Anyone heard of or used a hotel booking site called Olotels?
May 18th, 2013, 11:31 PM
#1
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Anyone heard of or used a hotel booking site called Olotels?
I was looking for a hotel for Paris in October and ran across the above mentioned site. It claims it has "negotiated" deals on hotels a la Hotwire and Priceline I assume. Compared to Expedia, Hotels.com, and Venere, the hotels were noticeably less expensive. If anyone else has used it in the past with success, I am very tempted to take advantage of their rates..
May 19th, 2013, 03:06 AM
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I can't vouch for or against this agency myself, but I did a quick search and found someone asked the same question on tripadvisor 2 Jan 2012 and the replies were decidedly mixed. Some people were very pleased, some were very un-pleased. This matches the track records of other booking agencies: there are hits and there are misses.
Booking agencies are in the 'sell surplus inventory' business and that business is now very competitive. It appears some agencies are now starting to try to get the jump on other booking agencies by advertising rooms as being available before they themselves get a firm contract from the hotel that there is surplus to sell. As a result, those agencies sometimes find themselves having to tell a customer with a so-called 'confirmed' reservation that the room is "no longer available." A bit of a stretch since the room may have never been confirmed for them to sell in the first place.
If this announcement is made just before the start of the scheduled reservation, it can be very inconvenient to the buyer, who must now not only find alternative space at the last minute, but go through the sometimes tedious procedure of ensuring their money is refunded for the first reservation, or non-reservation as the case may be.
Proponents of the discount agency business say this happens only a small percentage of the time. (I note they don't release figures so that one can decide, for oneself, if the odds are worth the gamble.) Some people say it is worth it: you must decide for yourself.
If it is the buyer whose plans change, they must also cancel or modify arrangements through the booking agency. Reports are that this can take longer than if the booking is done direct with the hotel. Be especially observant of the cancellation policy, if you think your plans will change.
Caveat emptor.
Booking agencies are in the 'sell surplus inventory' business and that business is now very competitive. It appears some agencies are now starting to try to get the jump on other booking agencies by advertising rooms as being available before they themselves get a firm contract from the hotel that there is surplus to sell. As a result, those agencies sometimes find themselves having to tell a customer with a so-called 'confirmed' reservation that the room is "no longer available." A bit of a stretch since the room may have never been confirmed for them to sell in the first place.
If this announcement is made just before the start of the scheduled reservation, it can be very inconvenient to the buyer, who must now not only find alternative space at the last minute, but go through the sometimes tedious procedure of ensuring their money is refunded for the first reservation, or non-reservation as the case may be.
Proponents of the discount agency business say this happens only a small percentage of the time. (I note they don't release figures so that one can decide, for oneself, if the odds are worth the gamble.) Some people say it is worth it: you must decide for yourself.
If it is the buyer whose plans change, they must also cancel or modify arrangements through the booking agency. Reports are that this can take longer than if the booking is done direct with the hotel. Be especially observant of the cancellation policy, if you think your plans will change.
Caveat emptor.
May 19th, 2013, 05:58 AM
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Used them a couple of times last year with no problems. They often have good deals and voucher codes for extra discount. When using external booking sites, I always check direct with the hotel about details so there is no nasty surprise when I check in.
May 19th, 2013, 03:21 PM
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Thanks for the inputs. I don't have a warm fuzzy about the site and will definitely do more research before I use it. On the other hand, $155 a night for a 4*, breakfast included, is sure hard to pass up.
Sep 15th, 2013, 06:15 AM
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Don´t ever use this site. They seem to be skilled scam artists who´ll give you a great price on a hotel, take your money, send you a voucher. But never actually make a booking.
I made a booking om the 30th of september. Got a confirmation and a voucher and everything seemed just fine. After five days I got a phone call from an unknown number. Since I was in meeting at the time, I didn´t pick up. Later that day I got an email from them to urgently call them. Since I cannot call abroad from my phone and since they could obviously inform me by email, I wrote back to them asking what was the problem. No answer. I did that three times during the course of ten days. No answer at all. On their website my account still had a confirmed booking and showed no problems at all.
I then contacted the hotel who had absolutely no knowledge of the booking,
After hearing that I contacted Olotels via Skype, but they adamantly kept telling me, that there was no problem with my booking. I got more and more angry end after a long and expensive talk (I was actually more yelling than talking at the time), I got transferred to a senior colleague at Olotels. She could now, not surprisingly, tell me that there was in fact a problem with my booking. It wasn´t there.
I asked why they hadn´t refunded my money since they obviously had more than ten days to do it in, to which she replied that they could of course not refund the money before telling me. They must take me for a complete idiot, but since I used their website and payed them money, I guess they have a point there.
They have now promised to refund my money. I have a grave feeling that this is just another stall. But should I get the money back, I will come back to this forum to confirm.
I made a booking om the 30th of september. Got a confirmation and a voucher and everything seemed just fine. After five days I got a phone call from an unknown number. Since I was in meeting at the time, I didn´t pick up. Later that day I got an email from them to urgently call them. Since I cannot call abroad from my phone and since they could obviously inform me by email, I wrote back to them asking what was the problem. No answer. I did that three times during the course of ten days. No answer at all. On their website my account still had a confirmed booking and showed no problems at all.
I then contacted the hotel who had absolutely no knowledge of the booking,
After hearing that I contacted Olotels via Skype, but they adamantly kept telling me, that there was no problem with my booking. I got more and more angry end after a long and expensive talk (I was actually more yelling than talking at the time), I got transferred to a senior colleague at Olotels. She could now, not surprisingly, tell me that there was in fact a problem with my booking. It wasn´t there.
I asked why they hadn´t refunded my money since they obviously had more than ten days to do it in, to which she replied that they could of course not refund the money before telling me. They must take me for a complete idiot, but since I used their website and payed them money, I guess they have a point there.
They have now promised to refund my money. I have a grave feeling that this is just another stall. But should I get the money back, I will come back to this forum to confirm.
