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#1
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
Hi,
Going to Sydney for a week in November, looking for a self-catering place, 2 bedrooms, for 3 people, prefer an apartment or cottage/house, whatever I can find, don't mind where in Sydney it is so long as its close to public transport, so it can be out in the suburbs. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced apartments, looking at under $200 per night? Have looked at all the usual websites, take-a-break, stayz, rent-a-home and searched on google but going insane looking at it all. Thanks for any advice. cheers Linda |
#2
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
Going to Sydney for a week in November, looking for a self-catering place,
2 bedrooms, for 3 people, prefer an apartment or cottage/house, whatever I can find, don't mind where in Sydney it is so long as its close to public transport, so it can be out in the suburbs. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced apartments, looking at under $200 per night? The issue is really one of price, as this is very dynamic. I stayed for one night in Sydney a week or so ago and got a 1-bedroom loft apartment (with a full kitchen, laundry etc and a fold-out double/queen in the lounge room) at the Medina Sydney Central for $150 and that's right next door to Central Station and major bus routes (can't get much more conveneint to public transport than that!). Now the alleged "rack rate" on that room is $400 per night, but they weren't busy (all this recession etc) so the prices were down. But I bet if I was there the same time as some big event, it would be the full $400. So, looking so far ahead, it's really hard to predict what prices will be like. One of the impacts that Wotif (and similar services for airlines) has had on accommodation etc is that it has shown people that you don't really need to pre-book a long time in advance (and indeed that you often get a better deal often if you don't). That has in turn changed people's behaviour to stop booking a long time in advance. So the whole industry is now a lot more "last minute" than it used to be. For myself, I'd wait until within 3 months of your holiday and then use Wotif.com to make the booking. Or if you really want to lock in your accommodation now, use Wotif to find the places that are in your price range over the next 3 months and then phone the hotel and ask what's the best deal they will do you you for November -- since you are booking for several nights, you may well get a better rate just because of that. Kerry |
#3
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
Hi Kerry,
Thank you for the advice, I'm so used to booking things well in advance, but with the way the world is right now maybe waiting will be the best bet. Went to Sydney last year for New Year's Eve, tried booking in accommodation 4 months in advance and struggled to find anywhere, just did not want to have the same problem. cheers Linda "Kerry raymond" wrote in message ... Going to Sydney for a week in November, looking for a self-catering place, 2 bedrooms, for 3 people, prefer an apartment or cottage/house, whatever I can find, don't mind where in Sydney it is so long as its close to public transport, so it can be out in the suburbs. Does anyone know of any reasonably priced apartments, looking at under $200 per night? The issue is really one of price, as this is very dynamic. I stayed for one night in Sydney a week or so ago and got a 1-bedroom loft apartment (with a full kitchen, laundry etc and a fold-out double/queen in the lounge room) at the Medina Sydney Central for $150 and that's right next door to Central Station and major bus routes (can't get much more conveneint to public transport than that!). Now the alleged "rack rate" on that room is $400 per night, but they weren't busy (all this recession etc) so the prices were down. But I bet if I was there the same time as some big event, it would be the full $400. So, looking so far ahead, it's really hard to predict what prices will be like. One of the impacts that Wotif (and similar services for airlines) has had on accommodation etc is that it has shown people that you don't really need to pre-book a long time in advance (and indeed that you often get a better deal often if you don't). That has in turn changed people's behaviour to stop booking a long time in advance. So the whole industry is now a lot more "last minute" than it used to be. For myself, I'd wait until within 3 months of your holiday and then use Wotif.com to make the booking. Or if you really want to lock in your accommodation now, use Wotif to find the places that are in your price range over the next 3 months and then phone the hotel and ask what's the best deal they will do you you for November -- since you are booking for several nights, you may well get a better rate just because of that. Kerry |
#4
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
I would not expect November to be anywhere near as busy as New Years Eve.
