Gary D Posted December 4, 2017 Posted December 4, 2017 Another problem with some of these hotel booking site is that the price you see is not what you pay, often there are taxes to be added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogo51 Posted December 4, 2017 Posted December 4, 2017 11 hours ago, Clermont said: like I've said before, if you have made up your mind to book flights, hotels, ect, do it then, once you reactivate the site, it will be dearer. Seen this also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not so old china hand Posted December 4, 2017 Posted December 4, 2017 1 hour ago, Gary D said: Another problem with some of these hotel booking site is that the price you see is not what you pay, often there are taxes to be added. I have just been looking at hotels in Hong Kong on both Ctrip and Booking.com. Both sites show the total price including taxes before the payment is made. Admittedly both show the price before tax in large characters and the total price in smaller characters but the information is clearly there. I have just compared their prices for the same hotel (a superior room in the Charterhouse Causeway Bay) and Ctrip is HKD115 cheaper. Both are non-refundable deals so it looks as if the offers are directly comparable. Booking.com does say they will match a lower offer but I would not hold my breath on that one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hounddriver Posted December 4, 2017 Posted December 4, 2017 20 minutes ago, not so old china hand said: Booking.com does say they will match a lower offer but I would not hold my breath on that one Many years ago (about 5 or so) Booking dot com DID give me a $10 refund when I later found the same hotel for $10 less on Agoda. Shocked the heck out of me. One time anecdotes are not designed to show they will give OTHERS a refund, just to say that it can happen. It was a hotel in San Francisco on a one night stopover that I got the refund on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not so old china hand Posted December 4, 2017 Posted December 4, 2017 (edited) 36 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said: Many years ago (about 5 or so) Booking dot com DID give me a $10 refund when I later found the same hotel for $10 less on Agoda. Shocked the heck out of me. One time anecdotes are not designed to show they will give OTHERS a refund, just to say that it can happen. It was a hotel in San Francisco on a one night stopover that I got the refund on. Good to know. I will certainly double-check after booking with them in the future. To go back to the original question of whether booking sites do give the best deal I have just looked at the hotel's own site. It claims the cheapest rates since "there is no middleman to pay". Their price is the most expensive of the three. On the other hand it can be cancelled at no charge and so is not 100% comparable to the other two. I have stayed in this hotel a couple times this year. When I stayed there back in April I booked the hotel through Ctrip and then needed to extend for another night. The hotel told me that they could not match the booking site's price since "it was a special deal". Needless to say the booking site had no more rooms available for the extra night so I ended up paying the hotel's price. However they still gave me a healthy discount on the rack-rate. Edited December 4, 2017 by not so old china hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted December 4, 2017 Posted December 4, 2017 5 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said: Many years ago (about 5 or so) Booking dot com DID give me a $10 refund when I later found the same hotel for $10 less on Agoda. Shocked the heck out of me. One time anecdotes are not designed to show they will give OTHERS a refund, just to say that it can happen. It was a hotel in San Francisco on a one night stopover that I got the refund on. Not sure about 5 years ago but both Agoda and booking dot com belong to the Priceline group now so not sure how that works. I am meant to be meeting with Agoda tomorrow afternoon in their Cebu office so maybe I can find out more. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy79 Posted December 5, 2017 Author Posted December 5, 2017 I've had a few price matches so it's pretty common. I find the best bet is to book the first free cancelation available then shop around as a few of the others start cheaper but are non refundable. I've also tried to extend additional nights and the hotel has refused to give me a reduction so I've got my phone out and in front of them booked online and had a great reduction. I've even been cheeky enough to ask them for the wifi password before booking. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyhorn52 Posted December 5, 2017 Posted December 5, 2017 What does the Priceline Group own? The Priceline Group is the world's leading provider of online travel & related services, provided to consumers and local partners in over 200 countries through six primary brands: Booking.com, priceline.com, KAYAK, agoda.com, rentalcars.com, and OpenTable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyhorn52 Posted December 5, 2017 Posted December 5, 2017 Priceline and Expedia control most of the online travel websites so it's no surprise that most of the hotel prices are the same no matter which online site you use. http://www.expediainc.com/expedia-brands/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tukaram (Tim) Posted December 6, 2017 Posted December 6, 2017 I use Agoda for comparison prices, but generally book with hotels(dot)com. I get a better price, and every time you collect 10 nights you get one free. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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