Anyone else get irritated by the constant '1 more room available' on booking sites?

[masuk]

I booked a room on booking .com and when I arrived it was a smaller room ,the hotel said it was booking .com fault and they said the hotel ,none would give me my money back but gave me the room I booked for one night and the small dingy room for the next ,I will never use them again I paid for the larger room for 2 nights ,they thought they were doing good by giving me for one night

Even the so called Hostels do this. They are all supposed to have a recreation room, a place to meet and chat. But in fact there's nothing, They also advertise the rooms at 'x dollars per night', and then you discover that the price is per person, and hotels are sometimes cheaper.

[eastendanto]

Travel sites only get limited slots.Book direct,cheaper

I have had mixed results with booking direct

Some places have said yeah, come do it, no need to pay the booking site and got pretty much the same price. One place I got for 1000 instead of 1500 going direct and that's emailing them, not even a walk in

Others are 800 or 900 baht but walk in and it's 2500 or something insane

During the last several years booking direct with a hotel online appears to be the best commercial option.... and those that advertise that fact that I have used would appear to be true to their word, I have in most instances checked the direct price against an online agent price and have never found an agent site cheaper (booking.com, hotels.com, latebookings, lastminute, agoda etc...). It all comes down to the money honey.... When these online booking sites first became the flavour of the day the hotels were only too happy to offer their rooms at discounted prices as they had not got their own websites up to speed or they just were not savvy enough to understand the simple economics of the web and it's world wide connotations of marketing your wares. Now many hotels are savvy enough to do their own web marketing and not have to pay a fee to the likes of Expedia etc.... when someone books a room via those sites.

Remember when ebay was just an auction site.... now it's a place to buy goods wholesale, a place where many retailers sell their goods etc...

[Happy Grumpy]

Anyone else get irritated by the constant '1 more room available' on booking sites?

Jeez... if that irritates you......

[csabo]

The websites that re-sell hotel rooms and airline seats are given a set to sell therefore may be referring to the amount left they have to sell, not the amount available in the entire hotel or plane. Or it could all be a marketing scam.

[MobileContent]

its a marketing tool, so what? why does it bother you?

also each hotel gives the hotel booking sites an allotment.

just cause it says "ONLY 1 left" does not 100% mean its true.

there alot more things to spend time on than something like this

You hit it spot on. Agoda on some hotels has 5 room allotments and booking.com 10 room allotment.

I know for a fact that some hotels are sold out within hours if you look for rates tomorrow or last minute today.

[JHolmesJr]

Our millennial friends call this FOMO.

[KIWIBATCH]

These booking sites are full of BS....from the 1 only room left....to the marvellous reviews given to their services/products/accommodation.

The reviews are vetted by the the booking sites themselves before they ever appear on their websites.

Some accommodation owners pay the booking sites to give them good reviews.

So of course the reviews are "weighted"....the best down to the 3 or 4 they let through that aren't so good like..."the bathroom tap was dripping all night"...."the shower had low pressure"...I mean have you ever seen a torried shi**y review posted?....I never have.

As many previous posters have mentioned....best to avoid the booking sites.....email the accommo site direct....do a walk in....many options....booking site/email/walk in are not a 100% guarantee that you will find the perfect place...or near perfect place to rest your head

Caveat emptor !

[Doc46]

Why would you get irritated? you must know that it is just a sale pitch(bullshit) This is Thailand,chill out or you die of a hearth failure

[pby92]

Hi

It happen's the same to me last February want book hotel in Knahom( GF from Nakhon Si Thammarat ) always written last room.

So as i don't like crowdy hotel i not book, when i was in Nakhon Si we go for lunch at beach hotel restaurant.

We were alone in the restaurant and look same in hotel.

Well done Booking.com

Patrice

Apologise for my English i am french native speaker.

[Bangkok Barry]

I stay at a hotel in the Asok area which, on Agoda, claims the non-discounted room charge is 8000 baht. You can get a room at a top of the tree 5-star place for that, but this it at best a 3-star although 2-star might be closer. The special limited time rate is about 1000, which is what it is worth.

Bottom line is if you like the room at the price, and Trip Advisor has decent reviews, then book it. Forget the pop-ups.

