Ever hear of having to wait a day or two for hotel confirmation from a website?
 

A friend booked a hotel in NYC from hotelclub.net online. He was told it would take a day or two to get confirmation. Are they in Australia?

I've never heard of the site and don't know if it's legit. It is a pretty sophisticated design, though, so I'd guess so. But who knows?

That said, it appears that they have arrangements with some hotels where they have a block of rooms to sell, and therefore they know availability. Other hotels they don't have that arrangement and have to confirm availability with the hotel before they can confirm with you that it's booked. Here is the text from their site:

Once you submit your reservation form and payment details, we will contact the hotel to get your reservation confirmed. If the room(s) are not available, we will inform you as soon as possible by email.

If the hotel confirms your reservation request, your credit card will be charged and you will receive a Confirmation / Accommodation voucher from us by email. If your reservation is not confirmed back to us, your credit card WILL NOT be charged.

Oh - and I compared prices there with others I'm seeing for an upcoming trip to Chicago. Their prices were no better, and often worse, than what I've found through hotel web sites directly.

Thanks jlm mi that was very helpful. We started dealing with them because they in fact seemed to have rooms the hotel itself didn't have, but you've reminded me we haven't tried all the hotels. Appreciate your taking the time.

Maybe this is over simplification, but maybe the reason they seemed to have rooms the hotels themselves didn't have is because they haven't yet checked availability -- they just list hotels they offer. Since they can't confirm your reservation for up to two days, this would seem to prove that they don't really "have" the rooms they list. I have grown weary of some of those sites that seem to list hotels available even after inserting your dates, but then when you try to confirm, they aren't available afterall.

DId someone call them? I don't know if they're in Australia, but Bombay is a possibility...

In general, I wouldn't purchase/reserve anything from a website unless a phone number, mailing address and email info is listed on the site.

Once I did have to wait a couple of days, I made a car service reservation with justairports.com in london, it took 2-3 days to get a confirmation. I too, panicked, and called them. There was no problem, it just did take a few days.