pmalinow

Hi!

My husband and I are travelling to Thailand at the end of November/Beginning of December. I have noticed that its more expensive with some of the hotels that we would like to reserve to go through the actual hotel website. I have looked at asiarooms.com, sawadee.com and huahin20.com as have been referred on this site. It makes me a little nervous to have to prepay for the rooms with these sites however they are less expensive. Any thoughts on this? My hesitation is because the trip isn't for another 4-5 months... How far in advance should I reserve the rooms?

Thanks to everyone for all of your help...this forum is so helpful!!!

Kathie

In Thailand, I usually book through sawasdee.com. You prepay one night (non-refundable) after your reservation is confirmed, then prepay the rest about two weeks before the reservation.

All three are reliable sites. I believe the huahin site feeds into the sawasdee system. There have been complaints about getting refunds from asiarooms - the refunds are slow.

If you are going four or five months from now, that puts you in Nov-Dec. That's high season, and I would book as soon as you know where you want to stay. People who book late for December dates are sometimes disappointed that they can't get the hotels or room types they want.

lovesadventure

I haven't had problems booking for Nov 06 with Sawasdee thus far. However, Asiarooms has been misleading with surprise "surcharges" coming up on the reservations (a surprise 50% additional from what the website says). I haven't actually gone on the trip yet, but from the reviews on this board, I am confident in sawasdee.

Has anyone use www.precisionreservations.com? It appears that you can book and confirm your reservation immediately in some cases.

MichaelBKK

I always use PrecisionReservations.com. Their rates are very good, and they don't charge you until about two weeks before your stay, so you can book now and pay later. If you change your plans and want to cancel, they only charge you $20 cancellation fee (within 48 hours of arrival, I think it goes up to one night's rate). I've probably booked more than 50 rooms with them and have never had a problem more serious than the hotel I wanted being full.

StanKase

I used sawadee.com for 4 destinations in Thailand in April/May. They were reliable and only wanted 1 night's deposit-but it is non-refundable-but there rates were competitive-and unlike asiarooms and asiahotels you only had to put down first night. If scheduling 4-5 months in advance you may not want to let go a a big chunk of change so sawadee is a desirable alternative. I must say though they took forever in answering questions. I asked 4-5 times to someone named Edie untilI received an answer.Asiarooms listed some better prices(~5-8%) but I heard about real delays in getting refunds if necessary. But, I fortunately never had to change or cancel with sawadee.com

MichaelBKK

One nice thing about PrecisionReservations.com is their online chat feature. If you need to make a change to your booking or ask a question, you just go to the web site, click on the live chat button and you're talking to somebody who can answer most questions about your booking right away.

outtabrooklyn

I had an awful experience with asiarooms.com. I booked a room in Hong Kong; great initial rate of course. It took them 4 days to reply. Then another 4 days to tell me that they would have to charge me more. I agreed. Then another 4 days before they emailed me that they could not secure me a room. And that nothing else was available in Hong Kong. Of course by this point other options had dried up. Misleading, irresponsible and unprofessional.

Mole

I have used asiarooms.com many times, never had any problem and always had my requests (eg non smoking, interconnecting rooms etc) honoured. I wouldnt hesitate to use them again.

JamesA

I would 'never' use anyone that wants credit card even before knowing whether a place was available or not, not would I use anyone that wants payment in full upfront.
So I have stuck with Sawadee and R24 sites for years and years, I go for the 'local' sites so as to get more local information, no credit card info required, ask for as many places as you want, when it's offered several days to decide, then pay 1 night and the balance a couple of weekes before arrival, simple, never led us down.

It's also 'choice', I have seen some sites offer 5, 10 or whatever, Sawadee R24 have masses of places and the property pages have a great deal of information. Confirmation / or full comes back fast as your booking actualy goes direct to the hotel itself, I never knew that but accounts for why it comes back quick, usualy just a few hours. I would only use them for Thailand and KL, for other parts of Asia and ANZ I use particular ones, Malaysia www.nongasia.com as they offer a choice of 3 or 4, same goes for Singapore, for Australia / NZ we use www.asiaoz.com which is a mix of search and also various booking choices.

Guenmai

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Tedkarma

I agree with the previous poster about Sawadee and Reservations 24 (one and the same).

R24 and Sawadee partner with MANY websites - so you can get LOTS of local content rather than just slick commercial generic information.

There are many many options, but a few good sites for Thailand are:

http://phuketdelight.com/

http://khaolaklovers.com/

http://5starthailand.com/

http://bangkokadvisor.com/

I too, like that they don't want credit card information until your booking is confirmed and even then you need only make a deposit.

JamesA

I agree with ted that you also often need local information too, for general Thailand we go with www.beachsiam.com but for more specific like Hua Hin www.huahinwhatson.com, for other Asia and certainly when down under I am tending to do a search on www.asiaoz.com to get things like airlines, restaurants etc in addition to just hotels, but they also go into R24 for Thailand, and different ones for different other countries.

JamesA

We also got great deals direct from Novotel themselves, recently the Novotel Chiang mai twin room for 990 Baht a night, now that is cheap ! It did not include breakfast but getting a good 3 star for 990 direct from Novotel was amazing. But you have to find their special promotion sites to often find those rates.