End Of Online Hotel Booking?

[think_too_mut]

I mean, it will go further but with the hotels taking full control of who and at what price can sell their rooms and services.

Last week I tried to book a hotel in Singapore, Marina Mandarin or Pan Pacific.

I have stayed at both in the past, through work, and their price was 185SGD. That was about half of what everyone (including directly) else was selling them for.

This time, no. I tried zuji, asiarooms and several other online agencies, none of them could beat the hotel directly.

As a sign of what might be happening, when I tried zuji, it has the hotels, the prices and when I try to check for availability the return error is "pseudo_supplier_blocked" or something like that.

There we are. Looks like the hotels have cut off that eco-system of online booking businesses. Indeed, how did they allow them at all?

The closest and cheapest to direct booking was about 10% more expensive than the hotels themselves.

Many would look the same with a subtle difference: what the hotels show in SGD, other sites would show that same figure - but in USD. A considerable difference.

So, 300SGD (all included, taxes, service fee, breakfast) direct room from the hotel itself would come through an agency as 259* bare bones, room only and everything to be charged atop.

The astersik means that 259SGD is for Saturday and Sunday night only (the hotel does that too), while weekdays are 300SGD, like the hotel itself but, again, room only. There we have apples to apples and "cheap rooms" agency goes almost 20% over the direct price.

In June, one of my staff stayed at that 300SGD room for corp price of 185 SGD. But, my corp badge won't work : that price is for American Express agency if they book it for me. This is not a business trip and they would not do that.

In July 2003. (the region still reeling from SARS) any agency in BKK could get that heavily discounted price.

Looks like, they still have almost half priced rooms but they are available only to AMEX and possibly some other giant or select travel agencies. Not to most (if any) of those online.

So the scenario of booking a trip for 3ppl, 4 days 3 nights with a large agency advertising in the BKK Post went sour.

They could offer airline tickets on very inconvenient flights (like TG 7:30am BKK-SIN), on return to be waitlisted at 35K baht for all.

Direct SQ booking had all we wanted and more for 28K baht (almost down to 1 baht what ThaiVisa cheap flight will amount to with Swiss flight that starts at humble 4500B per person and snowballs with taxes and fuel surcharges to 2.5 times that).

Also, the agency was unable to negotiate hotel price even at the level the hotels advertise themselves.

At the end, our direct booking with SQ and Pan Pacific is 48K baht, the agency's was 57K baht. The agency lady said she is dismayed that after 10 years in her job she could not do better than anyone with access to the Internet. Gloomy days ahead for them?

Edited July 6, 2008 by think_too_mut

[technocracy]

Agree. Had a similar situation last week booking the Amari Boulevard on Sukhumvit.

Went round all the usual agency and last but not least checked on the Amari website and they were the cheapest had it previously booking a Swissotel in Singapore also.

I think they are just getting wise to all the agency sites and are trying to cut out the middle man.

[h90]

I mean, it will go further but with the hotels taking full control of who and at what price can sell their rooms and services.

Last week I tried to book a hotel in Singapore, Marina Mandarin or Pan Pacific.

I have stayed at both in the past, through work, and their price was 185SGD. That was about half of what everyone (including directly) else was selling them for.

This time, no. I tried zuji, asiarooms and several other online agencies, none of them could beat the hotel directly.

As a sign of what might be happening, when I tried zuji, it has the hotels, the prices and when I try to check for availability the return error is "pseudo_supplier_blocked" or something like that.

There we are. Looks like the hotels have cut off that eco-system of online booking businesses. Indeed, how did they allow them at all?

The closest and cheapest to direct booking was about 10% more expensive than the hotels themselves.

Many would look the same with a subtle difference: what the hotels show in SGD, other sites would show that same figure - but in USD. A considerable difference.

So, 300SGD (all included, taxes, service fee, breakfast) direct room from the hotel itself would come through an agency as 259* bare bones, room only and everything to be charged atop.

The astersik means that 259SGD is for Saturday and Sunday night only (the hotel does that too), while weekdays are 300SGD, like the hotel itself but, again, room only. There we have apples to apples and "cheap rooms" agency goes almost 20% over the direct price.

In June, one of my staff stayed at that 300SGD room for corp price of 185 SGD. But, my corp badge won't work : that price is for American Express agency if they book it for me. This is not a business trip and they would not do that.

