Athens hotel...reserve tghrough Dolphin-Hellas to save money? Or not?
 

I would like to thank everyone who has been so forthcoming with advice for my upcoming Greek-Turkey trip. With the tips you have provided, I have decided on the Electra Palace hotel for our first stop in Athens. I received a quote from the hotel of 280 E. per night double superior room. Dolphin Hellas says they can get me the same type of room for 218.00 E. Yes, I know it seems obvious. But I have never used a foreign agent and am a bit leery of paying them upfront (I am assuming that is the way it is done; what if I need to change or cancel?) and of maybe getting an inferior room if I book through them as opposed to dealing directly with the hotel GM/Sales Manager, which is the way I would normally do things. What to do? It just feels safer doing it through the hotel but I would love to hear comments from more seasoned Athens travelers.

I cannot speak to this hotel in Athens in particular but I will offer an opinion about booking engines/agents.

First of all, they do not makes the room offers in a vacuum; the hotel has obviously authorized it and many, many hotels use services such as Utell, SRS-World, Venere, etc., etc., to market their rooms.

The price: the booking agent is getting a cut and the hotel gets the remainder..shows you how much profit the hotel makes when they DON'T use an intermediary.

You say the room is the "same." Are you certain? I'm not saying it cannot be true because it very well can, and is, true on many occasions.

In terms of refunds, cancellations, recourse in case of a problem..those sorts of things should be VERY clearly stated on the service's website..and if they aren't I would be much more hesitant to use them.

Have you been to OTHER services and tried to get this hotel for those dates? You may find the same room, for the same dates, on offer by others as well, unless the hotel uses Dolphin Hellas exclusively.

I need to clarify...Dolphin Hellas is not a web site; itis a travel agency in Athens and I have been in touch by e-mail with them. The room is the same category as tht offered by the hotel directly but who knows if the rooms one secures through an agency are less desirable than those secured through the hotel directly. That is one reason I posted the query; I would like to hear from anyone who has used the agency and can report their experience good or bad.

I am very interested in any responses you might get to this question, also.

I've been considering using Dolphin Hellas to book my hotel in Athens for next June because I've read other people posting that they've received great rates by going through them.

A lot of times you read recommendations for specific rooms in a particular hotel - I also wondered if you're less likely to be given these rooms upon request if you go through an agency - or is it "first come first served".

That is one of the things I am wondering about. I am assuming that one must pay in advance with an agency, you are locked in whether you like the room or not. Hope to hear more info on this.

I would only add that your assumption about having to pay in advance if you use an agency would best be answered by the agency itself.

ttt

I had the same question when I tried to book my hotel. The quotes I was geeting from travel agencies for Attalos hotel were cheapper than the quote from the hotel itself. But booking thru the agency, I had to pay upfront and the cancellation policy did not sound too good. That's why I booked directly with the hotel, it is a little more expensive, but I can cancel any time if the circumstanses change. I would be interested in other people opinions on this.

I used Dolphin Hellas a few months ago. I'm not sure if I'd use them again. I gave them $2K in bookings, not including airfares, and they wouldn't get train tickets for me.

Regarding the hotel, we stayed at the Electra (a few blocks from the Electra Palace) booked through them. We did get a significant discount, as you indicate, but our room was the size of a closet. I don't know if that had anything to do with them and the discounted price.

If the agency doesn't do train tickets then, it doesn't do tickets or there must be some valid reason why they could not honor your request, regardless of how much you spent. 2k is not a great deal of money. If they you a signifcant discount then they did right by you.

We recently used Dolphin Hellas to book several hotels that were more expensive to book directly. We were pleased with each of the rooms we received. In facr, we were upgraded at one hotel. I can't remember what the cancellation policy was, although I do remember that we had to pay 40% ahead and then 60% three weeks before we left.

We used Dolphin Hellas in May for several hotel bookings that they offered cheaper. Stayed at the Attalos and got a nice room, one of the largest of the trip, on the front so we could see the Parthenon from our balcony. My daughter booked directly with the Attalos in Dec. '02 for a stay at the beginning and one at the end. Had a smallish room at the beginning but a much larger one at the end. You'd think they wouldn't be any more crowded in Dec. than in May, so why the small room at the first of her trip? I think the answer here is, who knows what might happen with a discounted room? Certainly one might expect if they were crowded that they might give less desirable rooms to people paying less. On the other hand, they might want to keep a good relationship with the agency. But I do figure that if you check in late in the day, you may get what you get. Earlier in the day, if you don't like the room, you might be able to request a change. Later someone else might have requested the change and you get the room they didn't want. Certainly true in the US. They don't reserve a specific room for you, just a category.

I had the same misgivings about going through an agency, which I haven't done for more years than I can remember. But I finally decided to bite the bullet and do it, figuring that the daily savings would pay for a nice dinner and it wouldn't be bad enough to ruin my whole trip even if I got a "lesser" room. (It couldn't have been worse than a Hotels.com room in NY several years ago that we tried because rates at the Marriott we were staying in prior to then were doubling for Thanksgiving; we weren't happy but it was only 2 days and we survived.) Since I was going in May, I was able to wait till about a month before I left to reserve - and probably could have waited even longer but I was nervous that I'd end up in a more expensive room in a less desirable location if I waited too long. Trip insurance is probably advisable but won't be any help if you just don't like the room or change your mind about how long you want to stay. Dolphin Hellas did offer to change my room dates when a scheduling problem came up. But if you cancel altogether you lose part or the whole payment, depending on how close you do it. (However, depending on the time of year and the hotel policy, you might lose a deposit anyway within a week or 3 days or whatever, even with a direct booking, so check with the hotel about this.)

You might ask D-H to e-mail you their contract so you can see the specifics. Also, they have a minimum that you must book with them or pay an additional 50 Euros. I think the minimum is pretty low, maybe 300 or 500 Euros. But they also charge a courier fee of 15 Euros to send the vouchers/tickets for whatever you book through them to your hotel. Or I believe a 35 Euro express mail fee if you want the things sent to the US. I assume this is true of hotels only, since we had vouchers for those, although we did book a couple of flights and a ferry trip through them as well. What I found strange was that they required me to fax a photocopy of both sides of a credit card before they would book anything. It annoyed me a bit but I understand that's not unusual in Greece, though I didn't have to do that for anyone else.