Welcome to Thailandblog.nl
With 275.000 visits per month, Thailandblog is the largest Thailand community in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Sign up for our free e-mail newsletter and stay informed!
Newsletter
Language setting
Rate Thai Baht
Sponsor
Latest comments
- RonnyLatYa: Yes, I say that Kanchanaburi is just an example and that you can change that. You can also do this on the web page itself and then see
- william-korat: In the dry period the line is bottom of Bangkok and lower and east of that to just above Khao Yai National Park usually we
- Eric Kuypers: If you change the command line, such as https://www.iqair.com/thailand/nong-khai, you will get a different city or region. But you
- Cornelis: Well, GeertP, I am absolutely not a 'Brussels sprouts supporter' or THE Red Brand addict, but that does not mean that I don't like the Thai cuisine.
- Rudolf: It depends on what you are looking for in Thailand, but to be honest you don't have much choice in my opinion. The big cities are falling apart
- RonnyLatYa: Also take a look at this. https://www.iqair.com/thailand/kanchanaburi Also scroll down a bit and they will also give you some explanation
- Peter (editor): I also enjoy the Thai food and yes, the price is very attractive. But it's just a fact that Thai farmers are unbelievable
- Jacks: It is best to go in the period November to February. Someone with asthma should absolutely not come here from March to May
- GeertP: Dear Ronald, I completely agree with your story, I also enjoy Thai cuisine every day and even after 45 years of Thai
- Eric Kuypers: Wilma, bad air is not in all of Thailand. Thailand is more than 12x the Netherlands! These are the big cities (traffic) and some
- Pjotter: kopi luwak regularly bought and drunk in the Netherlands. Usually only available some time before Christmas. You get the best coffee taste
- Jack S: Oh dear…. Except for the fact that I also start the day with a coffee, everything is different for me... my coffee is just a
- hans: Tastes differ, but this just looks beautiful.
- Lenaerts: Dear, I went to immigration yesterday to apply for a retirement visa, very friendly people and they helped quickly
- Aad: I buy my coffee at Lotus. Add a teaspoon of that coffee to warm water and enjoy
Sponsor
Bangkok again
Menu
Arrivals Bangkok Airport
DOSSIERS
Learning objectives and topics
- Background
- Activities
- Advertorial
- Agenda
- Tax question
- Belgium question
- Sights
- Bizarre
- Buddhism
- Book reviews
- Column
- Corona crisis
- The Culture
- Diary
- Dating
- The week of
- Dossier
- To dive
- Economy
- A day in the life of…..
- Islands
- Food and drink
- Events and festivals
- Balloon Festival
- Bo Sang Umbrella Festival
- Buffalo races
- Chiang Mai Flower Festival
- Chinese New Year
- Full Moon Party
- Christmas
- Lotus Festival – Rub Bua
- Loy Krathong
- Naga Fireball Festival
- New Years Eve celebration
- Phi ta khon
- Phuket Vegetarian Festival
- Rocket festival – Bun Bang Fai
- Songkran – Thai New Year
- Fireworks Festival Pattaya
- Expats and retirees
- state pension
- Car insurance
- Banking
- Tax in the Netherlands
- Thailand tax
- Belgian Embassy
- Belgian tax authorities
- Proof of life
- DigiD
- emigrate
- To rent a house
- Buy a house
- In memoriam
- Income statement
- King's day
- Cost of living
- Dutch embassy
- Dutch government
- Dutch Association
- News
- Passing away
- Passport
- Retirement
- Drivers license
- Distributions
- Elections
- Insurance in general
- Visa
- work
- Hospital
- Health insurance
- Flora and fauna
- Photo of the week
- Gadgets
- Money and finance
- History
- Health
- Charities
- Hotels
- Looking at houses
- Isaan
- Khan Peter
- Koh Mook
- King Bhumibol
- Living in Thailand
- Reader Submission
- Reader call
- Reader tips
- Reader question
- Society
- marketplace
- Medical tourism
- Environment
- Nightlife
- News from the Netherlands and Belgium
- News from Thailand
- Entrepreneurs and companies
- Education
- Research
- Discover Thailand
- Opinions
- Remarkable
- Calls
- Floods 2011
- Floods 2012
- Floods 2013
- Floods 2014
- Winter prices
- Politics
- Poll
- Travel stories
- Travel
- Organizations
- Shopping
- Social media
- Spa & wellness
- Sport
- Cities
- Position of the week
- The beach
- Language
- For sale
- TEV procedure
- Thailand in general
- Thailand with children
- thai tips
- Thai massage
- Tourism
- Going out
- Currency – Thai Baht
- From the editors
- Real estate law; and
- Traffic and transport
- Visa Short Stay
- Long stay visa
- Visa question
- Flight tickets
- Question of the week
- Weather and climate
Sponsor
Disclaimer translations
Thailandblog uses machine translations in multiple languages. Use of translated information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for errors in translations.