In July 2003. (the region still reeling from SARS) any agency in BKK could get that heavily discounted price.

Looks like, they still have almost half priced rooms but they are available only to AMEX and possibly some other giant or select travel agencies. Not to most (if any) of those online.

So the scenario of booking a trip for 3ppl, 4 days 3 nights with a large agency advertising in the BKK Post went sour.

They could offer airline tickets on very inconvenient flights (like TG 7:30am BKK-SIN), on return to be waitlisted at 35K baht for all.

Direct SQ booking had all we wanted and more for 28K baht (almost down to 1 baht what ThaiVisa cheap flight will amount to with Swiss flight that starts at humble 4500B per person and snowballs with taxes and fuel surcharges to 2.5 times that).

Also, the agency was unable to negotiate hotel price even at the level the hotels advertise themselves.

At the end, our direct booking with SQ and Pan Pacific is 48K baht, the agency's was 57K baht. The agency lady said she is dismayed that after 10 years in her job she could not do better than anyone with access to the Internet. Gloomy days ahead for them?

Well just 2 hotels, that does not mean much worldwide. But would be fine if the middle man is cut out.

i recall a hotel in Hua Hin for 4000 Baht/night "walk in price", but if you go in their internet place and book it on their webpage you get it cheaper and most probably if you book it over an agency you get it even cheaper....

somehow bizarre

[think_too_mut]

Well just 2 hotels, that does not mean much worldwide. But would be fine if the middle man is cut out.

i recall a hotel in Hua Hin for 4000 Baht/night "walk in price", but if you go in their internet place and book it on their webpage you get it cheaper and most probably if you book it over an agency you get it even cheaper....

somehow bizarre

No, not just 2 hotels. I tried several more.

What is also new to me, the hotels included in the packages vere far inferior and more expensive than those 2 that I narrowed down to. I understand many people would take anything vor a visa run trip but I was after something higher up.

For example, the agency has Peninsula Excelsior (it's not the Peninusla chain) is not only inferior by design but it's also a wreck according to many reviews.

While Pan Pacific is 7000B per night (direct), that one is 9000B per night through that agency - it does show explicitly when you check "extra night".

Again, my point is - looks like we are seeing the hotel industry sobering up and tightening the screws who (if anyone) can seel their rooms cheaper than themselves.

[h90]

Well just 2 hotels, that does not mean much worldwide. But would be fine if the middle man is cut out.

i recall a hotel in Hua Hin for 4000 Baht/night "walk in price", but if you go in their internet place and book it on their webpage you get it cheaper and most probably if you book it over an agency you get it even cheaper....

somehow bizarre

No, not just 2 hotels. I tried several more.

What is also new to me, the hotels included in the packages vere far inferior and more expensive than those 2 that I narrowed down to. I understand many people would take anything vor a visa run trip but I was after something higher up.

For example, the agency has Peninsula Excelsior (it's not the Peninusla chain) is not only inferior by design but it's also a wreck according to many reviews.

While Pan Pacific is 7000B per night (direct), that one is 9000B per night through that agency - it does show explicitly when you check "extra night".

Again, my point is - looks like we are seeing the hotel industry sobering up and tightening the screws who (if anyone) can seel their rooms cheaper than themselves.

Would be interesting if it is a global trend or if maybe Singapore has any new law and it is just a Sing thing.

[think_too_mut]

Would be interesting if it is a global trend or if maybe Singapore has any new law and it is just a Sing thing.

Looks like a global trend.

Airlines from Japan, booked directly are 10$ more expensive (which is negligable if the ticket is 700-800 US$) than rock-bottom group travel agencies that make you checkin twice - once for the group where they give you the a voucher and then another queuing for the airline real check in.

With JAL, ANA, SQ you can choose seats and meals on their site. The discounters have nothing of that.

Looks like only Thai Airways is still letting agents have a bite by stating rudiculosly high prices on their web site.

For how long? Could be social responsibility for the jobs of the agencies people, TG is a government company still.

[onzestan]

It's a trend that has been going on for quite some time now, and if I'm not mistaken spearheaded by the Accor group of hotels (Sofitel, Mercure, Ibis etc.), followed by other international hotel chains like Holiday Inn etc..

