Hotel Search Engines

[aussiestyle1983]

Which hotel search engines do you use or would not recommend?

I usually use expedia but the hotel I am tyring to book (Royal City in Thonburi) does not show up (unavailable) during May. However, it shows up on other search engines. Why would this be?

Agoda looks cheap but I have read some negative reviews about agoda, then again, some good comments.

So, what search engines do you use or not recommend?

And, why do some hotels only appear on some search engines?

I was prepared to use agoda becaue it is cheap but after reading some stories that they cancelled bookings just before check in and people were left stranded put me off - but these stories could be made up.

I would love to hear anyone's experiences.

[tw25rw]

I always use Agoda, but you need to click through to see how much the taxes add to the price. Always served me well though.

Hotels2Thailand are good too.

[Carib]

Agoda is used by me and if something is wrong they are fast in putting it straight right away. The thing I like is that you get instant confirmation, some sites will send you a mail the next day or so. In comparing with others they are reasonably priced, sometimes just a little over others but most of the time cheaper.

[PattayaParent]

Use Agoda all the time and in several countries and never had any problems with bookings.

Edited March 23, 2010 by PattayaParent

[sas_cars]

Always used agoda and in different countries without any problems

[tonititan]

I've probably used Agoda at least 25 times, and haven't had a single problem. I like that you (usually) get instant confirmation, and that you can accrue reward points. I've gotten several free nights thanks to sticking with Agoda. I find the reviews on the bottom of the page for a hotel listing to be helpful in choosing a hotel. None of the hotels have had any problems with my Agoda vouchers. When I have needed to cancel/change reservations, the Agoda customer service has always been extremely helpful. And finally, I usually choose a hotel on Agoda and then search every other possible site I can find to look for a cheaper price. Agoda is consistently cheaper, even cheaper than latestays.com, which supposedly has great last-minute deals. I haven't needed to use it yet, but I noticed on Agoda's website that they now have a low price guarantee, and that if you book with them and then find the room for cheaper, they will refund the difference, I believe.

[Mr Conrad]

I'm with everybody else on this one, use Agoda all the time, never a problem and well priced.

Best regards

Mr Conrad

[game4shame]

I use asiarooms where I can and ratestogo.com for last minute bookings.

I used to use asiatravel but their website is crap and they've fallen well behind their competitors IMO.

I had a look at agoda but I noticed they had a few sneaky add-ons when confirming final cost - that's a big, big thumbs down in my book.

saying that, by the looks of the previous posts on this thread, plenty of people must be falling for their sly tricks.

asiarooms take credit card confirmation and you pay on check out from hotel - good rates and no agoda-style add-ons. the price you see is the price you pay.

ratestogo.com are good for last minute rooms (within 28 days). some bargains to be had.

[RickSee]

Always use LateStays for Thailand, and most other places. Maybe 30 times and never failed me. Advantages are: always an immediate confirmation; usually best (or close to best) rates; no hidden charges.

[brizzle]

IMO there is no such thing as a best hotel search engine although I do agree that some websites are "generally" more competitive than others. I tend to check about four or 5 hotel comparison sites such as hotelscombined .com etc etc and then also do the rounds on various websites that I know that these comparison sites will not pick up.

The best deals I have found on various hotels at this time come from a diverse range of websites.The new Marriott apartments Sukhumvit are best purchased on Air Asia at the moment although most of their rates are more expensive than agoda and the likes. Book the Pan Pacific Bkk for a knock down price using a special travelzoo promotion code. The new 5 star Radisson Sathorn looks best purchased from hotels.com or expedia,you can get an extra 10% off using a promotion code on these sites. Dream hotel Bkk with ABF seems to be best with HRS.com....the list goes on. I have found Orbitz generally more expensive but now and again they sneak in a good hotel at an excellent price and you can use a code to get anywhere between 50 and 75USD off for a 4 night stay.

It all takes time ,believe me, but the savings can be quite considerable.

Edited March 23, 2010 by brizzle

[aussiestyle1983]

What about engines that let you pay in your home currency?

That is what I liked about expedia. I think agoda looks as if you can pay in your home currency as well. Not sure about asia rooms.

I also like ones that include all taxes and service charges. From memory, there are a few that don't.

Do hotels control what engines they appear in? I notice that some hotels appear in all engines, when some only appear in one or two (which are nonetheless still cheaper than the direct hotel internet rates).

[shawndoc]

I've used Agoda, Sawadee, and latestays. I also use Expedia in the States, but find their selection of hotels in Thailand to be rather dismal and their prices to be high.

Sawadee is great for reading reviews and provides the most information about the hotel. My only complaint is booking is not in real time, and can take several hours for them to get back to you. Also its not always clear that you aren't getting the room you want. For instance, you want to book a Deluxe, but they're sold out, so instead they offer you a Superior instead.

Its been a while since I used them, but in the past the wording in the email was nearly identical and required you to remember exactly what you requested and whether that's what's in the confirmation email before you make payment.

Otherwise no problems with them, and they're still the first site I got too when scouting hotels.

[PattayaParent]

I use asiarooms where I can and ratestogo.com for last minute bookings.

