albatross710
Established Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2004
- Posts
- 3,709
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
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.
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
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.
100% this where possible. I use booking.com if I absolutely have to, but otherwise prefer to book direct with known quantities. Sometimes I book the first stay with booking.com, for peace of mind, and then if I stay again (as I have done with a number of ski places in Japan), I book direct once I know they are genuine.
). When I went back to book, the same banner showed, but as I tried to book 2 seats, it escalated out of sale fare to saver fare with a significant price increase for Mr Seat 0A and me. So apparently, they meant it, as when I tried to book just for 1, the sale fare was available. In the end I had to go via BNE to get the sale fare, which is not ideal as it is a day flight (meaning hard to connect to ski fields on arrival, so an overnight in Tokyo is required) and there is no F lounge in BNE (wah wah wah, one of the best bits of my trip gone), but honestly I could not justify the $3000 extra per person that was now required.
