luxurious vacations totalling more than eight weeks off work without resorting to unpaid leave. Here's how to pull it off.

Some drivers can reverse parallel park their cars without even thinking about it. For the rest of us, it's a prolonged nightmare of white-knuckled mortification where every turn of the wheel does the opposite of what you were expecting. Meanwhile, multiple bystanders are watching your attempts in a mixture of amusement and pity. Fun times.

Fortunately, it's possible to correct your arse-backwards parking by following a few simple tips. This infographic explains how to pull off three types of parking on your first attempt, every time.

Unless I absolutely have to (read: I'm flying with booze), I always do whatever I can to not have to check a bag when I travel. Besides the fees associated with handing your bag over, the worst part of the whole experience, in my opinion, is having to wait after a long flight for your suitcase to come around the carousel. That wait is typically full of regret for me about buying that bottle of whiskey in the first place and delaying my trip home by 20 minutes.

The 2016 Australian Commuting Survey explores how we travel to and from work and the various ways it affects us. This infographic breaks down the chief findings - including our #1 pet peeve while driving and using public transport.

As soon as your car leaves the factory and is properly broken in, it's probably cranking out the most power it will ever make in stock form. That's because, over time, certain components wear down; here's how that happens.

In the race to adopt electric vehicles, Australia is sputtering along in the slow lane. Rather than growing, Australian sales of electric cars are actually in decline. In 2016 they represented just 0.02 per cent of new car sales – even lower than in 2013.

Contrast that with Norway, the country with the highest levels of electric car adoption. Almost 30 per cent of new cars sold there in 2016 were electric.

We all love some good ol' fashioned tomfoolery. Especially when it comes to cars. Here's ten great ways to mess with someone's car without damaging it, as suggested by readers on the internet. (You really are an evil bunch, y'know that?)

Uber and Qantas have teamed up to grant airport commuters frequent flyer points when they book through the Qantas app. The deal is currently available at 15 Australian airports, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Here's how many points you earn with each trip!

The last Holden car is expected to roll out of General Motors' assembly plant in Elizabeth, South Australia, on October 20, during a ceremony for employees. But an image that surfaced ahead of that appears to show the car in the process of being built. The car will be the last commercial car ever built in Australia.

Monash University researchers say accidents on our roads could be "significantly reduced" if we embrace automation - and it doesn't even have to be "all the way".

Even at it's bare minimum, with the technology we have now, cars drive themselves better than we do.

Petrol prices are notorious for fluctuating wildly in the lead up to a long weekend. The "official" explanation is tied into the economics of supply and demand - but we all know price gouging plays a part too. (Citation needed.)

Fortunately, it's possible to predict when to avoid the bowser and when to fill up your tank by engaging in a little market research. The math boffins at comparethemarket.com.au have done the hard work for us. Here's a petrol cheat sheet for Australia's major cities this Labour Day weekend.

I'm typing this 35,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean, en route to a media event in San Jose. And it's my first experience of using in-flight wifi. I've connected a couple of different devices on my United Airlines flight. Here's what I found.

Autonomous cars are in the headlines every day these days, with several manufacturers working to have such vehicles hit the road in the next five years.

I was fortunate enough to recently drive a top-of-the-range Tesla for a trip from Sydney to Orange in the central west of NSW. I tested the Autopilot feature thoroughly over the 520km return journey and found the experience unnerving at first — then comforting.