As for airlines I'm not so sure, it all depends on your travel agent.

cheers

onzestan

[Kf6vci]

Ditto. But I found that showing up as paying customer often yields a further reduction in the (quoted) price without any haggling. This happened at SENA PLACE on Phaolyothin Road. In the past, I used to book online using sawasdee.com

[technocracy]

Ditto. But I found that showing up as paying customer often yields a further reduction in the (quoted) price without any haggling. This happened at SENA PLACE on Phaolyothin Road. In the past, I used to book online using sawasdee.com

I think it's more to do with International hotels opposed to the private one off hotels.

Walk into any International hotel and the rack prices for rooms in general are about twice what you'd get on the internet.

[Eff1n2ret]

Ditto. But I found that showing up as paying customer often yields a further reduction in the (quoted) price without any haggling. This happened at SENA PLACE on Phaolyothin Road. In the past, I used to book online using sawasdee.com

I've also had the opposite experience. 3 or 4 years back I booked via online agency a couple of nights at a hotel in Rayong province, cost about 1800baht/night. Once we got there we decided to stay another 3 nights, but when I enquired at reception they wanted 2800baht/night. When I pointed out the obvious, they said "oh no, that price only through agency." So, I had the bizarre experience of going online and making a further booking for the hotel in which I was sitting at the time.

You'd have thought they would have been happy to charge the online price and trouser the agency's margin. Perhaps things have changed recently, as the OP indicates.

[RBWilson]

Had a similar experience two weeks ago trying to book a Singapore 5-star hotel; Surprisingly, the only agent that beat the hotel's direct price was Expedia.com

[h90]

Would be interesting if it is a global trend or if maybe Singapore has any new law and it is just a Sing thing.

Looks like a global trend.

Airlines from Japan, booked directly are 10$ more expensive (which is negligable if the ticket is 700-800 US$) than rock-bottom group travel agencies that make you checkin twice - once for the group where they give you the a voucher and then another queuing for the airline real check in.

With JAL, ANA, SQ you can choose seats and meals on their site. The discounters have nothing of that.

Looks like only Thai Airways is still letting agents have a bite by stating rudiculosly high prices on their web site.

For how long? Could be social responsibility for the jobs of the agencies people, TG is a government company still.

From time to time I check BKK-VIE

with Austrian Airline in the travel agency: 35.000-45.000

checking their webpage/online booking you are at 2000-3000 Euro (100.000-150.000 Baht).

My old mother did exactly the same for VIE-BKK and the webpage was a bit cheaper (imagine how proud my 70 year old mother was, as she explained me how to do, to get something cheaper on internet).

But I doubt that there is any strategies behind, it is just that Austrian Airline is complete idiotic company (anyway almost bankrupt)

[Flhai]

Ditto. But I found that showing up as paying customer often yields a further reduction in the (quoted) price without any haggling. This happened at SENA PLACE on Phaolyothin Road. In the past, I used to book online using sawasdee.com

I've also had the opposite experience. 3 or 4 years back I booked via online agency a couple of nights at a hotel in Rayong province, cost about 1800baht/night. Once we got there we decided to stay another 3 nights, but when I enquired at reception they wanted 2800baht/night. When I pointed out the obvious, they said "oh no, that price only through agency." So, I had the bizarre experience of going online and making a further booking for the hotel in which I was sitting at the time.

You'd have thought they would have been happy to charge the online price and trouser the agency's margin. Perhaps things have changed recently, as the OP indicates.

I have experienced the same thing in Thailand at no less then 5 different hotels. It seems to be a Thai thing however as when I do the same thing in Australia or Singapore for example they alsways give me the same price that I had paid online. The hotel is much better off to just give you the price given that the commission to the online agent is 10%. I put it down to laziness at hotel reception in Thailand because they don't want to buck the system and request from a supervisor or manager that you get a price that is lower then the lowest price that they themselves are authorised to give.

I did also have some real problems in Bangkok at one 5 star hotel when I extended my booking online after I had been quoted double in house and proceeded to reception when they decided that if you book online you must wait 48 hours before you can check in! Ha! They don't call online booking last minute for nothing. But as always in Thailand they pretty much hated me when I proved them wrong and 2 people lost face over it. They never forget it for the next 3 days and I had way many bad looks and whispers. Was like I was Mr cheap Charlie because I saved myself 3500 baht a night! The things some Thai people will do to save 100 baht and it is like I didn't have the right to save myself 10,000 for 5 mins work online.

