Best hotel booking portals?

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

On Jun 10, 10:12*am, 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 Molonhttp://www.molon.de- Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe

It sounds like what you're looking for is a booking site/agency which
is not a listing.

I don't know if that can be done because every booking service will
have a "list" of accommodations.

That aside, I quite liked many of the photos on your site. I have a
question:
Your panoramic stitching looks flawless. What do you use?

I just open a pic in Windows photo gallery, (make a copy before going
to paint) Then play.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5366380...ream/lightbox/

"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
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

There is no booking site that lists every single place that has rooms
available. Particularly when hotels/pensions are small they cannot afford
the loss of control and fees associated with appearing on a site such as
booking.com.

I find Google maps a good starting point. Search for the town you want
then once you have it search for "Hotels and Motels" or "Bed and Breakfast"
or similar terms and you will get lots of dots marking where they are.
Then it's a case of following links, looking at reviews and making choices.

At first, let me appologize for my english as it isn't my first language.
As I'm a owner of few accommodation listing web sites (for Croatia), I can
give you an advise.
When you look for accommodation in some particular country, try to search on
local language. You can translate at "google translate". For example, if
you'r looking for accommodation in Prague, go to google.cz (which is
localized version of google for Chech republic) and type "ubytování v Praze"
(translated "Prague accommodation") and you will find a lot more
accommodation results in Prague (for example).

Why is that?
Booking.com (and many other similar booking sites) work on commission. That
means that owner of hotel (or any other accommodation) needs to give a
percentage to the website if reservation is confirmed. Many of hotels and
accommodation owners are not willing to pay that percentage, so they are not
listed.
So, my advice is like I say above - use google translate, and search for
accommodation on local language. You will find out much more. That doesn't
mean that they doesn't speak english. Some of those websites are not
optimized for english language (even they do have english version of the
site).
Also, there are localized listings, which are commonly free, where
accommodations are listed (again, on local language).
A bit more of hassle, but it is useful to save money on accommodation

Kind regards!
Dragutin
www.croatia-accommodation.info



"Alfred Molon" wrote in message
...
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

In article 1f5ed157-078c-4740-ae8e-7d58accd3b66
@m10g2000vbn.googlegroups.com, aquachimp says...
Your panoramic stitching looks flawless. What do you use?

I'm using PTGUI, but there are also other tools which I hear can
generate flawless panoramas.
--

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

In article , Graham Harrison
says...
I find Google maps a good starting point. Search for the town you want
then once you have it search for "Hotels and Motels" or "Bed and Breakfast"
or similar terms and you will get lots of dots marking where they are.
Then it's a case of following links, looking at reviews and making choices.

The curious thing is that Google Maps does not show Pension Antik, the
place where we stayed in Cesky Krumlov.
Also, I have the impression that in Cesky Krumlov there are way more
hotels/pensions than shown on Google Maps.
--

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

In article , dragec says...
When you look for accommodation in some particular country, try to search on
local language. You can translate at "google translate". For example, if
you'r looking for accommodation in Prague, go to google.cz (which is
localized version of google for Chech republic) and type "ubytování v Praze"
(translated "Prague accommodation") and you will find a lot more
accommodation results in Prague (for example).

Just tried google.cz and it still doesn't show the place where we stayed
in Cesky Krumlov.

I also tried googling for "pension in cesky krumlov", which generated a
few lists of pensions in Cesky Krumlov, none if which showing the place
where we stayed. So I guess all these listings are incomplete.

Even the homepage of the tourist office of Cesky Krumlov does not show
the place where we stayed:
http://www.ckrumlov.info/php/katalog/uby/select.php?
lang=de&action=send&poloha=1
--

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

so if it doesn't why should the Web do ??!!
Duh.

"Alfred Molon" a écrit dans le message de groupe de
discussion : ...
In article , dragec says...
When you look for accommodation in some particular country, try to search
on
local language. You can translate at "google translate". For example, if
you'r looking for accommodation in Prague, go to google.cz (which is
localized version of google for Chech republic) and type "ubytování v
Praze"
(translated "Prague accommodation") and you will find a lot more
accommodation results in Prague (for example).

