Can anyone tell me the drawbacks - if any - of using these sites? has anyone had bad experences; i.e showing up to the hotel and being refused or having never reeived your resevation etc. I am always a little gunshy about booking through such sites because I have had times in USA using Traveloity where the hotel has no idea who i am. However, it seems like it is often cheaper booking thru hotelclub etc than through hotel directly. Advice?

Hi skerew,

I work in the hotel business and have booked several times through this type of website and I haven't had any problems. However, in my experience at work sometimes I've seen cases of the reservation not getting to us because of human fault or computer problems in the website or the intermediary central reservations system that carries the original reservation from the website to the hotel that supplies the room.

In these cases, the hotel will honour the booking if they have availability but if they are full, you are on your own...the most they will do will be helping you find another hotel, that you of course will have to pay for and settle with the website afterwards.

There is one easy way to avoid this situations, though: ALWAYS reconfirm the booking with an easy phone call, e-mail or fax to the hotel a couple of weeks ahead. If you mention any special preferences you have, like bedtype, quiet room, non smoking, etc. in this correspondence, this is really the surest way to grant you those.
This way you can have the best of both worlds, the good rate that the internet usually provides plus the good service you get when you book personally.

One more thing, always print the voucher or confirmation you get from the travel website. Lots of people forget to do that and it can be a hassle if there's any problem with the booking. Also if you call the hotel, get the name of the person you talked to.

I have used Hotelclub.net several times and thought they were very good. I have recommended them on this messgae board. At the time I used them, I thought they had some of the best prices of most of the sites I was looking at. That was nearly two years ago, so I don't know know now their prices compare. There is a cancellation fee if you do have to cancel a reservation, but it's not all that bad. They do tell you what the cancellation fee will be under terms and conditions or some such place on the site so you know prior to booking. The only draw back is that you don't normally get instant reservation confirmation and have to wait to see if your request was accepted by the hotel. I was never turned down and had no trouble at all when I got to the hotel. I also thought they had a good selection of hotels to chose from. Hope this helps..

I was glad to see this post as I was looking at some of these sites for booking in Spain, also, and I know there are a couple Spain hotel experts on here, such as Olga.

My question, what about www.madrid-hotel-discounts.com? I've seen some good rates on there so just wondered, and they have some hotels I haven't seen in other places, I think. I looked at hotelclub and knew it was mentioned on here, but I think it may requirement prepayment, not sure. I don't want to do that. best rates I've seen for Madrid seems to be on www.travel-in-madrid.com

Another hotel question -- I am considering the Amadeus in Seville for a stay and it looked pretty nice from all the online photos I've seen, at least some rooms. I like the location and I think I would enjoy the musical theme as I do play piano myself.

However, I cannot find the official star rating of this hotel listed anywhere -- not even their own website. I would like to know if this is a 2 or 3* hotel, does anyone know? I mean the actual govt. rating. Also, is this really an official hotel? The name says so but I was wondering if it's really a hostal and that's why they don't have a rating (do hostales have ratings? they do in some countries)

My father was a Spanish teacher and named me after someone in a Spanish novel he liked, so I figure I'd better check out my roots sooner or later.

I have used Asia travel twice, to book Las Casa Juderia for July and to book a hotel in Dubai,UAE. Both times we had no problems and we did not even contact hotels directly to confirm, (which I suggest you do) ,just showed up with the required documentation. Friends of ours also booked with Asis travel for UAE with no problems. On all occasions we were quoted rates cheaper than the hotels themselves.I would definitely use them again.

Christina,
Hotel Amadeus is a hotel. I think it's a 2 star, but I would actually compare it to a 3 or even 4 star hotel in rooms and decor, but a little lower in facilities and services -no restaurant or breakfast, for example-.

I've seen the rates at madrid-hotel-discounts.com and they seem good, it's the same as hotels.com -this one has more choice of cities in the rest of Spain-.

These websites require prepayment on your card and charge cancelation charges -$25 if you cancel before the deadline, and one night after that-.
That is the drawback to these types of websites. I use them when I'm pretty sure of my plans.

There are others like www.expedia.com or www.reservas-online.com that require a credit card for booking but only as a guarantee, and if you cancel before the deadline there is no penalty charge. They usually have higher rates, though.

For Madrid, the best deal is usually www.bancotel.com and it has the flexibility of being able to cancel.

Hi

I have used asiatravel.com, hotelthailand.com, planetholiday.com, holidaycity.com etc when booking hotels in Asia and Europe. It has worked pretty good for me and it is always nice to arrive to a place and know that you don't have to start walking around looking for accommodation

Regards
Gard
www.gardkarlsen.com

thank you, Olga, this helps me a lot. (I wonder why Amadeus doesn't list their star rating anywhere) I care more about the room quality and amenities than restaurant or breakfast services, so that sounds okay to me.

Author: skerew ([email protected])
Date: 08/30/2003, 02:37 am
Can anyone tell me the drawbacks - if any - of using these sites? has anyone had bad experences; i.e showing up to the hotel and being refused or having never reeived your resevation etc. I am always a little gunshy about booking through such sites because I have had times in USA using Traveloity where the hotel has no idea who i am. However, it seems like it is often cheaper booking thru hotelclub etc than through hotel directly. Advice?



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Author: olga
Date: 09/01/2003, 09:37 am
Hi skerew,

I work in the hotel business and have booked several times through this type of website and I haven't had any problems. However, in my experience at work sometimes I've seen cases of the reservation not getting to us because of human fault or computer problems in the website or the intermediary central reservations system that carries the original reservation from the website to the hotel that supplies the room.

In these cases, the hotel will honour the booking if they have availability but if they are full, you are on your own...the most they will do will be helping you find another hotel, that you of course will have to pay for and settle with the website afterwards.

There is one easy way to avoid this situations, though: ALWAYS reconfirm the booking with an easy phone call, e-mail or fax to the hotel a couple of weeks ahead. If you mention any special preferences you have, like bedtype, quiet room, non smoking, etc. in this correspondence, this is really the surest way to grant you those.
This way you can have the best of both worlds, the good rate that the internet usually provides plus the good service you get when you book personally.

One more thing, always print the voucher or confirmation you get from the travel website. Lots of people forget to do that and it can be a hassle if there's any problem with the booking. Also if you call the hotel, get the name of the person you talked to.



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BAD EXPERINCES with HotelClub and Fairview Travel Madrid ...Watch the space for a report
Hotelclub.net

hotelclub is fine-just print a copy of your reservation and email the hotle a few days before to recvonfirm they are aware of your coming. try kayak and mobissimo for aggregator sites that will include hotelculb, expedia, etc., travelhero, onetravel, and always check the hotel online as its rates may be cheaper. read the fine print to make sure y ou dont have to pay a booking fee and the cancel policy is acceptable.

I usually use staybooked.com for my hotel bookings as I find the rates cheaper than the rest, especially for hotels in london.