[torrenova]

I've had the extended stay <deleted> where it works out cheaper to use the agent rather than pay the hotel direct. I've also noticed the hotels getting more clued up and agents being able to offer less but you often find agents have a net price inclusive of breakfast as opposed to the hotels' ++ and then add on breakfast charges.

Hotel guarantees that they are the cheapest are just rubbish as you need identical products and agencies have different payment terms which means the product is not identical and thus the guarantee cannt be invoked.

[think_too_mut]

I've had the extended stay <deleted> where it works out cheaper to use the agent rather than pay the hotel direct. I've also noticed the hotels getting more clued up and agents being able to offer less but you often find agents have a net price inclusive of breakfast as opposed to the hotels' ++ and then add on breakfast charges.

Hotel guarantees that they are the cheapest are just rubbish as you need identical products and agencies have different payment terms which means the product is not identical and thus the guarantee cannt be invoked.

I had that too - the reception even told my wife to call the agency and not deal with them directly. What was 1200B incl tax and breakfast, turned into 2200B bare room.

Looks like mainly rubbish hotels still do this. Dumps for about 1200B like Pattaya Welcome Inn, Grand Jomtien Palace, Jomtien Garden, Ambassador in BKK....and similar that have their capacity sold to tour operators to fill the rooms with Russians, one-night packages for Koreans, Chinese and Japanese.

By their prices they could be attractive to some but far less than the assured massive long term business they have with Russians.

Those hotels won't succeed in the Internet based market, have no facilities nor skills like larger hotel chains and there we have it. If they see some point in aggregating their remaining capacity into a pool and centrally manage sales over the net, that may spread to that level too.

As it is now, none of them would set up a web site or connect to some existing one for 10-20 rooms that may be unsold (or even better, sold but unfilled at the tour operator's loss) on the day.

They recover some or most of the loss by double charging whoever wants to extend their stay. Laziness of the staff is the probably the reason for "don't deal with us, call your agency".

[ThaiHotels]

I mean, it will go further but with the hotels taking full control of who and at what price can sell their rooms and services.

Last week I tried to book a hotel in Singapore, Marina Mandarin or Pan Pacific.

I have stayed at both in the past, through work, and their price was 185SGD. That was about half of what everyone (including directly) else was selling them for.

This time, no. I tried zuji, asiarooms and several other online agencies, none of them could beat the hotel directly.

As a sign of what might be happening, when I tried zuji, it has the hotels, the prices and when I try to check for availability the return error is "pseudo_supplier_blocked" or something like that.

There we are. Looks like the hotels have cut off that eco-system of online booking businesses. Indeed, how did they allow them at all?

The closest and cheapest to direct booking was about 10% more expensive than the hotels themselves.

Many would look the same with a subtle difference: what the hotels show in SGD, other sites would show that same figure - but in USD. A considerable difference.

So, 300SGD (all included, taxes, service fee, breakfast) direct room from the hotel itself would come through an agency as 259* bare bones, room only and everything to be charged atop.

The astersik means that 259SGD is for Saturday and Sunday night only (the hotel does that too), while weekdays are 300SGD, like the hotel itself but, again, room only. There we have apples to apples and "cheap rooms" agency goes almost 20% over the direct price.

In June, one of my staff stayed at that 300SGD room for corp price of 185 SGD. But, my corp badge won't work : that price is for American Express agency if they book it for me. This is not a business trip and they would not do that.

In July 2003. (the region still reeling from SARS) any agency in BKK could get that heavily discounted price.

Looks like, they still have almost half priced rooms but they are available only to AMEX and possibly some other giant or select travel agencies. Not to most (if any) of those online.

So the scenario of booking a trip for 3ppl, 4 days 3 nights with a large agency advertising in the BKK Post went sour.

They could offer airline tickets on very inconvenient flights (like TG 7:30am BKK-SIN), on return to be waitlisted at 35K baht for all.

Direct SQ booking had all we wanted and more for 28K baht (almost down to 1 baht what ThaiVisa cheap flight will amount to with Swiss flight that starts at humble 4500B per person and snowballs with taxes and fuel surcharges to 2.5 times that).

Also, the agency was unable to negotiate hotel price even at the level the hotels advertise themselves.

