TIPS AND TRICKS
Booking sites such as booking.com, hotels.com respond to demand: they are a simple and effective solution for booking and travellers generally prefer these to travel agencies.
However, there are a few questions surrounding them:
- It the service free?
- Has the traveller found a bargain?
- Is the information available on these sites reliable?
- Is cancellation easy?
What sort of miracle would make a service free? All reservation centres adopt the same sales technique: No fees charged directly to the customer. However, the invoice sent to the hotelier is on average 20% of the room rate. The commission is therefore reflected in the price.
The hotel is of course better off booking out the room without going through an agent and since hotels can now charge lower prices to their customers, prices on hotel websites are in almost all cases lower than those charged on booking sites. Also, upgrades are almost never offered to customers who reserve through booking sites, which is not the case for customers who booked directly.
Furthermore, the quality of the information provided on booking sites is not always reliable as:
- Hotel classifications have nothing to do with their quality, but may depend, in some cases, on the commission paid by the hotel.
- Room availability, does not reflect the actual number of available rooms remaining but the number of rooms which the hotel decided to make available via the booking site.
To summarise, the customer should check the information carefully:
- Go on review sites, for a more objective and unbiased ranking of hotels
- Visit the hotel’s website to find out the lowest price and actual room availability
Finally, almost all hotels offer flexible rates with cancellations possible within 48 hours of arrival. These conditions are always written into the online sales process.
Happy hunting.