Just tried google.cz and it still doesn't show the place where we stayed
in Cesky Krumlov.

I also tried googling for "pension in cesky krumlov", which generated a
few lists of pensions in Cesky Krumlov, none if which showing the place
where we stayed. So I guess all these listings are incomplete.

Even the homepage of the tourist office of Cesky Krumlov does not show
the place where we stayed:
http://www.ckrumlov.info/php/katalog/uby/select.php?
lang=de&action=send&poloha=1
--

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

On 10 Jun 2012 in rec.travel.europe, 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?

We had decent luck in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic a couple of
years back using http://hotels.com

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

On Jun 10, 3:33*pm, Alfred Molon wrote:
In article 1f5ed157-078c-4740-ae8e-7d58accd3b66
@m10g2000vbn.googlegroups.com, aquachimp says...

Your panoramic stitching looks flawless. What do you use?

I'm using PTGUI, but there are also other tools which I hear can
generate flawless panoramas.
--

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

Thank you (by the way, how much do the PTGUI updates cost you?)

Well, I'm home this morning and have been having a look round on this
question.
It's not an easy one.
I put - Cesky Krumlov listing - into my search engine (yahoo) and got
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=...1-&type_param=

Replacing the word listings with bed and breakfast, I got
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=...1-&type_param=
First return; wrong country.

Replacing bed and breakfast with b&b:
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=...1-&type_param=.

As you might see, TripAdvisor feature prominently in most pages.. and
they have pension Antik listed (ranked as at 46th out of b&bs for that
area.)

If it's just a listings reference you need, then TA are probably the
biggest, with the most extensive lists, albeit not all of the entries
actually exist, or are wrongly placed, whilst some places have several
listings as if different places... and even sometimes with differing
addresses ... for one place.

That said, TA is a bit like a nobody that is famous for simply been
famous.

It doesn't offer total accuracy, let alone the truth.

I used to contribute to TA a lot. Mostly by adding to their listings,
i.e. if I'd find some place, usually an "attraction" for which there
seemed to be no helpful information anywhere on the net, I'd get it
listed (if possible) and then once listed provide a review to share
facts more so than opinion. It's very easy to do.

However, I reviewed a restaurant once and started the review by
providing it's new name and type of cuisine. I elaborated on the food
a little bit. Identifying it as nouvelle cuisine, I provide a couple
of photos which might explain why I commented that the volume of
"food" (nibbles) provided with the after-meal coffee was more
substantial than all the rest put together.
I was complimentary about the presentation of the food and the taste,
er, with the exception of the ice-cream, but suggested it's not a
place to go to if you just want to be fed. I recommended it for
business do to the unrushed service and the generous amount of time
given between "courses"? Oh and revealed in what manner the head
waitress was a bit tetchy.

They weren't grateful.. not by a long shot. I received a Private
Message via TA's pm system. I hadn't had one of those from a business
owner/manager before.
There was name calling, some character assassination, insults,
personal ridicule and accusations.
I reported it. TA removed it form my account without so much as
telling me they would.

Later, a management response appeared under my review. It was word for
word the inappropriate PM, but with the name calling etc removed, but
supposedly authored by someone else

Sometime later still, another, very, very flattering review review
was published. It was from the same PM author that had identified her
connection with the business. I reported it., several times over a
period of around 4 months. A simple open and shut case of fraud you
might think, and where TA had all the proof the needed, yet it
remained.
Special deals for businesses from a site claiming to represent the
traveller?

I feel I just can't trust that site at all.

What's more, from my experience I came to learn that TA are less than
truthful in its communications with its membership via its own
forums. It clearly has a different definition of what the word
"listening" means.

I withdrew from participation and took my 68 review out. I ran into
obstacles when trying to delete my forum contributions, and just walk
away from it in the end.

My absence wont make them less famous for been famous, but I can't in
all honesty continue to help their popularity for being popular and
well populated.