Hotel Room Booking Agency For Mixed Party

[Richard W]

I am trying to book some hotel accommodation for a small mixed family group - some from the UK and some from Thailand. Is there any easy way of finding an internet agency that will allow this? At least one agency implies that it will not accept bookings even from Thais resident overseas - 'The travel industry in general only gives discount rates via the Internet to visitors from overseas (holding passports from a country other than the one visited)'. Imposing the bracketed condition would be unlawful in the UK!

[think_too_mut]

I am trying to book some hotel accommodation for a small mixed family group - some from the UK and some from Thailand. Is there any easy way of finding an internet agency that will allow this? At least one agency implies that it will not accept bookings even from Thais resident overseas - 'The travel industry in general only gives discount rates via the Internet to visitors from overseas (holding passports from a country other than the one visited)'. Imposing the bracketed condition would be unlawful in the UK!

I was told that credit cardholder has to be a foreigner and among staying guests. The others could be anyone.

In the past, never had a problem when I was with a group of Thais, bookin 2 or 3 rooms.

Only last time (last week, there is another thread about booking sites) the problem arose when they understood it's me booking and paying but not among the guests - who were my wife, daughter and wife's niece.

Even that was not refused but the price went up considerably (for example, from 1200B to 1950B).

Edited October 10, 2007 by think_too_mut

[ClaytonSeymour]

I am trying to book some hotel accommodation for a small mixed family group - some from the UK and some from Thailand. Is there any easy way of finding an internet agency that will allow this? At least one agency implies that it will not accept bookings even from Thais resident overseas - 'The travel industry in general only gives discount rates via the Internet to visitors from overseas (holding passports from a country other than the one visited)'. Imposing the bracketed condition would be unlawful in the UK!

No problem with any internet agency; only the head of the party has to have a UK passport.

Edited October 10, 2007 by ClaytonSeymour

[Richard W]

No problem with any internet agency; only the head of the party has to have a UK passport.

I'm in the position Think Too Mut was in. I don't think they'd accept a child as the head of the party.

I did have an Internet booking declined last year because the party, of which I was head, consisted of two Britons and three Thais.

Edited October 10, 2007 by Richard W

[onethailand]

No problem with any internet agency; only the head of the party has to have a UK passport.

I'm in the position Think Too Mut was in. I don't think they'd accept a child as the head of the party.

I did have an Internet booking declined last year because the party, of which I was head, consisted of two Britons and three Thais.

That's not good. What Clayton said (except it doesn't have to be a UK passport, an American or almost anything non-Thai will do ) is correct - the most important thing is who's paying. I'd love to know who turned you down... though keep in mind it could just have been that the hotel was full.

I take my family (who are Thai as far as everyone else is concerned) on bookings - and sometimes I'm told to pretend I'm not living in Thailand... hard to do when the hotel (especially in Phuket) treats you like trash and then I go off on them in Thai, making sure everyone else hears me very clearly Maybe I'm the reason why they don't like parties from Thailand

[donna]

i will look after you onethailand, when my place opens up. no worries about that!

[onethailand]

i will look after you onethailand, when my place opens up. no worries about that!

Deal

Let me know when you're about ready to open.

[Richard W]

I did have an Internet booking declined last year because the party, of which I was head, consisted of two Britons and three Thais.

That's not good. What Clayton said (except it doesn't have to be a UK passport, an American or almost anything non-Thai will do ) is correct - the most important thing is who's paying. I'd love to know who turned you down... though keep in mind it could just have been that the hotel was full.

AsiaRooms / Royal Benja turned me down.

On 20/6/06 I was asked, 'Kindly advise nationality of the guest in 2nd room by return as our rate is not applicable for local resident.' I answered, and got the reply, 'We are sorry to inform you that THERE ARE NO MORE ROOMS AVAILABLE UNDER INTERNET RATES during this period'.

Incidentally, last year I attempted two bookings at Royal Benja for almost the same party at either end of the trip. The smaller party (two Britons and two Thais) did get a booking, but I suspect that was because of a slight difference in the way I filled in the booking form - no deception was intended.

I had a similar exchange last night with one of this forum's sponsors, except that they then (a) said they no longer had rooms at the discounted rate and ( offered the same rooms at a higher rate.

I find it hard to believe that rooms at the cheaper rate had disappeared in either case - it is far more likely that the assertion was a way of side-stepping the issue.

Edited October 10, 2007 by Richard W

[onethailand]

AsiaRooms / Royal Benja turned me down.

On 20/6/06 I was asked, 'Kindly advise nationality of the guest in 2nd room by return as our rate is not applicable for local resident.' I answered, and got the reply, 'We are sorry to inform you that THERE ARE NO MORE ROOMS AVAILABLE UNDER INTERNET RATES during this period'.

Incidentally, last year I attempted two bookings at Royal Benja for almost the same party at either end of the trip. The smaller party (two Britons and two Thais) did get a booking, but I suspect that was because of a slight difference in the way I filled in the booking form - no deception was intended.

I had a similar exchange last night with one of this forum's sponsors, except that they then (a) said they no longer had rooms at the discounted rate and ( offered the same rooms at a higher rate.

I find it hard to believe that rooms at the cheaper rate had disappeared in either case - it is far more likely that the assertion was a way of side-stepping the issue.

*sigh*

I don't like this attitude at all from the hotels. And you got a generic response and you are probably right. Unfortunately, some hotels really do not offer these rates to Thai residents (that's why I sometimes have to play my foreign nationality card and pretend that I don't speak Thai LOL)

At the moment, my staff has been instructed to enter only information for hotels which do not have restrictions. Any hotel with a different price (higher or lower, doesn't matter) for any nationality has been set aside for further handling. We're going to have to deal with it and eventually offer different prices - but if I have my way, in the future there will be one price and they will either have to accept the guest or be removed from the system.

BTW, one of the biggest offenders is one of the country's most famous hotels. At least six different categories...

TV has more than one sponsor for rooms if I am not mistaken... would appreciate if you point out which one though I have a feeling I already know.

[Richard W]

At the moment, my staff has been instructed to enter only information for hotels which do not have restrictions. Any hotel with a different price (higher or lower, doesn't matter) for any nationality has been set aside for further handling. We're going to have to deal with it and eventually offer different prices - but if I have my way, in the future there will be one price and they will either have to accept the guest or be removed from the system.

It would be helpful if you could be up-front about it. But would hosting explictly racialist adverts get sites banned?

TV has more than one sponsor for rooms if I am not mistaken... would appreciate if you point out which one though I have a feeling I already know.

It was HotelTravel.com.

[onethailand]

I don't think they would like to see their xenophobia displayed to the world... LOL... one has to remember that these contracts were originally meant for agencies in shops run by Thais, who are usually a bit more accommodating to "requests" from hotels. This is one of the reasons many of them demand TAT licenses first. But they didn't count on the farangs either "acquiring" Thai agencies or being able to start them up in the first place.

It's not going to change any time soon - most of the big hotel managers are farangs as well and they agree with these xenophobic policies so as to enhance their chances at winning awards... so the best I'm likely going to be able to do is try not to show you these hotels in the first place.

HotelTravel is getting big - they're doing something with CNN - but unfortunately, like most other agencies, they have to handle a worldwide market and adapt fairly rigid standards in order to maintain that reach. This is one of the areas where we will have an advantage as we are in Thailand and we are focusing primarily on Thailand.