Best hotel booking portals?

martin loves that kind of thread...


"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de
discussion : ...
On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 08:07:44 +0200, Andreas H. Zappel
wrote:

Martin wrote:

NACK.
The problem in bigger hotels is, that the staff shall be helpfull. So
I would go on the floor and ask the chambermaid to open me the door
becaus I forgot my keycard inside the room. Most chambermaids will
open the door, even they were told not to do so.

Some might say that that only happens on TV and in films :-)

Yes, it happens in films too,
And it did happen to many times in real life, so the chambermaids
arn't allowed to open the rooms any more, but if they send a person to
the reception this person will complain if he is the real guest of the
room.
One point of mystery checks is, if the lists of the housekeeping has
more informations than only which room is to prepare and if there are
extra requests for that room, because a name in this list give an
information to the "thief".
Another very bad point is, that most chambermaids keep the door of the
room they are in open, so everyone could go in and say: "Hello I'm the
guest of this room and I only need to fetch my ..."

Or I stay behind a person at the check-in, I hear the name and the
room number. When this person goes out I go to the reception to
another receptionist and ask for a new keycard, because I lost mine.
I know the name, the room number and because I stood behind the real
customer the first receptionist might remeber me when the other one
asks him if.

I've seen that several times in TV series too.

It is stupid, but it will work in big hotels with several persons
behind the reception.

The most secure way is, that the lift only works with the key card of
the room - I myself only know a few hotels with this security feature.

There are plenty of ways to get into a foreign room.

of which the easiest is to help oneself to a key from an unattended
reception desk.

An unattenden reception must be an unsecure reception.

That neither means that it doesn't happen, nor that it isn't common.
--

Martin

Duh

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" a écrit dans le
message de groupe de discussion : ...


M@gd@ wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jun 2012 14:07:19 -0700, in rec.travel.europe,
"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
arranged some electrons, so they looked like
this:

... ... ... M@gd@ wrote:
... ... ... Single occupancy is much more expensive per capita than
double or triple.
... ... It certainly is if you're traveling alone with a tour-group and
prefer ... not to be roommates with a total stranger!

Not IME. Certainly not in Paris. Two friends of mine were in Paris until
a few days ago. They were paying about 150 Euro
for a two-bed. The same room for only one person was about 140 Euro.
Travelling alone is
damned expensive.

True, and even more so as one grows older and more addicted to comfort!


=====
It sounds much better in French, but then, everything does.

Lol and duh.

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" a écrit dans le
message de groupe de discussion : ...


M@gd@ wrote:
On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:42:15 +0000 (UTC), in rec.travel.europe, Erilar
arranged some electrons, so they looked
like this:

... "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote:
... M@gd@ wrote:
... ... Single occupancy is much more expensive per capita than
double or triple.
... ... It certainly is if you're traveling alone with a tour-group
and prefer
... not to be roommates with a total stranger!
... ... And worth payong tne difference, in my opinion.

I'm done going on tours, it's seldom worth it. I would pay more than
people travelling in
twos, and was always given the least convenient possible room available.
Travelling alone
I pay just as much, but at least I'm not treated as cattle.

Only my first trip to Europe was with a tour group - our local classical
radio station sponsored one which was quite reasonably priced, since it
included air and bus fare, hotel accommodations, breakfast and one other
meal a day, and tickets to all the (mostly classical music) events,
museums, etc. on the tour agenda. (Also a contribution to the non-profit
public radio station sponsoring it.) Even paying the single supplement
fee, it was affordable, and a good introduction to Prague, Vienna and
Budapest.

Since my interest in travel was mostly to attend opera, my destinations
were all well on the beaten path, so thanks to the Internet, my subsequent
travels were on my own, booking my own reservations and relying on
phrase-books when my language skills were inadequate.

Usually go for Expedia, though it's often worth checking Hostelbookers.com - they list a lot of small hotels and guesthouses as well as hostels. Got a cracker of a place in Krakow, essentially my own private apartment (though it happened to be owned by a youth hostel), that way and would never have found it otherwise...

On Sunday, 10 June 2012 09:12:22 UTC+1, Alfred Molon wrote:
For our just completed trip to Poland and Czechia we essentially booked
everything through booking.com. Was ok, but for instance in Cesky
Krumlov I saw many pensions with signs 'rooms available', while when I
booked Pension Antik it seemed to be one of the few alternatives
available. Which makes me wonder if booking.com is perhaps listing only
a subset of the accomodation available. Which hotel booking do you
recommend?
--

Alfred Molon
http://www.molon.de - Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe