So far so good
I used to be really into travel hacking. Part of that was getting elite status with big hotel chains like SPG or Hilton in order to get room upgrades, free breakfast, late checkout, etc.
Recently I haven’t been travelling as much so I lost my status and don’t think it’s worth the trouble to try and get it back (I would have to stay 50 nights or 25 times at SPG hotels in order to regain my Platinum status, and it’s just not worth it if I’m not already traveling a certain amount on business).
I am still travelling though, and the last three reservations I made were through Booking.com.
The first reservation I had to cancel, as we had to change our travel plans in order to attend my grandmother’s funeral. I had booked a cheap advance rate that was supposedly non-refundable, but Booking.com has this function where they negotiate with the hotel to waive fees. In this case it worked and we were able to cancel without penalty.
The second reservation was in France, in a tiny village in the Southern Alps foothills called Greolieres.
The rate was cheap, the room was very nice, and the whole process went very smoothly.
The third reservation is for a trip we’ll be taking in September to help my daughter and baby grandson move to Sweden. We’re flying out of Nagoya (it’s really handy to fly to Nagoya then jump on an international flight rather than venture into the mess that is Narita or Haneda) on Finnair to Stockholm via Helsinki.
I got a couple of rooms in the airport hotel through Booking.com. As part of making the reservation I noticed they have a loyalty program and an affiliate program. If you sign up via the link we both get a little something.
I’m pretty happy with Booking.com so far. It’s another tool in the box for travel planning.
How about you? How do you handle travel bookings?
I have a pile of memberships but I do not travel enough to a single destination to make me loyal to any particular travel site, airline or alliance, or hotel chain. I simply check out several travel sites, compare them with the company’s own site directly, and go with the cheapest. I also subscribe to alerts for specials. An alert from the airline can be unbeatable. The Etihad return business class ticket I’m taking soon from Japan to Europe for 206,000yen is a bargain.
Sounds like a really sensible policy, Bob. That’s an amazing price!
I also consolidated my bookings to booking.com mostly. Once you pass 5 bookings you will start getting some nice discounts as well!
Booking.com website has a great interface and over the last few years i have used them exclusively for business and leusure travel. Up until I stopped using them I had booked 140 nights this year.
The trouble with them is that they look at your origin and type of business and adjust the Hotel fes to match their expectations of your ability to pay – the more you book the more they think you can pay. I first noticed ths a few years ago when I sat in a car outside of a Hotel to try to get a booking in a City that was full. My business colleague was also doing the same thing on his computer. We both found a vacancy at the same hotel. His price was $20 a night cheaper than mine. I checked a few times since then ad discovere discrepancies n prices depending on what country you are registered from. In Fukuoka this year we tried the same test. The Singaporean got the cheapest price, the Japansese the next best and the American the most expensive. The final straw was a couple of weeks ago were the US price was double the price obtained by a Japanese colleague sitting across from me. I have now stopped using booking.com and instructed all that work with me to do the same. I use Booking.com to find hotels and read reviews but book using agoda etc.
Hi Simon
That is pretty scary. I’ll watch out in the future!
Maybe being registered in a post-Brexit UK will give me low prices 😉
Howdy folks,
I use Booking.com when traveling, but not all the time. Like Bob’s experience above, I check other travel sites,i.e. Hipmonk/Kayak/etc. They work best as aggregators for comparisons, then it’s often cheaper to go directly to the website of the hotel or airlines for better deals.
I had one hotel owner on Koh Phayam, in Thailand, specifically request that I book directly through him, as it was not only cheaper, but less hassle for him.
That being said, I used it to book a hotel in Dushanbe later this month, as the price directly through the hotel’s website was higher.
So, bottom line, check the result you like, compare it with the hotel or airline’s website price, then choose whichever one is cheaper. It will vary.
Happy Trails,
Steve
I used Booking.com to arrange a couple of hotels for a domestic trip in Japan a couple of years ago. It went smoothly, I plan to use them again. I’m seeing a lot of ads for Trivago, although I haven’t tried to use it yet.
Like Steve, I like to check sites like Booking.com, then take a look at the hotel/rental car/airline to see when they would charge. Whenever cancellation has been a distinct possibility, it seemed easier to deal with the company providing the service, rather than a middleman.
First time here as a registered user, first comment (maybe a little late?).
I always used agoda.com for my reservations. Easy, good price and always satisfied. But maybe I should try Booking.com too in the future (even though no major trips are planned, just local “stuff = Japan).