Thai Visa Travel Agent All Its Cracked Up To Be ?

[richard_smith237]

I’m planning a quick romantic getaway with my girlfriend next week. As Pattaya is a quick 2hrs drive away it’s the most convenient (also has some watersports that we are interested in) so we decided to stay the Zign hotel which appears very well designed, it’s a little isolated while at the same time being close enough to town to head out for a beer etc in the evenings.

I e-mailed with the booking form and got a response to my reservation request from Reservations hotels.thaivisa.com that the hotel is fully booked on the days we want to stay.

However, my girlfriend had also made an enquiry direct with the hotel to see if they had any promotions etc… And they do – and they are not fully booked, In fact they had availability for any room and villa type except for the poolside villas.

Hotels.thaivisa.com suggested an alternative which is 2,600 B per night more… and stretches our price bracket. Needles to say we’ll go with the direct promotion which undercuts the agents internet based price.

Now, something doesn’t seem right that they’d respond that a hotel with vacancies is fully booked and then suggest an alternative that is quite a lot more.

I rarely use agencies over the internet, is this the norm? this just seems rather odd to me.

Edited December 9, 2007 by richard_smith237

[londonthai]

no, it's not a norm - agencies (even internet ones) usually have cheaper rates than booking directly, but it comes with conditions (you have substandard service if something goes bad). Hotels won't release any rooms for the agencies in the high season when they are sure they can direct bookings.

difficult to say in your case - but most probably the travel agency did not have Zign hotel on their list (each agency deals with only limited hotels) they offered you another hotel with availability

[torrenova]

If agents actually got instant online booking facilities then they would be a whole lot more useful. Quite why you wouldn't check the hotel direct at thta level I don't know. I would even phone them or email them and ask for a serious discount from their internet offer.

[Moonfruit]

Ive booked one flight with thaivisa travel before to HK and that was smooth and fine a couple months ago.

This time round, they have so far sent me three emails with flight itineraries for a flight to UK in Jan, none of which are the itineraries i have asked for. I must say, this time round has been pretty shocking.

[lazeeboy]

Ive booked one flight with thaivisa travel before to HK and that was smooth and fine a couple months ago.

This time round, they have so far sent me three emails with flight itineraries for a flight to UK in Jan, none of which are the itineraries i have asked for. I must say, this time round has been pretty shocking.

i mail them a couple of weeks back stating i needed a flight to the uk within the week ,they replied 5 days later ,asking where and when i wanted to go ,booked it locally .....

[MrSquigle]

There car rental partnership sucks also, I had a similar experience as OP and booked direct cheaper for something that the connection through here was somewhat more expensive and not available on some days.

[jazzbo]

I recently looked at several online hotel booking websites but not ThaiVisa travel. All of them said in FAQs that they have discount rates not available directly from the hotels themselves. With a few random searches, I found that I could in every case obtain the same or better rate direct from the hotel in Thailand and elsewhere... sometimes much less. And when you check-in, the front desk knows that you booked direct.

[Lickey]

seems like some posts and a Mods post has been removed from this forum, could you mods explain why ? thanks,,

[Mahout Angrit]

seems like some posts and a Mods post has been removed from this forum, could you mods explain why ? thanks,,

I think we know, this is not the first time the truth has been censored on the subject of this thread. It must be sensitive to some sadly anonymous moderator who could stand to lose from the comments. If not, as suggested already, just a simple reason please

[jeffer]

Just use Wotif, Passion Asia, Rates To Go, Asia Rooms, Latestays, Direct Rooms, etc. etc. Plenty to choose from if you have booking problems, just take your business elsewhere, problem solved, no censorship required

Anyway I can't believe it would be in the best interests of Thai Visa to censor customer feedback. If it really is Thai Visa's way of responding to such a question then I think people will easily form their own opinion where to book in future.

[monty]

All these hotel booking sites buy rooms in bulk from the hotels (often fully prepaid and hence very cheap!), which they then can resell under the normal price the hotel would charge directly to their customers.

When you try to book through these booking sites, especially during high season, you often get the reply that these rooms are sold out, especially the cheaper ones.

Actually it's not the hotel which is fully booked, it's the rooms the booking site prepaid for in the hotel which are sold out!!! For obvious reasons the hotels don't tie up all their rooms at the very low prices these booking sites offer!

So practically, you'll have to try as many of these booking sites, as often one of them still has rooms available in the particular hotel you want (and cheaper then what the hotel can offer you)...

It's a bit of an art using the internet to your full advantage when traveling

[jazzbo]

It seems there is another layer involved: The online booking sites deal with wholesalers/consolidators. It is the wholesalers that actually buy the rooms in bulk, not the websites. So in many instances, different websites are dealing with the same wholesaler. As Kuhn Monty says, it is a bit of an art to navigate the options... I still prefer whenever possible to deal with the hotel direct.

[onethailand]

All these hotel booking sites buy rooms in bulk from the hotels (often fully prepaid and hence very cheap!), which they then can resell under the normal price the hotel would charge directly to their customers.

When you try to book through these booking sites, especially during high season, you often get the reply that these rooms are sold out, especially the cheaper ones.

Actually it's not the hotel which is fully booked, it's the rooms the booking site prepaid for in the hotel which are sold out!!! For obvious reasons the hotels don't tie up all their rooms at the very low prices these booking sites offer!

So practically, you'll have to try as many of these booking sites, as often one of them still has rooms available in the particular hotel you want (and cheaper then what the hotel can offer you)...

It's a bit of an art using the internet to your full advantage when traveling

This is only partly true. Some sites use wholesalers who buy in bulk. Some sites buy directly themselves - and some sites hold contracts for which they must call to confirm availability on each occasion.

[yorkman]

seems like some posts and a Mods post has been removed from this forum, could you mods explain why ? thanks,,

I think we know, this is not the first time the truth has been censored on the subject of this thread. It must be sensitive to some sadly anonymous moderator who could stand to lose from the comments. If not, as suggested already, just a simple reason please

Well if you have not realised the TV income stream yet ( and it seems you have) you never will

[Lickey]

ok, will try again, *******.. for the best and quickest flights available, Guy done us a very good service and he should be TVs agent, thankyou..