What's your tip(s) for surviving the cesspool of Hotel booking websites?

[RooFlyer]

A screen shot from the booking.com partner hub. Cause for concern?

Yowsers. I wonder who 'you' is at the partners? Any reservations person, or an 'authorised' person, with password? (Could still be shared of course).

 

[albatross710]

New sleezy tactic from Agoda today. On one of my bookings which is due for payment next Friday, and refundable until day of arrival I decided to switch payment method to my Wise card. Yes, I can change the card but that means full payment will be processed today. Weird but I went along with it as I'll save a few % on the exchange rate compared to my original booking card.

Thanks for the discussion and various tips. I'll install the Cashback registration over the weekend.
Reviewing cashback opportunities for my upcoming 7 week RTW adventure I have the following nights that I will explore cashback

Qantas, refundable 12 nts
Direct, refundable 10 nts
Agoda, refundable, 3 nts
Trip, refundable 2 nts
Trip non-refundable 1 nt

 

[SydneySwan]

New sleezy tactic from Agoda today. On one of my bookings which is due for payment next Friday, and refundable until day of arrival I decided to switch payment method to my Wise card. Yes, I can change the card but that means full payment will be processed today. Weird but I went along with it as I'll save a few % on the exchange rate compared to my original booking card.

Thanks for the discussion and various tips. I'll install the Cashback registration over the weekend.
Reviewing cashback opportunities for my upcoming 7 week RTW adventure I have the following nights that I will explore cashback

Qantas, refundable 12 nts
Direct, refundable 10 nts
Agoda, refundable, 3 nts
Trip, refundable 2 nts
Trip non-refundable 1 nt

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I avoid Agoda if possible. Prices jump around and when you use a cashback site they always increase. They also have taken payments in advance of the date they said they would by several days.

 

[auriga]

I avoid Agoda if possible. Prices jump around and when you use a cashback site they always increase. They also have taken payments in advance of the date they said they would by several days.

Agree that their prices can jump around, but they are the one I use the most.
Their prices tend to be the lowest a lot of the time.
And I always choose pay now instead of pay later for overseas stays.

 

[Blackadder]

A google search for price aggregation , 9 times out of 10 I'll book direct for hotel benefits.

 

[Michenny]

As I prepare for 9 weeks travel, I've been spending way too much time booking hotels on various websites like Booking, Agoda, Trip, and Qantas Hotels. The hotel booking process can be quite frustrating and confusing with prompts like "these are our last rooms" and "XYZ city name is popular on your dates," which are just attention-grabbing tactics.

Even the discounts offered are often unclear, and pricing is even harder to understand, with the same site switching from AUD to USD without taxes.

The "Resort Fee" charge in Las Vegas is becoming common, but it's only displayed correctly on some sites. There are also prompts that offer to include breakfast in the rate, but it's not always included. I particularly had a bad experience with one site; they seem to struggle with the concept of "included", where "includes taxes" means the included obligation to pay additional taxes. ouch

My Tips
To navigate through this cesspool of hotel booking sites, I suggest using a spreadsheet to compare prices and offers. You should also decide on booking flexibility and location since the same price may be available as "Pay at Hotel" as "Pay In Advance."

Where ever possible on this current planning I have been using Flexible cancellations instead of non-refundable prices.

Lastly, have a system for keeping track of confirmations. I personally use TripIt to organize my itinerary and keep all my confirmations in one place.


An example
View attachment 324054
In this particular case, I made my booking on their site while comparing the total prices in AUD, which turned out to be a sensible decision. However, despite selecting AUD as the currency, the card will be charged in USD, which can be quite confusing.

To add to the confusion, while the taxes are listed in AUD, they will still be billed in USD. This raises the question, what exactly will be charged? After calculating the exchange rate for AUD77.20, the total charge comes out to be something around USD443 + AUD77.20/exchange rate.

Additionally, the resort fee will also be charged in USD, but Agoda has listed a converted AUD rate, which is unknown but can be determined.

Overall, it can be quite a challenge to understand the actual charges and currency conversions when booking hotels online.

After seeing the results of your search and getting best prices ring Hotels direct and you will Save cash. I do it all the time

 

[k_sheep]

My problem with google is lately the map shows one price, but when you click on it, it's always much more? Has anyone else had that issue?

 

[clifford]

And I always choose pay now instead of pay later for overseas stays.

