Thanks, easywalker, I'll look forward to your report.

Is this the same as "asiarooms"? I have had good luck with them. Also, Precision Reservations and Sawadee. Good Luck!

korea, no, asiahotels is entirely different from asiarooms.

I just used hoteltravel.com and everything was flawless. They have a nice website and you can go in and check your reservation any time..Plus you don't have to make a deposit..Our credit card was charged about a week or 2 before we arrived..Anyhow, i will use them again next time we travel to Asia..

I just read in today's New York Times that Cendant, the company that took over asiahotels.com is selling off it's travel division. Hopefully this includes asiahotels. Anything would be an improvement over what happened to it since Cendant took over.

That's good new, Laurie. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

now that sounds more like marketing talk, fluttery. but as enkil615 said, asiahotels lost its personal touch. any marketing hoopla will not bring back the good people who have served laurieco, kathie and easywalker for years.

mmmm fluttery marketing talk? new poster, no history - always suspicious! perhaps I am just too cynical...

Yes, Asia-hotels is well and truly gone. No one is maintaining the site now and it really begs the question: why the @#$% did Cendant buy over asia-hotels if their purpose was to destroy everything unique about it?

The reviews and hotel content are gone because the new system cannot cope with the amount of info while the customer svc/ rsvn are now handled through Australia. Even the rates are now sourced through another Cendant company (simply because that company is the biggest among all the travel distribution channels that Cendant owns)

Anyways, it's a sad state of affairs. What could have been an intiative by Cendant to revolutionise the travel industry has become an unneccsary slaughter of many great travel websites.

Btw Cendant owns hotelclub.com, ebookers.com, lodging.com, cheaptickets.com among many others.

oh! This is quite an enlightenment. I used asia-hotels.com just twice because i used to work for a local travel agency in Malaysia in the past and did not use as much online booking. On my first booking with them, i received an email AND a call from a lovely lady confirming my booking and telling me that my request for a seaview room wont be granted as the hotel is running full but since it was confirmed to me through email, they upgraded me to a suite instead, this was around 2003. Last year, i used them again for my Hong Kong business trip just for 1 night and i received an automated email confirming my booking. Though i find the warm customer service during my first booking really good and personal, i think the efficiency of the automation can compensate for it (though not as much, but i think it's fine).

Now that i use more of the online bookings for my travels, i find myself not being very particular with loyalty to one website. Whichever can give me good rates and confirmation, i book!

The big difference though is 'when you pay', there are lots out there that won't even take a 'request' without having to put your credit card details in, I never use those, nor those which make you pay the whole lot at once.
I stick with my local favorites, no credit card to make a request, request as many as we want, your email booking gets copied straight through to the hotel itself, they come back with what is available and then a few days to choose/decide, then just pay 1 night deposit and the balance a few weeks ahead of arrival ( though it can vary depending on the hotel ). But they just cover Thailand and malaysia and a few in Singapore.
For Australia I have used Hotelclub and they were fine.
I also go for 'choice', I have seen sites that offer maybe 10 or 20 options when in fact there are far more.
Shop around.

I used them for the Ritz Carlton in Kuala Lumpur. They had the best rates and sawadee who handled all 4 other destinations did not have April onward until after March 1st and we wanted to have everything locked up by Feb, 1 for an April 14th departure.
Asiahotels.com was smooth in all respects. sawadee.com seemed to have Thailand rates all posted by 1/1/06 except for the Ritz in KL.

I am the original poster of this thread, and I had promised to keep you all updated on my two final reservations.

I had made the reservations shortly after the New Year, for stays in Kyoto and Darwin in the month of May.

I mentioned to you in an earlier posting that my acknowledgements came directly from the Australian company.

In addition, at the time of my original reservations I was required to pay in full in advance.

When I arrived in both Kyoto and Darwin, I can now tell you that my reservations were present and accounted for; there were no problems with check-in; all went well. With regard to my advance payment, both hotels acknowledged my advance payment in full, and indicated upfront to me that my reservation was all paid up already.

Final verdict for me: if the AsiaHotels.com rates seem reasonable (which they didn't earlier) then I suppose I might use them again. The service of the new owners did prove to be reliable and trustworthy, though cold and impersonal.

Thanks for the follow-up info. asiahotels rates are not as good as they used to be. But with your experience, I will keep them in the list of rates I check.

I used Asiahotels.com for Kuala Lumpur and their rates were very competitive with the others. I must admit I used sawadee.com for all of Thailand (4 destinations, but switched to Asiahotels.com because sawadee did not put up rates fast enough for 4 months out from our departure yet Asiahotel had good rates at the same time. When sawadee come out with their rates it was actually$6-$8/nt. more than Asiahotels anyway. The advantage of sawadee is you only give them 1 nights deposit up-front but IT IS NON-REFUNDABLE. Asiahotels.com you pay the entire amount up-front and I read getting a refund may be a problem but changes of dates one way or the other was not a problem so I have read in this Forum over past 7-8 months.

For places outside of Thailand and Malaysia I've used www.asiaoz.com which I think ends up thru the same Cedant system but it has a handy search thing too which gives some other options but is just for Asia and A/NZ, they also had Rates To Go which is only good for short notice trips within 20 days but the great thing is you only pay about 10% ( or maybe 12% ) and you pay the balance direct to the hotel, they have last minute gargains to fill empty rooms as many are very cheap, and like only having to pay that % deposit and paying the balance on arrival is good too, but again, only good if you are looking for something to arrive within 20/21 days http://b2b.ratestogo.com/enter.asp?id=5604