I used to use asiatravel but their website is crap and they've fallen well behind their competitors IMO.

I had a look at agoda but I noticed they had a few sneaky add-ons when confirming final cost - that's a big, big thumbs down in my book.

saying that, by the looks of the previous posts on this thread, plenty of people must be falling for their sly tricks.

asiarooms take credit card confirmation and you pay on check out from hotel - good rates and no agoda-style add-ons. the price you see is the price you pay.

ratestogo.com are good for last minute rooms (within 28 days). some bargains to be had.

The sly trick that I always fall for is that they are consistently the cheapest price to be had.

[game4shame]

I had a look at agoda but I noticed they had a few sneaky add-ons when confirming final cost - that's a big, big thumbs down in my book.

saying that, by the looks of the previous posts on this thread, plenty of people must be falling for their sly tricks.

The sly trick that I always fall for is that they are consistently the cheapest price to be had.

....until the tax is added on.

I'm not having a dig at you mate but I just don't like the way agoda operate. eg you may see a price of 1360THB per night which you think is good but when you go through to the confirmation part of the booking they've added the extras and suddenly your 1360THB bargain has become 1500THB. purely an example.

if others can give you the full cost then why don't agoda? I'll tell you why - to get you hooked into the idea that you're getting a bargain, and by the time you've realised it's not as good as it first looked, you're likely just to go ahead with the booking anyway.

each to their own but I'll take my business elsewhere.

Edited March 24, 2010 by game4shame

[roamer]

Think one of the best ways to resolve this is to use Kayak hotel search facility. Just did and checked results. It checked a total of 39 sites for me, including all of those mentioned. Click on the price on the left hand site and it shows you the sites that came up with a price, and in cases like Agoda estimated the service charges and taxes where they were not included allowing you to make the comparison at a glance. Actually must admit I was surprised to see that where Agoda did come up with a price it was often slightly the cheapest. However sometimes the best deals were with sites you might not normally have checked...Expedia or Last minute where it seems they have struck a good deal with that particular hotel. Other sites like Trip Advisor also have a similar hotel booking "scanning" service but open lots of pop-ups and often go to sites that don't handle the hotel you clicked on, bit of a waste of time. Great for independent reviews though.

One site and service to be avoided is Wotif with their "mystery hotel" service, they supply enough details about the hotel so that with a bit of googleing you can find out which hotel it is....or so you think. When you,ve paid for the hotel and they send you the details its a completely different place and a crap deal that you could have got cheaper on another site. They don't want to know if you try to argue the case, just say you should not have tried to work it out as its a mystery hotel. IMHO if they tell you the hotel has a coffee shop called Harmony, is opposite such and such a bakery etc and you have deduced its XYZ hotel then that's what it should be. Not according to that bunch of scam artists. Sherlock Holmes could have deduced all he liked but that lot would still have had him wrong!

[tonititan]

I had a look at agoda but I noticed they had a few sneaky add-ons when confirming final cost - that's a big, big thumbs down in my book.

saying that, by the looks of the previous posts on this thread, plenty of people must be falling for their sly tricks.

The sly trick that I always fall for is that they are consistently the cheapest price to be had.

....until the tax is added on.

I'm not having a dig at you mate but I just don't like the way agoda operate. eg you may see a price of 1360THB per night which you think is good but when you go through to the confirmation part of the booking they've added the extras and suddenly your 1360THB bargain has become 1500THB. purely an example.

if others can give you the full cost then why don't agoda? I'll tell you why - to get you hooked into the idea that you're getting a bargain, and by the time you've realised it's not as good as it first looked, you're likely just to go ahead with the booking anyway.

each to their own but I'll take my business elsewhere.

I don't think that I'm falling for any "sly tricks" when I use Agoda. I know that Agoda adds on tax AFTER you select the hotel, so I look at the final price when comparing websites. If someone gets "hooked" and books without looking at the final price, then they're not a very savvy traveler. I think it's common sense to look at the final price before booking. Agoda almost always gives me the cheapest price (AFTER taxes are added on), so I'm happy to complete one extra step and not choose laziness over price.

[brizzle]

I have to say that although I appreciate Agoda is very competitive I only book a hotel through them about 10 % of the time after exhausting all options. For the other 9 out of 10 bookings I have always found a cheaper alternative for the hotel I am interested in. This may or may not involve using discount codes or can even sometimes be a mistake rate but whatever the reason I have more often than not found a cheaper rate.

Edited March 24, 2010 by brizzle

[game4shame]

I don't think that I'm falling for any "sly tricks" when I use Agoda. I know that Agoda adds on tax AFTER you select the hotel, so I look at the final price when comparing websites. If someone gets "hooked" and books without looking at the final price, then they're not a very savvy traveler. I think it's common sense to look at the final price before booking. Agoda almost always gives me the cheapest price (AFTER taxes are added on), so I'm happy to complete one extra step and not choose laziness over price.

as I said, each to their own.

the ONLY reason agoda initially show the pre-tax price is to reel in the punters who think they're getting a major bargain then hit them with the tax later in the booking.

some may call it crafty, some may call it good business. either way, I'll stick with asiarooms - what you see is what you get.

