Government warns against making hotel reservations through Booking.com

[TropicalGuy]

6 minutes ago, JackGats said:

Indeed! I never understood how they could be under the same ownership and still act as competitors (provided you hide your tracks when you check the prices so that they don't recognise the queries as coming from the same potential customer). When I don't hide my tracks Booking quotes me a price 5-10% higher than Agoda, albeit with a better cancellation option.

Found booking. com lowest price vs. others & direct. Then got the 15% genius discount on top ……pre - Covid exclusively used them for conveniences……never any problems. …..full confidence. 
Used them and others to rent my house here. My biggest provider was AirBNB then booking.com.

[The Hammer2021]

3 hours ago, RandolphGB said:

Booking websites are a thousand times easier than dealing with Thai hotels directly. ????

 

 

Not if you are already  here.

[TigerandDog]

3 hours ago, bang saen guy said:

Same ownership as Booking.com

only problem is AGODA's prices are misleading.  If you book through AGODA the advertised price is NOT the actual price. AGODA add the 10% & 7% to the advertised price after you confirm the booking, whereas booking.com's prices are inclusive of the 10% & 7% taxes, and also cheaper than AGODA.  The other big difference is that with AGODA and some others you must pay in advance. With booking.com you don't have to pay until you check-in. Booking.com also have a better cancellation policy. I've never had any issues using booking.com.  Recently made a reservation through them for May. Realised after confirming that the room/price booked did not include breakfast. Was able to change the booking quite easily.

[TigerandDog]

47 minutes ago, JackGats said:

Indeed! I never understood how they could be under the same ownership and still act as competitors (provided you hide your tracks when you check the prices so that they don't recognise the queries as coming from the same potential customer). When I don't hide my tracks Booking quotes me a price 5-10% higher than Agoda, albeit with a better cancellation option.

Agoda's prices are misleading, which is why they are initially lower than booking.com  Booking.com's prices are inclusive of teh 10% & 7% taxes. AGODA's are EXCLUSIVE of them. SO in reality AGODA is the more expensive site to book through.

[sandyf]

7 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

only problem is AGODA's prices are misleading.  If you book through AGODA the advertised price is NOT the actual price. AGODA add the 10% & 7% to the advertised price after you confirm the booking, whereas booking.com's prices are inclusive of the 10% & 7% taxes, and also cheaper than AGODA.  The other big difference is that with AGODA and some others you must pay in advance. With booking.com you don't have to pay until you check-in. Booking.com also have a better cancellation policy. I've never had any issues using booking.com.  Recently made a reservation through them for May. Realised after confirming that the room/price booked did not include breakfast. Was able to change the booking quite easily.

Quite, Agoda can be quite sneaky.

In Sept I booked my COE 15 night quarantine package through Agoda, but then the quarantine changed and I only had to do 7 days. Agoda only refunded 50% of what they should have done so I initiated a chargeback for the difference.

They initially contested the chargeback until I pointed out that my booking had become partially refundable before the change came into effect so the standard cancellation was not appropriate, they conceded and I got the balance.

[windas]

Hi guys

A while back I looked up who owned a vast amount of the booking sites.. . . It was EXPEDIA . .I found that they had purchased over 250 of the websites. . You may have noticed that most of the big sites are all the same price for a room. 

But there are still some independent sites. I once booked a Thai hotel off a site in Brazil from the UK.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

20 minutes ago, TigerandDog said:

The other big difference is that with AGODA and some others you must pay in advance.

 

That certainly wasn't our experience when we used Agoda to shop for and ultimately book a Christmas-New Year hotel reservation in Thailand.

 

Rather, for any given hotel and/or type of room, they typically had a whole series of different price quotes depending on the payment /cancellation details you wanted.

 

Generally speaking:

 

--lowest rate: pay up front at the time of the booking and no refund for cancellations.

 

--slightly higher rate: pay maybe a week before the actual arrival date, and refund available for cancellation.

 

--slightly higher rate again: only charged like the day before your reservation arrival date, and refund available for cancellation.

 

I saw those kinds of options on Agoda for virtually all the hotels we shopped online for our recent trip.

 

[BritManToo]

5 hours ago, MrJ2U said:

Cancel and book directly with the hotel.

 

Easier to deal with any changes anyways.  Who wants the hassle of the government delaying  something so important.

Unwise,

The hotel won't refund if there's a problem, or Thailand closes it's borders.

Booking.com will.

Puts yourself at the mercy of unscrupulous Thai hotels (not that there are any).

 

If you're outside of Thailand, stay out until this silliness is over.

If it's ever over!

Edited January 6, 2022 by BritManToo

[robertson468]

5 hours ago, JAS21 said:

Agreed… I look the hotel up on booking.com.  MrsJ then phones the hotel to see what they can offer. 
 

In the past have found that with some up market hotels the ‘walk in’ price is greater than an agents price. But now tends to not be the case…

At which point do you phone the Hotel directly?  Unless you have booked, the Hotel's phone number will not be displayed to prevent individuals trying to scam their booking system by cutting them out of the loop.

[MrJ2U]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

(not that there are any).

Funny,

I get your drift.

[JAS21]

42 minutes ago, robertson468 said:

At which point do you phone the Hotel directly?  Unless you have booked, the Hotel's phone number will not be displayed to prevent individuals trying to scam their booking system by cutting them out of the loop.

Most hotels have their own websites.
 

And of course you can just ask Google… What is XX hotel’s phone number

[murraynz]

6 hours ago, RandolphGB said:

Booking websites are a thousand times easier than dealing with Thai hotels directly. ????

 

 

In the past, I've always found booking. Com the best... 