At the end, our direct booking with SQ and Pan Pacific is 48K baht, the agency's was 57K baht. The agency lady said she is dismayed that after 10 years in her job she could not do better than anyone with access to the Internet. Gloomy days ahead for them?

Its been like this for quite a few years already for 5 star hotels throughout Thailand and overseas. 5 star hotels prefer to sell directly to the customer as they have a large corporate following and members. Therefore they give agents a small allocation. and usually sell the hotel cheaper directly to the customers. Agents make up a small percentage of their sales.

When that allocation is used up, they will not give anymore rooms. Therefore the agent will say fully booked, when if you book with the hotel direct they have plenty of rooms. Happened just last week, The Intercontinetal Bangkok, we used up our allocation and asked the hotel to give us the room. They refused and advised that they have plenty of rooms available, but only for customers bookings at their website.

For 3 and 4 star hotels, the agent will always be chaeper for the time being.

Edited July 7, 2008 by ThaiHotels

[think_too_mut]

Its been like this for quite a few years already for 5 star hotels throughout Thailand and overseas. 5 star hotels prefer to sell directly to the customer as they have a large corporate following and members. Therefore they give agents a small allocation. and usually sell the hotel cheaper directly to the customers. Agents make up a small percentage of their sales.

When that allocation is used up, they will not give anymore rooms. Therefore the agent will say fully booked, when if you book with the hotel direct they have plenty of rooms. Happened just last week, The Intercontinetal Bangkok, we used up our allocation and asked the hotel to give us the room. They refused and advised that they have plenty of rooms available, but only for customers bookings at their website.

For 3 and 4 star hotels, the agent will always be chaeper for the time being.

Thanks for the insight, good explanation. I thought it could be something like that. Now we know it's limited to the top tier.

[britmaveric]

Always found this the case, book direct with hotel.

[Jimjim]

I think a lot of people are still using internet sites to book, and will not always bother to try and check with the hotel directly. I don't think hotel internet sites will ever die.

[onethailand]

Not all top tier hotels have the lowest price on their own websites - it's actually quite easy to tell, because those that do generally state this fact. Accor is one of those groups, and so is ICHotels (Intercontinental and Holiday Inn).

The best thing to do is go to a hotel booking site, look through their list, choose the one you want to stay at and then check directly on the hotel's website to see if they offer a better rate. If they do, book through the hotel. If they don't book through the hotel booking site.

As for allotments - sometimes you will go to the hotel website and find that the hotel is full - only to discover that some online booking site actually has allotment available. This also happens in reverse.

I got a hotel booking on Wotif for a discount price - in fact a Mystery Deal - while on the hotel website they claimed they were full. I also saw a few on another trip where the booking site was cheaper and had availability while the hotel was full, as well as some where the booking site was the same price but had availability, while the hotel was full.

In short - it doesn't make sense to use a single measuring stick for all online booking sites, or all hotel sites. As I said above, it's easiest to use the booking site to do your research, then check with the hotel website at the last stage before confirming the booking.

[torrenova]

Just had a few days in Bangkok and Singapore so here's my take on things.

Marriott Riverside will do deals including matching prices and free upgrades when quoted unsubstanciated agency rates.

Somerset Lakepoint (Ascott Group) will not match agency rates (wanted to extend a 3 day stay into a 5 day one) and I even had problems getting an extension as they could not see why my arguments were valid. Eventually stayed for an extra couple of hundred as I could not be bothered to go internetting again.

Singapore is a supposed first world country but with property from hotels to condo rentals stuck in the dark ages when compared with other countries. Overpriced and crap value are comments whch spring to mind. Few bargains to be had via any booking medium.

Overall you might get a better deal from the hotel but you cannot be sure. Booking agents often include breakfast which makes big difference at 5* places where it is touching Bt1000 each after taxes.

The fact is that after the internet explosion there were 1000's of competing sites and now there are only a few after mass consolidation / failures. I think this is the real reason for the lack of genuine brgains.

[bkkjames]

I would speculate that the downfall of small to medium sized booking engines has to do with the guaranteed number of rooms nights (at negotiated rates) they have to give the hotel per year. With the slowdown in travel, many can't meet these requirements.

[onethailand]

For Singapore, I found better rates via booking engines. I did a thorough search of this three weeks ago when I last went down - and two weeks prior to that as well.

That's not to say that a number of hotels in Singapore aren't overpriced - they are definitely overcharging in many hotels - even the run-down Grand Central Hotel wanted about US$120 per night, when it's worth about $30-$40.

