I though to book a KLIA hotel online. Google provided

Asia Discovery, Bangkok HotelPro, Royal Exclusive, Cambodia Travel,Burma Travel etc.

All same company.

Wanted payment up front..28 days in advance on Visa Card cancellation within 21 days of arrival date wanted 2 nights penalty.

I demurred..a. Site not secure. b. terms ridiculous

Got this amazing reply:

How dare revealing such an immoral attitude upon Thai people? Our web site, in the "about us" section clearly introduces ourselves, why did you send the booking form without checking this out? Where have you been? In the space it may be, perhaps, in the jungle where tarzans rule your dark society, ingrained in discriminatory way of bringing up. Maybe, jealous that we are in Thailand and good enough to deal with people in so many countries like Malaysia, Singapore, China, Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, USA and etc?

Go ask those old Englishmen who have visited Thailand, most of them are looking to retire and get pension, then live here for good, perhaps, wishing their dead bod buried under our grounds. Getting just a pension they won't survive over there. I am sorry that you are so depressed having to struggle in your country, but do not be so emotional, likemost sissy people, and throw your bias at us. Westeners are okay, but especially in developed countries, are found with low level of conscience and morality.

Do not welcome us into your wicked, sickened world. It's the world of villians who should have been on the Andaman coasts on the 26th of December. Then the world won't have to carry so much weights of pieces of .....t.

The ###### with you. We need no business with such a nutcase.

Anyone ever had this!!

Indeed, that is an interesting response. In general, I try to avoid making hotel bookings with travel agencies that require payment-in-advance. On more than one occasion at check-in time with a pre-paid booking, the hotel had no record of my booking because the agency hadn't bothered to forward the money/reservation to the hotel. That's never happened to me when I had a reservation where payment was to be settled at the hotel.

Amazing. I checked two sites and could find no terms and conditions of any kind listed.

I checked two sites and could find no terms and conditions of any kind listed.

About the only thing I could find when viewing room rates is that to get their wonderful prices (they are not particularly great), bookings must be prepaid.

Send a copy to TAT.

They will probably do nothing but you never know until you try

Go in to their office when you get here and ask who wrote it, Now that would be a funny sight seeing them squirm with embarasment

Today, I saw an add in the BKK Post for a serviced apartment which looked very attractive in the Silom area with a weekly special averaging 950 Baht a night.

I logged onto the site on the web but omitted "The" which is part of the advertised apartment's name. Go the web page, I thought, which appeared to be a combined web page or associated hotels and serviced apartments.

E-mailed them asking for best price for one week and low seasor rate as well.

Reply was prompt, quoted 1100 Baht a night with no weekly rate and the advice that they were a travel agency and had already obtained the best price so I needent contact the hotel. They also wanted money up-front.

Went into the web again using "The Regent Silom" and got an entirely different web page with red flashing words indicating the advertised weekly special seen in the Post.

The web page was not as fancy or informative but the rate was 200 baht a night cheaper for a weeks stay and no up front money was requested.

Learned from your post and my own experience today.

I demurred..a. Site not secure. b. terms ridiculous

Ah, ha ha, i'm sure you must have done more than a polite demurral to get a deranged reply like this !!!

If you didn't then their reply is worth sending to the Nation letters page !

Use Asia Hotels.com normally and they give great rates and just want a credit card for guaranteed. You don't actually pay until you check out of the hotel. Forget prepayment rubbish - bloody scam.

Just got my email confirmation from Khun Tong of my booking at the old Dun-2-wan in Chaing Mai.for the weekend.

Gotta supply a C.C.for first night but after that his secretary comes round to the hotel,checks everthings OK and requests additional/final payment.

Good Rates,Breakies,nice location (on Loy Kroth ) free airport pickup and " ha nati "walk to the Paddy and An-grit boozers.(and bubbles if you are up to it )

He has never let me down yet. Recco....

http://www.chiangmai-online.com/

Just got my email confirmation from Khun Tong of my booking at the old Dun-2-wan in Chaing Mai.for the weekend.

Gotta supply a C.C.for first night but after that his secretary comes round to the hotel,checks everthings OK and requests additional/final payment.

Good Rates,Breakies,nice location (on Loy Kroth ) free airport pickup and " ha nati "walk to the Paddy and An-grit boozers.(and bubbles if you are up to it )

He has never let me down yet. Recco....

http://www.chiangmai-online.com/

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Whats the turnaround on that site?

Been trying to book a hotel in Chiang Mai for a week, Precision Reservations took 3 days to tell me the room was no longer available at the price displayed, now i'm into a 3rd day of waiting through Siam.net for the Tamarind.

BKK, Phuket and Krabi were pretty quick to book, but this is a real pain because we arrive first at Chiang Mai on Monday.

Got a vision of turning up with suitcases and knocking on doors...

In my case about 10 minutes. All to do with timing..

My experience has been two hours to two days (for Pattaya office). Chiang Mai has always been prompt.

WOW! A Thai with a sense of humour,although a bit over with the 26th Dec ref. It does seem funny though that I have seen replies in this vane from tourist boards in different counties and everyone has thought them hilarious.Bad day at the office or maybe the poster wound them up a bit first. My guess,the latter. Why complain? The agent has replied in a way that many of us in positions of authority wish we could do each time we get stupid requests or difficult customers.

Personally I use asiarooms.com for all my bookings.

try using hoteltravel.com they are always prompt, great service and cheap too!

Used hotelthailand.com once, booked 5 nights at Novotel Lotus in Bangkok for my sister. It was pre-pay and was a bit apprehensive, but everything was absolutely fine. Just handed them the voucher at reception and nothing more to pay. Also had a free airport transfer thrown in, and certainly much better than the wrecks that masquerade as taxis at the airport.