From what I see, Hop Inn have taken standardisation of buildings far beyond the levels of Ibis and have a better hotel offering than Ibis budget.
Hotel Bookings
Re: Hotel Bookings
Re: Hotel Bookings
Hotels do agree a room rate for the various seasons with the agents and also agree not to undercut that price-I am sure there are some hotels which turn a blind eye to those agreements . Also the commission charged by the agents can be anything from 15% to 37% depending on the season.Jun wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:35 pmAgreed. Most hotels have the absolutely barking mad policy of charging more for direct bookings. Anyone would think they want to be eventually under the control of booking sites and paying them 15%, or whatever it is.
However, Hop Inn strikes me as a very well run and optimised business. Even their hotel buildings seem to be to a standardised design, going far beyond what I have seen elsewhere.
Re: Hotel Bookings
Some hotels will give better deal if you mail them directly and negotiate with them. Also you can get other benefits like free breakfast, one day free if you book more than x nights, room upgrade and so on.
- Gaybutton
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Re: Hotel Bookings
Seems to me the best thing to do would be to see what you can get online. Then negotiate with the hotel. Whatever offer you like best, that's what to choose.
Re: Hotel Bookings
Depends on when and where. The situaton re that in TH is for now a bit fluent-many HTLs still stick to age-old traditions and many of their owners are not willing to change that much. Also keeping their own site uptodate cost an awful lot of money for smaller places and in the end those sites like bkg or agoda may not be that much costlier as doing it by ´yourself´=hiriing an IT-expert. Old style mompop places-just like the foodcarts vs the supermarkets-here in Th are quite good at keeping cost down and knowing in their heads where others have giant computers for.
Another thing specific for TH is that (this is a touchy subject and only widely known to those in the trade of so called ´hospitality´) many HTLs have unwritten policies re what type of guests they want-and also not want. The new style booking engines make that quite hard to maintain and thats also a reason why many dont want to use them. Applies more to groups. Think of the old style guesthss in soi Post Office-many only take danish/finnish/icelandic or whatever guests or at least those who know them. Or the touchy subject of yes/no Indians. Samesame for many Thai HTLs out in baan noks.
Another thing specific for TH is that (this is a touchy subject and only widely known to those in the trade of so called ´hospitality´) many HTLs have unwritten policies re what type of guests they want-and also not want. The new style booking engines make that quite hard to maintain and thats also a reason why many dont want to use them. Applies more to groups. Think of the old style guesthss in soi Post Office-many only take danish/finnish/icelandic or whatever guests or at least those who know them. Or the touchy subject of yes/no Indians. Samesame for many Thai HTLs out in baan noks.
- Gaybutton
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Re: Hotel Bookings
I haven't seen any news yet about what's happening with hotels now that China is banning international travel during the Coronavirus crisis, but maybe the hotels, at least the ones now in trouble due to Chinese tour cancellations, are going to offer excellent deals in an attempt to make up for the loss as best as they can. We'll see.
Re: Hotel Bookings
Slightly off topic but I wonder if prices in the big bars in BKK and Pattaya will also drop, or are we in for the Thai “logic” of increasing prices when there is a drop in trade?Gaybutton wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:10 amI haven't seen any news yet about what's happening with hotels now that China is banning international travel during the Coronavirus crisis, but maybe the hotels, at least the ones now in trouble due to Chinese tour cancellations, are going to offer excellent deals in an attempt to make up for the loss as best as they can. We'll see.