Annoying On-line Booking Sites

[Robbie Dye]

I had a challenge trying to use a Thai travel agent to book a hotel room in New York. It appears there's no way for Thai agents to get instant availability, or at least the dozen or so we tried couldn't offer it.

That's crazy, and GDS system can give instant availability but noy always the best prices for a huge choice of hotels in all cities worldwide. Maybe that agewnt not have an on-line reservations system!

[Captain Chaos]

Just used sawasdee.com to book my New Year stay on Koh Lanta. Like this one as you send an enquiry for availability and no need to enter CC details / make payment until it is confirmed. I only paid a deposit and no need to pay balance until December (not all the hotels on this site offered that though). It did take quite some to find a hotel I liked though, with many coming back full but they tried to offer a sensible alternative where possible.

Overall, (so far) I'd give it 7 or 8 out of 10.

CC

[onethailand]

I had a challenge trying to use a Thai travel agent to book a hotel room in New York. It appears there's no way for Thai agents to get instant availability, or at least the dozen or so we tried couldn't offer it.

That's crazy, and GDS system can give instant availability but noy always the best prices for a huge choice of hotels in all cities worldwide. Maybe that agewnt not have an on-line reservations system!

Most travel agents in Thailand have absolutely no clue how to use the hotel GDS. As it is, they can barely book a flight without having to refer to their operational manual every few seconds.

[ThaiHotels]

I agree with your post and its good to see your being honest about it and sure, there are a lot of people who like to book online because of the convenience factor and ease of comparison and that won't change.

However its been my experience that going through a local agent is cheaper. When I say local agent I am not talking about international travel agencies I am talking about the smaller accommodation and local tour agencies that are run by locals. They are generally happy with a smaller commission than western owned online sites and can often negotiate a better deal because they are in the area, supply a lot of business and have local knowledge and contacts.

I think you missed my point. Most local travel agents do not have contracts with hotels - they simply call up a third party wholesaler - this means two middle parties must make money. "Western" online sites like Expedia or Last Minute have huge overheads so of course they won't be cheaper. But "Thai" online sites generally don't have this problem - and if they hold their own contracts with hotels (as I do) it would be very tough for a local agent as described above to compete.

In theory, I am a "local agent". But in actuality, I am a "local agent" who does not have to deal through middlemen.

Having lived out of a suitcase for more years than I care to mention, before I think about booking, I take the time to read reviews of hotels in the area I am looking for accommodation. It's surprising how brutally honest hotel guests can be.

While some comments can be taken with a 'grain of salt,' as guests are too picky - if I read several negative comments, that particular hotel gets crossed off my list of possible places to stay.

Exactly the way I travel too. I want to point out that at the beginning I am not going to have a large database of reviews... but ultimately that is what I want as well.

Sadly, even after reading many reviews, I sometimes end up at a highly-rated hotel only to be disappointed. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that I will be sending out "mystery travellers" to the hotels in my database to ensure that I can get an unbiased review as well. I'm still working on the mechanics of this but I think most of the hotels in the database will agree to this - otherwise they will simply be removed.

When living out of suitcase, I never care about agencies or hotel reviews - the hotels are Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott.

It's when not living out of suitcase that I am price aware and have to sift trough booking web sites.

Somewhat true... LOL... but not all companies allow their employees to book into the usual chain hotels. Instead they may put the employees on a budget... which necessitates that the employee find their own accommodation as cheap as possible so that they can use the remainder as per diem...

Thanks all for the input - keep it coming.

OneThailand,

I agree with quite a lot of what you said.

I would agree that many local agents buy direct from the hotels. We buy both from wholesalers and the hotel direct. I reckon its impossible to have over 1000 different hotel contracts and to make bank transfers to these 1000 Thailand hotels unless you are a big big player.

Another factor is price. Many hotels give unsellable rates to new agents. We have been in a quite few situations whereby we tell the hotel, we are currently buying this rate from this wholesaler, can you better it if we buy direct. When we receive their rates, usually much more expensive than we are currently buying it at. Unless u can guarantee a certain amount of room nights per year, you are much better to buy from a wholesaler. also most large Thailand Wholesalers offer immediate confirmation from their system using Xml. So we can offer instant confirmation. We have incredible prices for Bkk and are cheaper than Asiarooms, Agoda, Sawadee.

I would very much like to see your site and prices and maybe we can do some business together. Pls pm your site url.

Cheers

Tim

Edited March 29, 2009 by sbk
please no self-promotion, thanks--sbk

[Kenn]

Hi All,

May I suggest you to try our new website Painai.com. We just became sponsors of the Travel Forum and you can find our banner at the top of the page.

Once you search for a hotel with your preferred dates of stay the system should filter out any providers where the room is listed as not available (subject to certain hiccups occasionaly, no system is perfect) and list the website where you can find the hotel at the best price for your desired period.

Hope you will find this service useful. We also have quite some experience with hotels in Thailand so we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

BTW: It's often not the fault of the online booking website that rooms are not available. Hotels without the IT infrastructure to automatically inform the booking agents may leave their inventory open without informing anyone or even more common; They do not want to sell at rock bottom prices to online websites, they rather hold the rooms in the hope to sell them at a higher price to the so called Brick and Mortar agents, this is especially true in high season.

Edited March 29, 2009 by Kenn