[ozfarang]

2 hours ago, TigerandDog said:

only problem is AGODA's prices are misleading.  If you book through AGODA the advertised price is NOT the actual price. AGODA add the 10% & 7% to the advertised price after you confirm the booking

You have a choice on Agoda as to what price you see on their site,

go to the currency symbol, top right and click, then the choice is displayed as,

 

 

[ThailandGuy]

Why would i even consider to go to Thailand with all these continuously changing rules ?  Insurance policy needed  which do not cover a-symptomatic costs whereas the tourist is forced to go to the hospital on testing (a-symptomatic) positive. Too many rules, too many changes, too much uncertainty.  I love the country but i don't like their covid entering measurements.  I rather wait or visit another country.

[sqwakvfr]

Did quarantine twice in 2021.  Booked both times with Agoda.  On the second tour of ASQ I booked 14 days and because I was fully vaccinated only did 7 days.  The prorated refund from Agoda only took 1 day.  Agoda has won my faith and trust.  It looks like I might have the honor of a third tour of duty in an ASQ hotel in February and I will use Agoda again.  

[TropicalGuy]

4 hours ago, TigerandDog said:

only problem is AGODA's prices are misleading.  If you book through AGODA the advertised price is NOT the actual price. AGODA add the 10% & 7% to the advertised price after you confirm the booking, whereas booking.com's prices are inclusive of the 10% & 7% taxes, and also cheaper than AGODA.  The other big difference is that with AGODA and some others you must pay in advance. With booking.com you don't have to pay until you check-in. Booking.com also have a better cancellation policy. I've never had any issues using booking.com.  Recently made a reservation through them for May. Realised after confirming that the room/price booked did not include breakfast. Was able to change the booking quite easily.

Exactly. Checked all that several times across various booking platforms.

Booking.com always best price /terms / service / presentation/ ease.

Especially sweet with the level 2 genius 15% discount.

[freedomnow]

Can they make it any harder to get in the frikin' country ?

 

Think Vietnam and burma in future will scoop up a large chunk

of their visit forecast numbers.

 

Number 1 PITA constantly changing entry requirements country in the WORLD.

[wwest5829]

8 hours ago, overherebc said:

At one time Booking.com system had a 'glitch' in the system where if you booked say a week at X hotel and it was all confirmed and you later went back to their site to maybe look at other dates for the same X hotel it somehow took that as being a cancellation of your first booking. We got caught with that for a booking in Japan. Of course when you tried to get it corrected the price for that week had gone up, surprise surprise.  After a few angry e-mails it got resolved and fixed at the original price but we haven't gone near booking.com since.

I acknowledge that we all may have different experiences. Just used Booking.com again for a Koh Samui holiday. I have not had ay issues with the website.

[Omicron]

What is the reason for the warning 

[clivebaxter]

4 hours ago, murraynz said:

In the past, I've always found booking. Com the best... 

You like those annoying and fake messages then? even now you get 4 people just booked, only one room left, 2 people looking now and hurry these prices will not last for long. Even for Hotels with almost nobody staying in,they must think the customers are really gullible

[Andycoops]

Must be mad to be booking a hotel here in the first place, with the alcohol shut down about to be announced today, there really is no reason to be travelling here unless you are a tee total, Buddhist who enjoys risking their health in a pandemic.

 

[Nino3]

17 hours ago, bang saen guy said:

Same ownership as Booking.com

Add Expedia to the list.

[hioctane]

The real problem is with ThailandPass and not Booking.com itself. With the Phuket Sandbox you needed to get a QR code from the hotel AFTER you book the Covid tests. This is sort of a validation that you paid for the required tests. However, with ThailandPass they tried to make it simpler.  The only problem is that there is no way to book tests on your own and you need to buy packages. This leads to confusion because nobody told the tourists that and some will book a day on Booking.com without realizing the test is not free. They arrive to Thailand and find that they didn’t pay for the required tests. It is really not the hotel or Booking.com’s fault. ThailandPass should should have validated this before they approved your pass!

[Capella]

18 hours ago, JAS21 said:

Most hotels have their own websites.
 

And of course you can just ask Google… What is XX hotel’s phone number

Google Maps is a great place to get hotel websites and direct phone numbers.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Capella said:

Google Maps is a great place to get hotel websites and direct phone numbers.

 

I found that as well recently with our Thailand hotel booking experience.

 

Not only that, but these days, Google Maps also tends to show the current booking rates from numerous 3rd party booking sites, all in one place, when you look at a particular hotel's listing in Google Maps.

 

The rate info isn't always entirely up to date, and only shows a single rate, not all the various permutations available from the different booking sites.

 

But the Google Maps rates recap gives the shopper a good idea of which booking sites to check first as potentially having the best current rates for that particular property. And of course includes the weblinks that lead to those various sites' listings.

 

 

[richard_smith237]

I think this issue is related to ‘proof of payment’.

 

 

Document submission on the Thailand Pass site (previously for CoE) requires Proof of Payment for an SHA Plus+ hotel booking (amongst other documents). 

 

Sites such as booking.com offer ‘delayed payment’ opens (i.e. pay nothing until the night before check-in) they also offer ‘full refund options’. In many cases they do this by ‘hard balling hotels’ into taking bookings which booking.com pays for the night before etc...  

 

Thus: This does not comply with ‘Payment in Advance’ requirements. 

 

Agoda also have this issue but they have covered this with a ‘Receipt of Payment conformation’  rather than a ‘booking confirmation’... 

 

I actually had this issue in the past with the Certificate of Entry (Sandbox), the hotel responded to me and asked me to provide the ‘Receipt of Payment Conformation’ which I had to request from Agoda (who quickly complied). 

 

This is quite handy when you want to make a booking with ‘Easy Cancel’ while also being able to provide proof of payment. 

 

Alternatively, go direct to the hotel, but more often than not the hotels are not offering a 100% refund option.