James - not all online booking sites have to make room night guarantees. Many - even most - of them simply piggyback off of wholesalers or other large travel providers, but aren't willing to invest the money to make these sites work, which is why you see quite a number of them dropping out now.

[bkkjames]

For Singapore, I found better rates via booking engines. I did a thorough search of this three weeks ago when I last went down - and two weeks prior to that as well.

That's not to say that a number of hotels in Singapore aren't overpriced - they are definitely overcharging in many hotels - even the run-down Grand Central Hotel wanted about US$120 per night, when it's worth about $30-$40.

James - not all online booking sites have to make room night guarantees. Many - even most - of them simply piggyback off of wholesalers or other large travel providers, but aren't willing to invest the money to make these sites work, which is why you see quite a number of them dropping out now.

Thanks for the info on the website situation.

RE Singapore, it's purely a matter of supply and demand. Try getting a Novotel in Moscow like I did last winter, 600USD per night! for a Novotel.

[onethailand]

Thanks for the info on the website situation.

RE Singapore, it's purely a matter of supply and demand. Try getting a Novotel in Moscow like I did last winter, 600USD per night! for a Novotel.

Haha. The problem is that, during the period I last visited Singapore, there was no shortage of rooms. But it's possible that they artificially raised their rates for the Singapore Grand Prix (the week after I first visited) and then for some reason decided to keep those prices (three weeks later).

I ended up in the Grand Copthorne for S$199 - just over what Grand Central wanted, and a world of difference in class.

[bkkjames]

Thanks for the info on the website situation.

RE Singapore, it's purely a matter of supply and demand. Try getting a Novotel in Moscow like I did last winter, 600USD per night! for a Novotel.

Haha. The problem is that, during the period I last visited Singapore, there was no shortage of rooms. But it's possible that they artificially raised their rates for the Singapore Grand Prix (the week after I first visited) and then for some reason decided to keep those prices (three weeks later).

I ended up in the Grand Copthorne for S$199 - just over what Grand Central wanted, and a world of difference in class.

yea, GC is a nice hotel, the club level is great! Amara is nice too but not as central (MRT is very close).

[uniq]

I would actually say it's quite the opposite - online hotel booking is becoming ever more interesting.

Coming from a both hotel and agency background, I'd like to shed some light into the assumptions:

- any chain (not only 5*) that is able to manage it's inventory will insist on rate parity as they don't want to dillute their product by having agents sell rates that are actually intended for group or package travel (as done by several online agents - don't wanna blame anyone here)

- online agents provide other benefits, hotels are not able or willing to provide such as consolidated invoices, rewards no matter which property you book (e.g., agoda.com), 24h customer service that is actually reachable and speaks your language (hmm, also agoda.com, that's scary )

- regarding prices depending on the market (as in Thailand and Austria to stay with h90 example) is a common practice that started with wholesale rates given to agents but the same game is played when booking eg with accorhotels.com (only for asian properties) or on expedia.

- in regards to getting a better rate at a travel agent than booking direct (at the desk), that's just the laziness and unwillingness to win over the customer / guest. i never understood it but some employees are just too lazy or scared to actually negotiate, others again are not allowed. simply ask for the duty manager if the front desk agent is not willing to offer you a rate.

- as airlines have a far more tangible inventory than hotels they offer not only public fares that everyone is able to book (online or at the agency) but also they are also offering consolidator fares with their preferred suppliers. that way, they can yield their inventory quite predictable as these tend to work often as corporate travel agents that have a constant demand.

it's an intersting game that's being played and it's far from over, with the current economic situation it even seems that the trend is going towards online travel agents again as everyone is trying to grab a piece of the cake...

[onethailand]

Some nice observations here.

- any chain (not only 5*) that is able to manage it's inventory will insist on rate parity as they don't want to dillute their product by having agents sell rates that are actually intended for group or package travel (as done by several online agents - don't wanna blame anyone here)

Obviously, any hotel which can manage 90% capacity by itself is not going to offer rates elsewhere. They simply have no need.

There are indeed a number of agents which breach the rules of their contract with the hotel - but most hotels do not have any requirement to package the room with flight or other transport - they simply suggest it. Others simply enforce a minimum mark-up, or else a requirement to be in parity with whatever price is listed on the hotel website (which in most cases is stupid, because agents don't have the time to constantly monitor the latest rate available on the hotel website).

