Hotels, Apartments etc

[Jun]

My current hotel is advertising at all sorts of silly rates on Agoda.
I booked directly for 850 baht.
You can currently book a similar room for as much as 3400 baht via the online site. It's not a 3400 baht room.
The net result of all this nonsense is, of course, that they have vacancies.
It's quite a nice hotel and only the very poor WiFi will stop me staying long term.

Meanwhile, up in South Pattaya, Mosaik seem to have ceased using the booking sites.
And shut their website.
And aren't replying to e-mails on the old address.
So are they just relying on phone calls and walk in trade ?
Are they going to market it in a half-arsed fashion for a couple of years, before closing, exactly like the Flamingo once did, across the road ?

I've tentatively booked 3 nights at another hotel, which has good reviews, but no presence on the booking sites and a poor website, without any facility to book online.

Generally in SE Asia, I've found hotels often offer lower rates on Agoda than booking directly with the hotels. However, this time I'm seeing some exceptions.

Incidentally, for various hotels, Hotels.com always come up with the result "We've Sold Out". Even for hotels which I believe haven't listed on that site for several years and when I try all sorts of dates, either soon, or in 3 months, 6 months etc
Writing "We've sold out" when the hotel isn't even listing with them would be lying to customers. If that's what they are doing.

[Gaybutton]

lying to customers.

That would not exactly be out of the ordinary when it comes to advertising. My guess is the hotels that no longer appear or never did appear on booking sites probably don't because the booking site rates are too expensive. If I were looking for a hotel, I would check the booking site rate, but I would also check the walk-in rate.

I would think hotels getting only a few bookings because tourist numbers are down would offer discounts and other perks, but if their thinking is like we've seen so many times at bars - if they're not getting enough customers, instead of offering incentives they merely raise their rates.

[Jun]

Not only are tourist numbers down on pre-covid, but I suspect hotel numbers are also down. The nearest hotel to mine is closed and it's not the only one.

[Jun]

Another odd tactic is hotels not showing pictures of the rooms on the booking sites.
In particular, I've seen several hotels show no pictures at all of their cheapest room, whilst showing photos of the others.
Now are the cheapest rooms grim ?
Or is it a marketing tactic to lure people in, knowing that few will book the mystery room, but some might take the more expensive rooms with the photos?
I've not risked it.