Has anyone reserved hotels through Sinohotel.com?
Jun 28th, 2010, 04:54 AM
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Has anyone reserved hotels through Sinohotel.com?
I am in the process of making hotel reservations for an upcoming trip to China. A lot of the hotels I've looked at don't have e-mail addresses listed on their websites and I have questions I need answered before I book with them. Sinohotel.com keeps coming up as a reservation agent and they respond to my inquiries in a prompt manner. Has anyone used them to book their accommodations? What was your experience? I can't really find out anything about them.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Jun 28th, 2010, 07:04 AM
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Hotels in China fall in general into three groups:
Foreign-managed hotels, Chinese-managed hotels, and 'jingji' or 'economy' business hotels.
In almost every case with the first group, a guarantee is given that you'll find the best rate by booking through their own sites. Where you think you see a cheaper price with an agent closer examination shows that like is not being compared with like. If you should find a genuinely lower price with an agent the hotel will match or beat it. But this is unlikely. In short, don't use an agent for these. In general the websites are honest in their descriptions, prices fluctuate according to demand (sometimes as often as every half an hour), and in seasons when the hotel is unlikely to be full (which in most locations is most of the year) you'll get the best on-line price as your time of stay nears. You may get a very slightly better price by just walking up to reception, but not always, and not much.
With the second groups the situation is entirely different. The website is unlikely to be wholly truthful, and indeed may well be wildly misleading. Rates published there are generally paid by nobody except those insistent on booking in advance, which in China with these sorts of hotels rarely happens. People walk in, are immediately offered a discount on the published price, and go on to bargain for a lower price still. This is not untypically 30% less, but can easily be 70% less. The published price is just a positioning statement.
On-line agencies like to boast of substantial discounts they can offer, but for the most part these are only the prices that anyone can get over the counter, and indeed often beat since the hotel is spared paying commission. In short, these are the real prices. In general in China it's best not to insert any third party into any commercial transaction you may be undertaking, but if you really must book in advance, Sinohotel does not look like a good choice compared to Ctrip and eLong. Randomly comparing quoted prices for a handful of Chinese-run hotels, Sinohotel looks significantly more expensive.
When using these sites, you need to understand a few things: The descriptions of the hotels are often wildly misleading (when challenged, the sites tend to say that they are only passing on material from the hotel.) Don't imagine there's any quality control here. The hotels most actively pushed at you are those from which the site thinks it can make the most profit, and have no connection whatsoever with any real-world assessment of which are actually better, or better value-for-money. In many cases the sites have no special allocation or special access but merely call up the hotel and make a booking when you do. Payment can sometimes be challenging: extra charges are thrown in for using a foreign credit card, the faxing of scans of the card may be required, and so on. In case of cancellation, there can be hiccups in obtaining refunds. If the hotel should happen to become busy, and you arrive later in the day, there is no guarantee that your room has not been given to someone who has shown up at the counter to bargain and waving cash. Reservations sometimes get 'lost' under these circumstances.
Sometimes, if you book with one of these sites, the hotel reception will ask you to cancel the reservation, offer you a lower rate if you do, and simply book you in under a different name. It saves them money. On the other hand, some people made a reservation through one of these agencies at a hotel that doesn't require payment in advance, walk up and bargain for a room. If they achieve a lower rate they take it, and cancel the agency reservation. If they don't, they 'remember' the agency reservation and take that lower rate. Everyone's cheating everyone.
The third category of hotel, the 'jingji', is a relatively recent phenomenon offering basic, practical rooms in refurbished hotels or converted buildings, targeting Chinese businessmen. These have fixed and very reasonable rates, only discounted (also by a fixed amount) to those purchasing a membership. These are not available through third-party sites.
With Chinese-run hotels In general your best policy is to show up, look at a room (because it very often will not live up to its description), and bargain for a price. You may very well not want to do this (although it is standard procedure for China), but it makes sure you pay a fair price for a known quantity. In general the best hotel is the newest hotel: since almost nothing is every spent on advertising these remain unknown for some time, discount even more heavily to attract customers, and are friendlier and much less beaten-up (very little is spent on maintenance once a hotel is open and they go downhill fairly quickly). But you can pick something you like the look of, head for that, and see how you do.
For most of China, for most of the year, there's a vast oversupply of rooms at all levels, and it's a buyer's market. Of course, some people simply can't envisage travelling in this way, or just may not want to, but if determined to travel in a Western way with everything booked in advance, will pay for doing so. In this case it's the hotel's own websites you need for foreign-managed hotels (and try calling the 1-800 numbers just to see if you can find something better) and something like Ctrip for Chinese-run ones (but see multiple caveats above).
One compromise is to book the first two or three nights in China, so as to have a soft landing after a long flight, and then busk it from there, either negotiating a cheaper rate for further nights at the same hotel, or looking in at one or two others while travelling round.
I hope this helps.
Peter N-H
Foreign-managed hotels, Chinese-managed hotels, and 'jingji' or 'economy' business hotels.