- online agents provide other benefits, hotels are not able or willing to provide such as consolidated invoices, rewards no matter which property you book (e.g., agoda.com), 24h customer service that is actually reachable and speaks your language (hmm, also agoda.com, that's scary )

The biggest advantage is that you can look at comparative prices of many hotels at once - pure and simple. Rewards may or may not work - in some cases they are a pain to claim. And as for customer service - yes, it is good to have 24h service - but for most requests they still end up having to wait for hotel working hours to process any request. This does not make economical sense - better to simply fill out a form, or send an email, and wait for it to be processed in the morning, except of course for any emergency situations.

- in regards to getting a better rate at a travel agent than booking direct (at the desk), that's just the laziness and unwillingness to win over the customer / guest. i never understood it but some employees are just too lazy or scared to actually negotiate, others again are not allowed. simply ask for the duty manager if the front desk agent is not willing to offer you a rate.

It's not laziness/unwillingness. At larger hotels, especially chains, they are simply not permitted to offer any rate other than the walk-in rate. At smaller hotels, the staff just don't have any power to do anything period, everything has to be referred to a manager, which more often than not really doesn't care as long as they get their salary. This is especially common in Phuket where most hotels have become complacent.

Funnily enough, as recounted by more than a few posters in this thread - the staff will do exactly what they think is the best for the customer - tell them to go book online. This is not a matter of laziness or unwillingness in the slightest - they are going out of their way to tell you how to get the cheapest price - something which really isn't permitted by most hotels.

[Flow]

I mean, it will go further but with the hotels taking full control of who and at what price can sell their rooms and services.

Last week I tried to book a hotel in Singapore, Marina Mandarin or Pan Pacific.

I have stayed at both in the past, through work, and their price was 185SGD. That was about half of what everyone (including directly) else was selling them for.

This time, no. I tried zuji, asiarooms and several other online agencies, none of them could beat the hotel directly.

As a sign of what might be happening, when I tried zuji, it has the hotels, the prices and when I try to check for availability the return error is "pseudo_supplier_blocked" or something like that.

There we are. Looks like the hotels have cut off that eco-system of online booking businesses. Indeed, how did they allow them at all?

The closest and cheapest to direct booking was about 10% more expensive than the hotels themselves.

Many would look the same with a subtle difference: what the hotels show in SGD, other sites would show that same figure - but in USD. A considerable difference.

So, 300SGD (all included, taxes, service fee, breakfast) direct room from the hotel itself would come through an agency as 259* bare bones, room only and everything to be charged atop.

The astersik means that 259SGD is for Saturday and Sunday night only (the hotel does that too), while weekdays are 300SGD, like the hotel itself but, again, room only. There we have apples to apples and "cheap rooms" agency goes almost 20% over the direct price.

In June, one of my staff stayed at that 300SGD room for corp price of 185 SGD. But, my corp badge won't work : that price is for American Express agency if they book it for me. This is not a business trip and they would not do that.

In July 2003. (the region still reeling from SARS) any agency in BKK could get that heavily discounted price.

Looks like, they still have almost half priced rooms but they are available only to AMEX and possibly some other giant or select travel agencies. Not to most (if any) of those online.

So the scenario of booking a trip for 3ppl, 4 days 3 nights with a large agency advertising in the BKK Post went sour.

They could offer airline tickets on very inconvenient flights (like TG 7:30am BKK-SIN), on return to be waitlisted at 35K baht for all.

Direct SQ booking had all we wanted and more for 28K baht (almost down to 1 baht what ThaiVisa cheap flight will amount to with Swiss flight that starts at humble 4500B per person and snowballs with taxes and fuel surcharges to 2.5 times that).

Also, the agency was unable to negotiate hotel price even at the level the hotels advertise themselves.

At the end, our direct booking with SQ and Pan Pacific is 48K baht, the agency's was 57K baht. The agency lady said she is dismayed that after 10 years in her job she could not do better than anyone with access to the Internet. Gloomy days ahead for them?

I booked a hotel room in Paris online for Euro 255 a night for June through an online website. When I arrived at the hotel the person checking in in front of me was paying (in cash)for the exact same room Euro 220. needless to say, I will never book any hotel accommodation online again.