Why would you do that?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

In this post Covid era I am staggered that so many European hotels have such a big discount for ‘Pay Now’ compared to ‘Pay at Hotel’ - do enough customers pay ahead the it substantiates this practice? I would never pay in advance as you just never know what might rear its head

 

[mel-world]

Why would you do that?

I always book a pay later 'placeholder' reservation as far in advance as possible then return a month or so before arriving to check if prices have come down. I'll often pay in advance then, often saving quite a lot depending on the location.

 

[SydneySwan]

Why would you do that?

Agoda add in a 5% FX fee for pay later transactions.

 

[JohnK]

Why would you do that?

@SydneySwan mentioned the Agoda foreign exchange fee. I've been stung by it a few times. I think it was a little more than 5%. On average I felt I lost $5-$6 for $75-$80/night hotel bookings.

I prefer to pay now in AUD (note no currently conversion other than what you see on screen), use Afterpay to pay it all in 6 weeks, check hotel rates again closer to travel and if rates dropped cancel free of charge and rebook using Afterpay and sometimes I'm still paying for the stay after I have checked out of hotel.

 

[aikman]

book with the preferred accommodation direct, they will, 99% of the time, match any cheaper prices. Most will also add in free breakfast.

Does this really work?

If I wanted to book a hotel today I would do it at Booking_com through Cashr ewards who are currently offering 12% cashback.

I can't quite believe that there is a 99% chance that any random hotel in Australia or indeed the world will give me a 12% discount, with most throwing in free breakfast, just by booking with them directly.

I did try calling hotels directly a few years ago but all I got was rejections. It was embarrassing and a waste of time so I never bothered doing it again. I also imagine that the refund and cancellation T&Cs are not clear when booking over the phone.

 

[SydneySwan]

Does this really work?

It is certainly not guaranteed. Last year I rang some hotels in Tamworth NSW.

One quoted a higher rate and then offered to match the hotels.com rate if I prepaid whereas the hotels.com rate was pay at the hotel and cancellable until a couple of days beforehand.

A second hotel said they were full for the dates even though hotels.com still apparently had availability.

A third hotel was happy to accept my 2 'Stay NSW' vouchers and said I could pay at the hotel for the same rate as the prepaid, non-cancellable rate listed on booking.com but baulked at free breakfast. This was all subsequently confirmed by email and I had a successful stay there.

YMMV.

 

[Blackadder]

Why would you do that?

In my case as a fully self funded traveler , budgeting.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Does this really work?

If I wanted to book a hotel today I would do it at Booking_com through Cashr ewards who are currently offering 12% cashback.

I can't quite believe that there is a 99% chance that any random hotel in Australia or indeed the world will give me a 12% discount, with most throwing in free breakfast, just by booking with them directly.

I did try calling hotels directly a few years ago but all I got was rejections. It was embarrassing and a waste of time so I never bothered doing it again. I also imagine that the refund and cancellation T&Cs are not clear when booking over the phone.

IME: It very rarely works these days. Sometimes, but hotels do have a contract with Booking etc that they must not offer cheaper prices. The Shopback / Cashrewards is an added bonus that IME hotels will not accept.

But it's always worth a try.

 

[stm1sydney]

I've found booking.com quite reliable and fair.

As noted above, Agoda scams you on the currency exchange rate when they process payments on their platform. The price in local currency looks great, but not so great when you see on your credit card statement how they converted it to AUD.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I've found booking.com quite reliable and fair.

As noted above, Agoda scams you on the currency exchange rate when they process payments on their platform. The price in local currency looks great, but not so great when you see on your credit card statement how they converted it to AUD.

Plus Booking.com currenly have a 9% cashback from Shopback.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Plus Booking.com currenly have a 9% cashback from Shopback.

I noted today that Shopback also have a 5.6% cashback from IHG. So you can book with Points+Pay and get he cashback.

 

[clifford]

I see that booking.com today has 10% cashback at Cashrewards.

Yesterday when it was 12% I booked a stay at the Radisson at LHR for October at what I thought was a pretty good rate of GBP212 for 3 nights, with a free room upgrade and then an additional 12% off with the cashback. You can hardly book an Ibis Budget for that.

I do like booking.com, as I think they are pretty straight and they treat me quite well. They're not always the cheapest, but I did book a 3-star hotel near BKK recently for $18/night (it's got a 7 am check-in time, and I only need it for a few hours while waiting to check into my apartment elsewhere, later in the day).

The above comments re Agoda's currency conversion rates are noted and will be taken into consideration for future bookings.