Hotel Bookings

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Trongpai
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Trongpai »

I've noticed that Agoda has now added the 'pay at the hotel' option on most of their properties. Still, certain fares are non refundable and if you don't show up one or more nights are charged to your CC.
fountainhall

Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by fountainhall »

Out of curiosity I went to the International Travel Fair at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre this afternoon. Almost everything is only in Thai although some of the travel staff speak some English. It's obvious the main destinations for Thais are Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in that order, judging from the number of booths for each. Many of the trips are obviously package tours and so I could see little in the way of individual hotel discount offers. I did notice some good regional airfares on Malaysian and China Airlines, as well as upgrades to first class if purchasing Eurail passes. But it was not really worth the trip.
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ceejay
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by ceejay »

One option no-one has discussed is not booking. If you are travelling around the Isaan or the North, especially if you have your own transport it's the best way, in my opinion. You can get places very cheap if you walk in, and can inspect them before you book in. It also does not tie you to an itinerary.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Gaybutton »

Another option no one mentioned is traveling with a pet. If you are traveling with a dog, cat, or whatever, see:

http://www.petvacations.com/int/TH/
Jun

Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Jun »

ceejay wrote:One option no-one has discussed is not booking. If you are travelling around the Isaan or the North, especially if you have your own transport it's the best way, in my opinion. You can get places very cheap if you walk in, and can inspect them before you book in. It also does not tie you to an itinerary.
How do your walk in prices compare with the booking sites ?

I had one hotel in Vientiane where I wanted to extend and reception told me to use booking.com as they were only allowed to charge the walk in rate over the counter. So Booking.com got their 15%. Crazy.

I think the walk in rate was lower at one other Laos hotel.

I have done no booking travel before & the flexibility is good. However, without my own transport, I don't want to spend too much time walking around with luggage. So booking a day or 2 in advance avoids that.

I have just stayed in 6 different hotels in Issan and all of them were good to excellent. The most recent cost 499 baht per night. Looked like it had a recent refit and was modern, clean, quiet & comfortable. That would be well over 1000 in Pattaya.
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ceejay
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by ceejay »

Jun wrote: How do your walk in prices compare with the booking sites ?
Short answer - I don't know. I've done it to free myself from too prescriptive an itinerary. But, I have usually got 300-500 in the Isaan, maybe a little more in the North.
It actually never occurred to me to stand outside a place and try the booking sites, not least because I am a Luddite and only started using a smart phone a few years ago.
And yes, you are right about having your own transport. Without that, I do not recommend doing it this way.
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Trongpai
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Trongpai »

I went to the Travel Fair today. It runs until Sunday March 3. I had mentioned before that it's marketed for a Thai customer base but as a farang you would be welcome. Well, let me rephrase that, some will welcome you and others will not. Some of the vendors are practicing duel pricing. Discounts are not offered to farangs. There was even one vendor with a sign discount for Thai people only!

I have been going to these travel fairs for years, every three months, but this is the first time I've encountered duel pricing.

Even though I was with my Thai BF I was on more than one occasion refused the advertised discount price. It's not like farangs are flocking to this fair. I was there most of the afternoon and only saw two farangs and one was Christian.

I did find one hotel in Chiang Mai and one in Phuket that did not charge me a farang surcharge and could not have been nicer to me. The car rentals don't either and offer very good deals.
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Bangkokian »

Trongpai wrote: I did find one hotel in Chiang Mai and one in Phuket that did not charge me a farang surcharge and could not have been nicer to me. .
Trongpai, could you recommend a reasonably priced hotel in the night Bazaar area (Chiang Mai)?
Thanks.
Jun

Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Jun »

A few weeks back,I booked a hotel in a country neighbouring Thailand, via Agoda, many weeks in advance of the visit.

Yesterday I decided to modify my booking dates. I also had noticed that the offer price for my hotel with other sites AND Agoda had decreased slightly, but not really by enough for me to do anything about it.

Anyhow, using the Agoda option to amend my dates, the cost per night INCREASED by approximately 50%.
A new booking for my revised dates would have cost less than the original booking, but amending dates is approximately +50%.


So, somewhat enraged, I did not take this price and instead I immediately exercised my right to free cancellation. I think it's my first cancellation in over 5 years, probably longer.

So I then started the alternative bookings. The first one at a different hotel on Booking.com, which incidentally was clearly much cheaper than Hotels.com for the nights I wanted. Don't assume all the booking sites are the same price.

Then I noticed Agoda had some special offers for some other interesting hotels. I got to the booking page on one of them and then realised there was no option to cancel later. Even though I very rarely cancel, I still want to avoid being liable for hotel costs over a long trip. There could be issues like family illnesses etc which disrupt plans.

So eventually, I booked with Hotels.com. About 10% more than Agoda, with full cancellation rights up to a few days before arrival.
However with Hotels.com, I get one free night for every 10 nights booked, so that's equivalent to 10% off.

That's quite a good perk and I've already had about 3 free nights so far this year. Hotels.com have just taken the gloss off this by charging $5 to redeem the "free" night, unless it is booked via their app. So one more app I don't need will soon be installed on the phone.

When searching for hotels, Google maps continues to bring up numerous booking sites unknown to me, in addition to the recognised ones. I remain sceptical about unknown sites.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Hotel Bookings

Post by Gaybutton »

Jun wrote: Sat Nov 23, 2019 3:12 am I get one free night for every 10 nights booked
With Hotels.com do all 10 nights have to be in the same hotel or can you do a few night in one hotel and then go to another hotel, doing all bookings with Hotels.com?
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