Kerry |
#5
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
[Default] On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:11:22 +1000, Alan S
offered the following words of wisdom: I also found the hard way that the star ratings on http://www.check-in.com.au/ are self-rated. Great advice that I've taken onboard. I also understand from a travel agent that the entire star system in Australia is flawed. Apparently, five star equates to four and so on. |
#6
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
[Default] On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:03:36 +1000, Alan S
offered the following words of wisdom: On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:24:40 +1200, wrote: [Default] On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:11:22 +1000, Alan S offered the following words of wisdom: I also found the hard way that the star ratings on http://www.check-in.com.au/ are self-rated. Great advice that I've taken onboard. I also understand from a travel agent that the entire star system in Australia is flawed. Apparently, five star equates to four and so on. I can't quite agree with that one. Depends where you're coming from. I would put our RACV/NRMA/AAA star standards a bit below most of the USA but a long way above most of Europe. I haven't seen those particular star ratings (RACV/NRMA/AAA), but what I was told was the Australian star ratings are not equivalent to the "Qualmark" ratings given out in New Zealand and used by the New Zealand AA. The way it was explained was to me was that a four star Qualmark accommodation rating is equivalent to a five star rating in Australia. BTW - the agent was referring to online ratings and those contained in the glossy brochures given out by the agency. The RACV/NRMA/AAA standards might be different and I'll check if our Automobile Association has a reciprocal agreement with their Aussie counterparts. http://www.qualmark.co.nz/ |
#7
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
[Default] On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:33:40 +1000, Alan S
offered the following words of wisdom: On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:23:15 +1200, wrote: [Default] On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:03:36 +1000, Alan S offered the following words of wisdom: On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:24:40 +1200, wrote: [Default] On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:11:22 +1000, Alan S offered the following words of wisdom: I also found the hard way that the star ratings on http://www.check-in.com.au/ are self-rated. Great advice that I've taken onboard. I also understand from a travel agent that the entire star system in Australia is flawed. Apparently, five star equates to four and so on. I can't quite agree with that one. Depends where you're coming from. I would put our RACV/NRMA/AAA star standards a bit below most of the USA but a long way above most of Europe. I haven't seen those particular star ratings (RACV/NRMA/AAA), but what I was told was the Australian star ratings are not equivalent to the "Qualmark" ratings given out in New Zealand and used by the New Zealand AA. The way it was explained was to me was that a four star Qualmark accommodation rating is equivalent to a five star rating in Australia. BTW - the agent was referring to online ratings and those contained in the glossy brochures given out by the agency. The RACV/NRMA/AAA standards might be different and I'll check if our Automobile Association has a reciprocal agreement with their Aussie counterparts. http://www.qualmark.co.nz/ From my wanders around the North Island, staying in Auckland, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier and Wellington in 2006 I would say that Australian and NZ stars are much the same with one exception. In Oz it is unusual to find a hotel or motel over 2 stars without an aircon, in NZ it was unusual to find any hotel below four stars(or sometimes with four stars) with an aircon. Cheers, Alan, Australia Having just returned from a two week road trip from Northland (where we live) to Wellington and back, I would have to agree. The Museum Hotel in Wellington had aircon and so did two of the more upmarket motels we stayed in along the way. But most of them didn't and none of them had superking (or California-king) beds. NZ accommodation still have a long way to go before it gets up to the basic standards we found in the US. PS - Free Wi-Fi is also something NZ motels have yet to take on in most places. It's like moteliers are still back in the 1990's or earlier. Quaint, but not very user friendly. Cheers, Bob, NZ |
#8
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
Another tip. Once you have got it down to a short list it is
often worth ringing the hotel direct and seeing if they will match the internet offer. Sometimes, not always, they will. To use Wotif (and probably others), the hotel has to agree they will not do a direct booking that matches (or beats) the internet offer. For obvious reasons, Wotif doesn't want to lose its commission on the deal. However, the hotel may be motivated to do so to secure the booking (and avoid paying a commission to Wotif). To prevent this, Wotif actively shadow-shops to test if hotels are doing that and will stop dealing with hotels that appear to be doing it. So if a hotel is getting a lot of business through Wotif, they will be hesitant to put that relationship at risk and therefore disinclined to match/beat a price you claim to have seen on Wotif. Kerry |
#9
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
[Default] On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:31:06 +1000, "Kerry raymond"
offered the following words of wisdom: Another tip. Once you have got it down to a short list it is often worth ringing the hotel direct and seeing if they will match the internet offer. Sometimes, not always, they will. To use Wotif (and probably others), the hotel has to agree they will not do a direct booking that matches (or beats) the internet offer. For obvious reasons, Wotif doesn't want to lose its commission on the deal. However, the hotel may be motivated to do so to secure the booking (and avoid paying a commission to Wotif). To prevent this, Wotif actively shadow-shops to test if hotels are doing that and will stop dealing with hotels that appear to be doing it. So if a hotel is getting a lot of business through Wotif, they will be hesitant to put that relationship at risk and therefore disinclined to match/beat a price you claim to have seen on Wotif. That stop the hotel we stayed in recently (I won't name it for obvious reasons) from offering us the exact same rate as Wotif. The reason I rang the hotel direct was to ask a question that wasn't covered on their website and asked if it would be possible to book the room - a suite, actually - on the phone. I didn't even have to ask for the same rate because they simply offered it to me. But they didn't know that I'd first checked them out on Wotif. |
#10
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Sydney Apartment/cottage/house etc
I didn't even have to ask for the same rate because they simply
offered it to me. But they didn't know that I'd first checked them out on Wotif. My guess is that there is a difference from someone just ringing up and booking (as you appeared to be) and someone who says "I see your price on Wotif is $X -- can you do me a better deal?". Kerry |
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