[rogeroc]

Nearly always use booking.com. Quite clearly the number of rooms left refers to their own allocation but i believe it to be true. If it is not true they would face the risk of being caught out and also how would booking.com make a decision on which hotels to declare only had 1 room left? Also if not true it could potentially lose them Business for groups who want 2, 3 or 4 rooms.

[Altalake]

Me too - and the wretched adverts that come up with noise-noise-noise - and you can't shut them down unless you exit the site.

[Guy360]

It is almost standard in marketing. It is called "The Impending Doom" sale. You see it in shops that advertise...THIS DAY ONLY or 3 DAY SALE. TV commercials say" If you buy it within the next hour you will receive a second item for free." These 1 room left is totally designed to make you act immediately.

[ableguy]

Got this only one room left, when we checked in it was a total dump and we were the only guests, we fled to another hotel and lost the room cost.

[sead]

Airplane tickets also. Go search a date to Thailand. Search same in 1 min and it's always higher.

[bubba]

These booking sites are full of BS....from the 1 only room left....to the marvellous reviews given to their services/products/accommodation.

The reviews are vetted by the the booking sites themselves before they ever appear on their websites.

Some accommodation owners pay the booking sites to give them good reviews.

So of course the reviews are "weighted"....the best down to the 3 or 4 they let through that aren't so good like..."the bathroom tap was dripping all night"...."the shower had low pressure"...I mean have you ever seen a torried shi**y review posted?....I never have.

As many previous posters have mentioned....best to avoid the booking sites.....email the accommo site direct....do a walk in....many options....booking site/email/walk in are not a 100% guarantee that you will find the perfect place...or near perfect place to rest your head

Caveat emptor !

From my own experience, that is not true regarding booking.com reviews. I have left my own reviews, both good and bad, and they have always shown up unedited. It might take a couple of days as they do review the reviews for suitability, but that doesn't mean they do not approve negative reviews. If you click on reviews, you can sort them by date or language, and there they are...both good and bad. I have seen some seriously poor reviews of some hotels there.

It is absolute rubbish that hotels can pay a booking engine like booking.com for good reviews. If that were true, what would that do to a booking company's reputation and review reliability? Now that is not to say that an unscrupulous hotel might not employ surrogates to book and stay there, then submit glowing reviews, but how would a booking company sort those out?

[ThaiFelix]

Travel sites only get limited slots.Book direct,cheaper

No it isn't.

Many is the time I have contacted a hotel directly for price. Not a single time have I ever been offered a room direct from a hotel that was cheaper than Agoda.com and Booking.com.

You're talking out of your anus.

Sorry my experience on 3 weeks holiday right now has proved the opposite. Over the last three weeks we have stayed at a few (5) resorts along the narrow strip on the east side of the gulf bordering Cambodia. Every place, and I mean every place...even those we just drove in and got a price but not stayed...has been miles cheaper direct (at the door) than online, I have to admit it is low season and very quiet...that might make a difference. Being on the spot we have also been able to negotiate even lower prices when staying longer than one day. Another factor may be that this area appears to be a Thai only destination seen only one other white man in three weeks.

I have to admit however that there is a resort in Isaan, with a big pool, run by a Brit that I sometimes stay at that is much cheaper on Agoda etc. He tells me that Agoda has made a mistake but he seems to have accepted that mistake for a long time????

[DavidB4]

Not nearly as much as your asking about it does.

[rumbo1]

That marketing strategy doesn't always work for them , a group of 8 of us were going on a golfing trip to Ubolrotana dam and wanted to stay nearby but hotels all had 1 room only !

Instead of getting 1 reservation they lost 7 as we all stayed in our regular hotel in Khoen Kean where no booking required and only 399 baht a night

[peterb17]

Travel sites only get limited slots.Book direct,cheaper

No it isn't.

Many is the time I have contacted a hotel directly for price. Not a single time have I ever been offered a room direct from a hotel that was cheaper than Agoda.com and Booking.com.

You're talking out of your anus.

You are correct have a friend who owns quite a large hotel- most of his business is through booking.com - they take a huge cut- 20%

Booking.com does provide a lot of his business- if they discover you are offering a cheaper price direct- they remove you from their site!