In almost every case with the first group, a guarantee is given that you'll find the best rate by booking through their own sites. Where you think you see a cheaper price with an agent closer examination shows that like is not being compared with like. If you should find a genuinely lower price with an agent the hotel will match or beat it. But this is unlikely. In short, don't use an agent for these. In general the websites are honest in their descriptions, prices fluctuate according to demand (sometimes as often as every half an hour), and in seasons when the hotel is unlikely to be full (which in most locations is most of the year) you'll get the best on-line price as your time of stay nears. You may get a very slightly better price by just walking up to reception, but not always, and not much.
With the second groups the situation is entirely different. The website is unlikely to be wholly truthful, and indeed may well be wildly misleading. Rates published there are generally paid by nobody except those insistent on booking in advance, which in China with these sorts of hotels rarely happens. People walk in, are immediately offered a discount on the published price, and go on to bargain for a lower price still. This is not untypically 30% less, but can easily be 70% less. The published price is just a positioning statement.
On-line agencies like to boast of substantial discounts they can offer, but for the most part these are only the prices that anyone can get over the counter, and indeed often beat since the hotel is spared paying commission. In short, these are the real prices. In general in China it's best not to insert any third party into any commercial transaction you may be undertaking, but if you really must book in advance, Sinohotel does not look like a good choice compared to Ctrip and eLong. Randomly comparing quoted prices for a handful of Chinese-run hotels, Sinohotel looks significantly more expensive.
When using these sites, you need to understand a few things: The descriptions of the hotels are often wildly misleading (when challenged, the sites tend to say that they are only passing on material from the hotel.) Don't imagine there's any quality control here. The hotels most actively pushed at you are those from which the site thinks it can make the most profit, and have no connection whatsoever with any real-world assessment of which are actually better, or better value-for-money. In many cases the sites have no special allocation or special access but merely call up the hotel and make a booking when you do. Payment can sometimes be challenging: extra charges are thrown in for using a foreign credit card, the faxing of scans of the card may be required, and so on. In case of cancellation, there can be hiccups in obtaining refunds. If the hotel should happen to become busy, and you arrive later in the day, there is no guarantee that your room has not been given to someone who has shown up at the counter to bargain and waving cash. Reservations sometimes get 'lost' under these circumstances.
Sometimes, if you book with one of these sites, the hotel reception will ask you to cancel the reservation, offer you a lower rate if you do, and simply book you in under a different name. It saves them money. On the other hand, some people made a reservation through one of these agencies at a hotel that doesn't require payment in advance, walk up and bargain for a room. If they achieve a lower rate they take it, and cancel the agency reservation. If they don't, they 'remember' the agency reservation and take that lower rate. Everyone's cheating everyone.
The third category of hotel, the 'jingji', is a relatively recent phenomenon offering basic, practical rooms in refurbished hotels or converted buildings, targeting Chinese businessmen. These have fixed and very reasonable rates, only discounted (also by a fixed amount) to those purchasing a membership. These are not available through third-party sites.
With Chinese-run hotels In general your best policy is to show up, look at a room (because it very often will not live up to its description), and bargain for a price. You may very well not want to do this (although it is standard procedure for China), but it makes sure you pay a fair price for a known quantity. In general the best hotel is the newest hotel: since almost nothing is every spent on advertising these remain unknown for some time, discount even more heavily to attract customers, and are friendlier and much less beaten-up (very little is spent on maintenance once a hotel is open and they go downhill fairly quickly). But you can pick something you like the look of, head for that, and see how you do.
For most of China, for most of the year, there's a vast oversupply of rooms at all levels, and it's a buyer's market. Of course, some people simply can't envisage travelling in this way, or just may not want to, but if determined to travel in a Western way with everything booked in advance, will pay for doing so. In this case it's the hotel's own websites you need for foreign-managed hotels (and try calling the 1-800 numbers just to see if you can find something better) and something like Ctrip for Chinese-run ones (but see multiple caveats above).
One compromise is to book the first two or three nights in China, so as to have a soft landing after a long flight, and then busk it from there, either negotiating a cheaper rate for further nights at the same hotel, or looking in at one or two others while travelling round.
I hope this helps.
Peter N-H
Jun 28th, 2010, 02:01 PM
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Thanks, Peter. This is very helpful. I have been trying to go direct to the hotel but in some cases they don't have online reservations. We really don't want to busk it as there are four of us and we're limited for time, so we really want to have everything in place before we leave. I am skeptical about the third party sites, so I'll try to focus on booking directly through the hotel, but will also stick to Ctrip or eLong (hadn't heard of that one) if I need to.
Thanks again for your insight.
Thanks again for your insight.
Jun 28th, 2010, 03:33 PM
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I don't think I can quite have made myself clear. If a hotel does not have on-line reservations then it must be a Chinese-run hotel, and if it's a Chinese-run hotel then you should NOT book in advance with it directly, but if you must book in advance then you should book with a Chinese hotel discount website, as discussed above.
Peter N-H
Peter N-H
Jun 28th, 2010, 04:38 PM
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INTERNETWIZ : Yes, I used <Sinohotel.com> to book a room at Yan'An Hotel in Shanghai last Oct. Reservation was made without a hitch and confirmed promptly via emails. I also like the fact that you pay at checkout. Their cancellation policy is very reasonable. Will not hesitate to use their service again. By the way, Yan'An Hotel is a Chinese run hotel.
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