[RickSee]

How does one obtain these "discount codes"?

[manarak]

depending on what your needs are, you could try this hotel directory: www.wgfriendly.com hehehe

[onlooker]

I usually always use Agoda and Latestays.com - Latestays has instant confirmation on all rooms and you only pay 10% by credit card, the remainder paid to the hotel on check-in.

Sawadee are pretty good too and booking is always quick & easy with SMS confirmation but I usually find that Agoda has better rates.

[PattayaParent]

I had a look at agoda but I noticed they had a few sneaky add-ons when confirming final cost - that's a big, big thumbs down in my book.

saying that, by the looks of the previous posts on this thread, plenty of people must be falling for their sly tricks.

The sly trick that I always fall for is that they are consistently the cheapest price to be had.

....until the tax is added on.

I'm not having a dig at you mate but I just don't like the way agoda operate. eg you may see a price of 1360THB per night which you think is good but when you go through to the confirmation part of the booking they've added the extras and suddenly your 1360THB bargain has become 1500THB. purely an example.

if others can give you the full cost then why don't agoda? I'll tell you why - to get you hooked into the idea that you're getting a bargain, and by the time you've realised it's not as good as it first looked, you're likely just to go ahead with the booking anyway.

each to their own but I'll take my business elsewhere.

I always check the price INCLUDING tax and then compare it to other websites and the hotels direct booking website.

Agoda beats them all, taxes included.

I guess you never buy airtickets these days eh?

[davee58]

Not to forget..

Always check the Hotels own Website before booking through an online agent.

Or contact the hotel directly.

There may be special deals or rates that are better than the agent rates.

Consider if a refund is allowed.

One online agencies might state "non-refundable" for the same hotel that another agency says is 100% refundable before 14:00 on day of arrival.

Edited March 25, 2010 by davee58

[bkkjames]

Agoda, Sawadee and Hoteltravel I have used. All about the same.

[game4shame]

deary me.....

I always check the price INCLUDING tax and then compare it to other websites and the hotels direct booking website.

good for you. I don't know why you're trying to defend agoda - unless you have a business interest? why would anyone bother with a false economy service when the competitors offer the true story?

Agoda beats them all, taxes included.

incorrect.

I guess you never buy airtickets these days eh?

what's that got to do with it? some airline websites add taxes at the end, some don't. the majority of low-cost/budget carriers add the extras at the end to conceal the true price at the outset. take from that what you will!!

besides, we are talking about hotels, not airlines.

agoda's competitors display full prices at all times and - in my experience - are no more expensive than agoda's post-tax prices.

I'm done with this thread - I've tried to remain diplomatic and agree to disagree so let's just leave it at that.

[davee58]

I'm done with this thread - I've tried to remain diplomatic and agree to disagree so let's just leave it at that.

Well that seems to have killed it !

[aussiestyle1983]

I will revive this thread then

So, are there any search engines that people would say 'do not use!'?

From what I've read on here, I might give Agoda a go unless the hotel I want shows up on expedia or elsewhere for the same price.

I don't mind paying up front, as long as I can get charged in my local currecny AUD.

[PattayaParent]

I will revive this thread then

So, are there any search engines that people would say 'do not use!'?

From what I've read on here, I might give Agoda a go unless the hotel I want shows up on expedia or elsewhere for the same price.

I don't mind paying up front, as long as I can get charged in my local currecny AUD.

On Agoda you get the choice to be charged in THB or the currency of your card.

And remember if Agoda is the same price (but I bet it will be cheaper) you still get a benefit from accruing 'frequent booker' points.

Edit: Of course the Thai Baht will be converted to the currency of your card by your card provider.

Edited March 26, 2010 by PattayaParent

[PattayaParent]

I guess you never buy airtickets these days eh?

what's that got to do with it? some airline websites add taxes at the end, some don't. the majority of low-cost/budget carriers add the extras at the end to conceal the true price at the outset. take from that what you will!!

I had a look at agoda but I noticed they had a few sneaky add-ons when confirming final cost - that's a big, big thumbs down in my book.

saying that, by the looks of the previous posts on this thread, plenty of people must be falling for their sly tricks.

Only a few months ago ALL airlines were quoting prices without surcharges and had done for 2 years previously.

If you don't approve of that practice for hotel bookings then I guess you weren't flying anywhere in that time.

[JAS21]

I will revive this thread then

So, are there any search engines that people would say 'do not use!'?

From what I've read on here, I might give Agoda a go unless the hotel I want shows up on expedia or elsewhere for the same price.

I don't mind paying up front, as long as I can get charged in my local currecny AUD.

On Agoda you get the choice to be charged in THB or the currency of your card.

And remember if Agoda is the same price (but I bet it will be cheaper) you still get a benefit from accruing 'frequent booker' points.

Edit: Of course the Thai Baht will be converted to the currency of your card by your card provider.

Well I looked at them a few times and after the 'addons' they were not the cheapest....I have found asiareservations.net he is in Krabi and Hoteltravel.com quite good on price...I ususlly scan quite a few but end up using one of these.....sometimes though the hotel web site is cheapest eg accord.