[pennine]

Yes, it annoys me too. Like all the marketing tricks e.g. medicines that may cure this or that; all houses for sale in Hua Hin are 10 minutes drive from town! In South Africa, estate agents are classic. A house that's almost falling down is a renovator's dream; if you can see over your garden wall it has views forever etc etc. And I hate the tantalizing ads which tell you to eat this to lose weight or cure ed or prevent cancer...but then take you to a 15 minute video without telling you what "this" is.

[rogeroc]

You are correct have a friend who owns quite a large hotel- most of his business is through booking.com - they take a huge cut- 20%

Booking.com does provide a lot of his business- if they discover you are offering a cheaper price direct- they remove you from their site!

I had heard that as well that Booking.com will remove you from their site if you undercut. However is that true as i know of one very large hotel (Nasa Vegas, Bangkok) where that is not he case. their own site is normally cheaper and it was the hotel reception staff who pointed it out to me. I just checked a few minutes ago with a sample date and their own site is still cheaper than Booking.Com.

Lots of smaller places do prefer for you to book direct with them and will give you a discounted price (but less than the 15% to 20%) they are paying to Booking.com

Edited July 7, 2016 by rogeroc

[bubba]

Travel sites only get limited slots.Book direct,cheaper

No it isn't.

Many is the time I have contacted a hotel directly for price. Not a single time have I ever been offered a room direct from a hotel that was cheaper than Agoda.com and Booking.com.

You're talking out of your anus.

You are correct have a friend who owns quite a large hotel- most of his business is through booking.com - they take a huge cut- 20%

Booking.com does provide a lot of his business- if they discover you are offering a cheaper price direct- they remove you from their site!

Booking.com take a standard 15%. The owner can voluntarily elect to pay more if they would like their property to appear higher in search listings.

[Razzler1973]

Why would you get irritated? you must know that it is just a sale pitch(bullshit) This is Thailand,chill out or you die of a hearth failure

To all the literal fellas out there, I should be clear, I am not pacing up and down genuinely angry but rather midly perturbed and then roll my eyes at the volume of pop ups and 'warnings' when I am viewing the sites. It doesn't actually affect my day but I didn't think a thread titled "who isn't actually that bothered about those booking sites but have you noticed how they do this thing" would get much attention

[Razzler1973]

Nearly always use booking.com. Quite clearly the number of rooms left refers to their own allocation but i believe it to be true. If it is not true they would face the risk of being caught out and also how would booking.com make a decision on which hotels to declare only had 1 room left? Also if not true it could potentially lose them Business for groups who want 2, 3 or 4 rooms.

What I wonder is, does these allocation things change day to day or week to week then? i.e. they have 4 rooms but come back in a week and they got 6 now (for the same dates a month ahead you were checking?)

It is literally every single one though, can have like 15-20 right clicked tabs open and they are all having a warning of varying seriousness! ... usually with a 'last booked' date an entire week before, yet today, right now, everyone is viewing it!!

[ozyjon]

Was there also '' satisfaction guaranteed ''

I can't get no.

[bubba]

Nearly always use booking.com. Quite clearly the number of rooms left refers to their own allocation but i believe it to be true. If it is not true they would face the risk of being caught out and also how would booking.com make a decision on which hotels to declare only had 1 room left? Also if not true it could potentially lose them Business for groups who want 2, 3 or 4 rooms.

What I wonder is, does these allocation things change day to day or week to week then? i.e. they have 4 rooms but come back in a week and they got 6 now (for the same dates a month ahead you were checking?)

It is literally every single one though, can have like 15-20 right clicked tabs open and they are all having a warning of varying seriousness! ... usually with a 'last booked' date an entire week before, yet today, right now, everyone is viewing it!!

I have sat and watched how a good friend of mine who manages a hotel in Chiang Mai was working with the booking.com interface.

Booking.com allow owners to allocated as many rooms as they wish for sale on booking.com. The number of rooms available can be changed by the owner any time and various discounts can be applied any time, such as last minute discounts or a seasonal discount.

Booking.com clients apparently have no control over the "last room available" thing.

Anyway, I would say just ignore their hyperbole and use it as you wish if you find a good rate.