alliecat

Has anyone used octopustravel sightseeing tours or hotel bookings? Please share your experience.

Also, I'm looking for a reputable and cheap tours in Rome (Vatican and Rome city), Venice, Paris and London. Please advise. Thanks. Danh

travelhorizons

I notice that octopus travel's terms and conditions are very unfriendly to the consumer.

(1) You have to pay in full at the time of booking (most hotel reservations just require a CC guarantee, and you pay at checkout).

(2) If you cancel within 3 MONTHS of day of arrival, there's a $25 cancellation charge. Within ONE WEEK, there's a $50 cancellation charge. Most budget hotels have a 24 or 48 hour cancellation deadline to cancel WITHOUT PENALTY.

I recently wrote a blog article about this very practice by online travel agencies such as octopustravel (in the case) and orbitz.
http://travelhorizons.blogspot.com/2...of-orbitz.html

Bottom line: you're usually much better off booking at the hotel's own website or, even better, making your reservation by phone or email. You get the advantage of direct communication that way. The other way to go: if you can find a travel agent who really knows his/her stuff about the cities you want to visit - and maybe who won't charge you a booking fee - you can get good advice and the best available price on the GDS.

btw, Octopustravel doesn't actually run the tours they sell; they are a re-seller of those tours. There are a number of good tour companies who have gained a good reputation over the years. Brendan Vacations is one I would recommend. Let me know if you have any other questions!

alliecat

thanks for info. i need to book several tours: vatican and rome walktour, paris tour, venice, and paris. I don't know what tours are available, but probably at least one in each city. can you recommend or arrange such tours? thanks.

WillTravel

I don't mind a prepayment deal if I get a good deal, and one that's better than I can get from the hotel directly, and the one time I used OctopusTravel I did get an excellent deal. I have seen some other excellent deals that I would consider booking.

nona1

I've booked hotels through octopus a couple of times and it's now the first place I look. I don't mind paying up on booking (gives me time to start saving my spending money now that's all sorted out)and I've never wanted to cancel.

I like octopus as they have a great range in all budgets and I've been happy that I've found good bargains on there. I also appreciate the fact that the price shown is the total price including any local taxes/supplements etc etc and is for all the rooms/people/nights. You can see exactly what the total cost is.

On other sites I've thought I've found a bargain only to have a nasty shock when you go all the way through to the booking/payment and find all sorts of hidden nasties/booking fees/local fees/taxes suddenly added on.

kfusto

I have been very happy with Octopus both in terms of pricing and customer service.

I have no problem prepaying to save $$$ and also like to pay ahead so that the exchange rate is not a moving target.