Read our full here disclaimer.
Royalty
© Copyright Thailandblog 2024. All rights reserved. Unless stated otherwise, all rights to information (text, image, sound, video, etc.) that you find on this site rest with Thailandblog.nl and its authors (bloggers).
Whole or partial takeover, placement on other sites, reproduction in any other way and/or commercial use of this information is not permitted, unless express written permission has been granted by Thailandblog.
Linking and referring to the pages on this website is permitted.
Home » Reader question » Book hotels in Pattaya on the website cheaper?
Book hotels in Pattaya on the website cheaper?
Dear readers,
I went to ask various hotels in Pattaya what an overnight stay costs, with the intention of negotiating the price. I was always told that booking a room on the website was cheaper than walking into a hotel. So not on Expedia, Bookings or Hotels.com, but directly on your own hotel website.
After checking, this turned out to be true. For example, I saw a price difference of more than 400 baht per night. At the desk she told me that an overnight stay cost 1600 baht, but that it was cheaper on the website and yes, I could book the same room for 1.200 baht per night.
Do others also have this experience?
Regards,
Ben
A lot of people who go on vacation often have to deal with half the experience you described above.
A small part of the holidaymakers who have already found their way (or not) there on the holiday spot, often book at the source, which is of course always cheaper.
All others who then remain probably find it social to support foreign high earners financially.
These foreign high earners like to watch the competition and look for other hotels locally or on the internet.
They put all this “hotel info” on a website, throw a lot of money after it (to be at the top of the search results), and yes, the difference between what the hotel and the foreign high earners earn is in your experience, 400 thb.
I'd like to see some examples showing this. My experience is not like that.
For short stays in hotels, my experience is that booking in a hotel or the own hotel site is still more expensive than sites of the well-known booking agencies. At the booking offices you often also have schemes such as saving points for a discount, saving days, etc., which you do not have with a direct hotel booking). Only for longer stays (month or longer) then there is room to negotiate at the hotel desk up to approximately 2/3 of the normal rates (but then again be careful about exclusions of electricity, towels, etc.).
The last time I spent the night in the Netherlands in a guest house of an acquaintance, that acquaintance told me that he simply added the booking.com commission to the room rate.
He only had part of his rooms for rent through booking.com and he charged less for the rooms he rented out himself.
Isn't it logical that comparative hotel sites (national and international) want to earn money from their business and do not do so for social reasons? However, it is too short-sighted to assume that these sites only collect information from the Internet. Price agreements are often made with hoteliers and the customers can then benefit from this. But that wasn't Ben's question. His experience was that he could book a cheaper overnight stay via the hotel's own website than on the spot at the hotel counter. I myself have experienced it several times. I stayed in a hotel booked online where I wanted to sleep 1 or 2 nights longer and when I inquired at the desk, the price turned out to be higher than via the website of both the relevant hotel and a comparative hotel site. When I pointed this out to the desk clerk, the response was that the online prices simply differ. The counter price was not adjusted and it was simply said that I had to renew online. Now a piece of cake with a smartphone, but not so long ago you first had to look for an internet café where you could print the booking and then report to the desk with the hotel voucher. A strange turn of events in my view. I can imagine that the time of booking, well in advance or last minute, affects the price, but I cannot place a price difference for the same room between what is asked at the desk and roughly 10 minutes later online.
Not always though.
At my last booking in Phuket, the websites were significantly cheaper (almost 50%!!!) than the counter or the hotel's website. This was also said at the counter.
Now I don't get it, but that will be just me.
The source seems to me to be the hotel desk. But it is more expensive than the other source, the hotel's own website.
The questioner talks about the (relatively high, namely 30%) price difference between those two sources.
Booking.com cs are not discussed further. Where you get the foreign high earners from is a mystery to me.
Dear Ben,
We have already done this a number of times.
At our last hotel we booked via the internet with the reason that it is cheaper.
On our arrival, the staff said that the price was actually 200 Bath too low.
The moment we decided to book a few more nights, they were the best
man that we had to pay this 200 Bath more.
We thought it was strange and after consultation with the manager we just paid the price of the internet
got.
