Has anyone heard of paying for hotel stays by booking online through discount25.com aka atrapalo (based in Barcelona)? You pay a 25 euro fee to book online, reserve the room with a credit card, then purchase Bancotel vouchers to pay for the hotel stay. It looks like INCREDIBLE savings over other rates I've seen online when comparing the same hotel, same days. Is this a case of something that sounds too good to be true because it is too good to be true? Thanks for your guidance!

You can buy the same vouchers direct from Bancotel www.bancotel.com and avoid the online booking fee, and book directly through the Bancotel website. You must buy vouchers in "checkbooks" of 5 vouchers for $50/each - $250/checkbook. There is a shipping fee, however, you can avoid that fee by just picking up the vouchers at the hotel you are staying at. You can also buy the same vouchers from Petrabax in the US - www.petrabax.com.

I used Discount25/atrapalo. I didn't have to pay a 25 Euro fee to use them. I just bought my vouchers from them in November/early December. Email them and make sure. They have a great communication through email, which is why I chose atrapalo.com over direct through Bancotel.com. Make sure you take copies of your voucher pick up points (you pick which hotel's you'd like to receive your vouchers) in case the hotel does not receive the notification of your voucher release.

I like more to book via the Bancotel site ( http://www.bancotel.com ), because you can cancel your reservation almost until the last minute, and with atrapalo ( http://www.atrapalo.com ) you can´t.<BR>We stayed at the Princesa Sofia last September and I found it great value. If you are an spanish resident you are supposed to get your vouchers at the TA, not at the hotel. We were in a bit of a hurry and Bancotel was going to charge us for sending them express to our TA, but she convinced them to let us pick them up at the Princesa Sofia (great pool, BTW).<BR>Afterwards we stayed for a week in Sitges, and this was a bit more tricky. The hotel wanted to give us a horrible room (probably just because we were paying with the vouchers), but we asked to see it before hand, and we managed to change it. They said that they were full, but the cleaning lady told us that there were plenty of empty balcony rooms ...<BR>So, get the vouchers, but once in the hotel, ask to see the room first, and don´t accept anything.

The voucher system helps to get very good rates, but one has to book early because the availability is limited.<BR><BR>With atrapalo (discount25.com), there is no reservation charge and it is possible to cancel (at no extra charge) up to 24 hours befor the check-in date.<BR><BR>It is only pity that the discount25.com bancotel hotel portfolio out of Spain is rather limited.