manlygirl

When booking online with Wotif contact your hotel to confirm your booking. Recently I booked with Wotif to stay at a place in Sydney Australia and Wotif passed on incorrect information concerning the number of people staying and the cost. Fortunately, I had the documentation that Wotif emailed me and it was different to the information emailed to the hotel.
A couple of years ago I read a review about Wotif in the travel section of a daily paper recommending that the booking be confirmed by phone with the establishment because no details of the booking had actually arrived at the hotel even though the client had paid Wotif by credit card when booking. Consequently now, I always check.
On the other hand though, I made several bookings with Booking.com last year for a trip to Europe and had no problems at all.

Melnq8

Good to know manlygirl.

We had a minor problem with a Wotif booking years ago. Turned up and the accommodation only had us down for two nights instead of three. They got it sorted easily enough, but it might have been a problem if they'd been fully booked.

Susan7

I haven't had any problems with Wotif or GoStay, but I have had one problem with Expedia where a hotel in Brazil didn't have the booking. I guess they deal with such a huge volume of bookings there are bound to be mistakes. I always take the print-out of the booking for precisely that reason.

Songdoc

I've booked many, many times with wotif -- and have never had a problem. But you're right that it would always be wise to confirm with the hotel independently.

MSheinberg

My experience traveling around the world over the years has been:

Select a hotel

Call them direct, easy with Skype

Discuss your room requirements, know what you want to spend and negotiate the rates

After determining you rate, ask for free upgrades or other perks (wine, fruit, early check ins, etc)

Always ask name of reservations clerk so you can introduce yourself when checking in which might again get you a free perk or two

I find this is the best approcah in booking a room and not dealing with online booking companies.

This seems to work for me.

margo_oz

I've used wotif quite a bit without problems. Maybe I should consider the ring and confirm bit!