I looked again on the internet the next day and to my surprise the hotel was sold out,
which really wasn't the case.
Strange, and I got the idea that the staff also wanted to earn some extra money with this.
Still, the magager helped us well and it was perhaps a promotion for Mother's Day.
We will never know.
Yours faithfully,
Erwin
That's what I always thought. Until the last time in June 2018. Then I was able to book the Eastiny Plaza on soi 8 through Expedia for the incredibly low price of 11 euros / night. So approximately 440 baht. After this, the Eastiny Plaza sent an email. I didn't get lower than 800 baht. So I booked through a booking site for the first time. Everything neatly in order. I think this was mainly because it was low season. For November there is virtually no difference in the price of the hotels themselves and the booking sites. Incidentally, the Eastiny hotels, despite the fact that they are not old yet, are very neglected. So in November it will probably be the Flipper House or the Flipper Lodge again.
If hotels also offer their rooms via the well-known websites, it has been contractually agreed with those websites that the hotels themselves may not offer their rooms cheaper than those websites.
I have booked a hotel in Cologne via Booking.com costs € 68,25 p/n for 2 persons including breakfast.
On advice I looked at the website of the hotel in question and there it costs, everything the same, only € 25 p / n. Never ever again Booking.com!
Correction to my first post. The price on the website is the same as the price on Booking
com. My sincere apologies.
Dear Kees,
Booking.com has nothing to do with prices, every hotel determines its own price on the websites of Expedia or Hotels.com or Booking.com. Every hotel can adjust that price per minute.
This seems very strong Kees, because if this is really the case, you can raise the alarm with Booking.com if you want. They are then obliged to refund the difference, because they guarantee the cheapest price. The disadvantage for the hotel in question is that they will receive a kind of fine from booking.com.
Well, I wouldn't say that ever again, but next time you could just experience that the opposite is the case. I can't imagine that you can book a room for 2 people with breakfast for 25 euros in Cologne.
I always do price comparison. First make a cancellable reservation via booking.com of the place where I would like to go at least for the price offered and then go on a quest for more favorable offers (time permitting). They can also be on booking.com itself at a later date.
Never forget to cancel on time with booking.com, but that can be done in two clicks and is a matter of scheduling well.
I think I'm not the only one who does that.
That gives you the necessary peace of mind. and I have been very satisfied with booking.com for years. So satisfied that I usually don't even look at trivago and associates anymore, where you usually can't find anything cheaper (unless you put a lot of time into it).
Just visit the hotel upon arrival in Thailand and inquire about the cost of a stay per day or longer and you will always be cheaper than booking sites…..
Most booking sites exaggerate with the cost price.
In Europe you pay blue from the prices and if you see a hotel room from the inside of the price, then most hotel rooms in Thailand are great and I feel free to pay the amount.
Gr.
TonyM
Coincidentally, I experienced this firsthand this week. We were on Krabi and moved on. Now we have to go back to Krabi because our return journey starts from there. Looked on booking.com and they offered us rooms for 800 Baht, then emailed the hotel and asked if they had anything to offer us. Received from them the offer of 1200 Baht per room incl. breakfast or 1000 excl. breakfast. I then emailed them that I found this very strange because I can save a total of 2 Baht for 1600 rooms via booking.com, then received a response in no time that I would also get the rooms for 800 Baht per night with direct booking.
Also check latestays.com
Personally, I have very good experiences with the comparison site of Momondo Hotel, where you can see the cheapest offers from the various hotels.
When comparing, it is of course important to pay attention to whether it concerns the same category room, and whether or not breakfast is included.
To be sure that it is really a good price, you can always make a direct comparison on the relevant hotel site.
I personally never found the best solution by asking directly on site and at random in a hotel.
Moreover, after a long flight, I personally don't feel like dragging luggage from hotel to hotel with often high temperatures, hoping to find something more favorable, so that I also find security and convenience in this matter worth something.
Apartment where we are staying for the 4th time coming Feb will cost us about 18000 bath including electricity and water.
If I look at the same dates on booking.com, the price is 974 euros.
It is a 2-room apartment with a separate bedroom (+- 50 square meters in total and 2 balconies
Hello Adrie. Can I ask for the name of that apartment and where is it? Thank you in advance!
I always book through agoda myself. First for a day or two. If I like it and I want to stay longer, I first look at the site, then I ask the Bali what the room costs for a certain time. Usually the price is higher than through agoda, then negotiations begin. And yes you just get it for the same price. Of course we don't skip the ladies and take them to dinner sometime. All in all cheaper and still a lot of fun.
Greetings