Booking Accommodation Online

Booking Accommodation Online:
Wotif, booking.com, Expedia and other "bulk booking" websites
... plus a mention of airBNB

rated 5/10: use only as required

What is the purpose of a website for booking accommodation ? To make money. That said, the rest is obvious...

Start with airBNB. It offers an apparently unique style of accommodation, staying in someone's home. Apparently unique: I've stayed in a few places which were the owner's holiday home. airBNB is -- according to the marketing -- offering *only* accommodation in someone else's home.

Other booking sites offer accommodation in more traditional hotels, motels, rental apartments and so on. This review is about the more traditional accommodation websites.

So...

I needed to stay in Lindau, Germany, on a specific date. I would be there for a major event. I was worried that the more convenient hotels would be full of other people who were there for the same event...

Sure enough, booking.com offered very few rooms in any of its suitable hotels...

I tested other websites. The same story -- a very poor choice of barely suitable rooms.

Time to panic !

In a panic, I sent emails directly to three hotels with not really suitable -- but more expensive -- rooms. Perhaps, I thought, a foreign tourist can get sympathetic placement high up on the waiting list ?! I was prepared to beg...

Quick as a flash the replies came back: offering a choice of rooms, the most suitable rooms, exactly when and where I wanted them, at the same price as the "unavailable" rooms on the bulk booking websites...

What happened to the shortage of rooms ?!

The only shortage was on the bulk booking sites. Here's how I believe it works... And I'll name booking.com, only because most of my work was through that site...

A hotel has, let's say, fifty rooms. It sets aside five rooms for sale through booking.com. If booking.com sells a night in a room, the hotel pays a fee to booking.com. But booking.com can sell a maximum of five rooms...

So booking.com will sell rooms with the pressure tactic of, "only two rooms left!" In reality, there are the two remaining booking.com rooms -- plus 45 more which are available directly from the hotel...

No shortage at all.

Yes, the hotel may have passed another five rooms to Expedia. And five rooms to Wotif. That leaves 35 rooms still available -- even when the bulk booking sites have no rooms at all on offer.

Oh, and what about the prices ? Can you get a cheaper price thanks to the bulk buying power of the bulk booking sites ? Have you ever seen a price on a bulk booking website which is lower than direct from the hotel ? Maybe you have. I have not.

If you are just looking for "a holiday" then the bulk websites provide ideas. They will toss up "deals" from around the world. Of course they will be pushing the "deals" which give them the most profit...

When I need to book accommodation, I start with Google Maps. Zoom in on areas of interest, look for "accommodation in Lindau Germany" (for example). Click on a few hotels, check whatever websites that leads to... It may be a bulk booking site or it may be a website for that hotel.

I also search for local tourist bureaus, to see if they have links to local accommodation.

With a handful of hotels of interest -- I look for a website specific to each hotel... If I have enquiries, these go direct to the hotel. In which case, booking will be done direct to the hotel (or their website). Otherwise, I will book by the most convenient means... Closer to home, this may even be by phone.

So the bulk booking sites offer no apparent price advantage. They give a false impression of the scarcity of rooms. What advantages do they offer ?

A standard booking system. This can be very useful when the hotel site is all in German ! When I struck this particular problem I sent an email to the hotel -- and the response was in English.

A convenient, all in one place itinerary. This can be useful. Though I prefer to make my own itinerary, and I include a lot more than just flights and hotels. And you may want to read my earlier review of Expedia and its empty itinerary...

A selection of hotels sorted by various attributes. The list will not be every hotel which would fit your needs. Only the hotels which have agreed to pay a fee to the bulk booking site. (One hotel, on its own website, said that it refused to pay a fee to a bulk booking site. I think it may have quoted a 20% fee...)

If you need a quick and easy means of booking accommodation, feel free to use a bulk booking site.

I like to carefully plan and tailor my trips, to look for interesting and possibly unique places to stay.

I will use a bulk booking site as one way to identify potential places to stay. I prefer to book directly with the hotel.

I have time. I believe it is worth the effort.

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Problems ? Solved