Hotel Booking Sites, Agoda etc

[Jun]

Well, Agoda appear to have lost the plot and deleted the "En suite bathroom" from the filters, at least on the web version when I was looking today.
I can filter for a Bathtub, but since most rooms I book have a shower, that would exclude them.

This might not matter for those who pay $100 a night in SE Asia, but my usual policy is to pay the minimum price I can for a room that meets my standards. That's definitely with an en suite.

Also, when searching in central Europe, the "en-suite" filter was the one way of eliminating all the pointless results including a bed in a dormitory room. There can be surprisingly little difference in price, as long as I might be prepared to walk 10 minutes further up the road.

The sister site, Booking.com still has the en suite bathroom filter.

None of them have a filter for an in room safety deposit box.

I've also been caught out with the Agoda scam default payment settings. Every time I get quotes in local currency, then no matter what I do, the Agoda default is to charge me in GBP, at a poor exchange rate. So I have to remember to change it every single time I book.
Booking.com don't appear to do this.

Obviously, both are the same company.

I used to book quite a few hotels through Hotels.com, but they have far fewer listings than 5 years ago and those they do have may be at a higher price than Booking/Agoda.

[Jun]

I note that Agoda sort customer reviews with a default setting of "most helpful".
The reviews at the top of the list tend to have a higher score than the average for a hotel.
I also don't see any option for me to vote a review as helpful. Which raises some questions about how the helpful list is compiled.

I prefer to sort by most recent reviews, which I suspect is fairer and more relevant.
Caveat emptor.

[christianpfc]

Oh yes the dormitory rooms! I rejoice of having found a good deal, and on closer looks it's a dormitory. I'm too old for dormitory!

I compared prices in different currencies and found that there can be a difference of a few percent, and I will pay in EUR or THB, whichever is cheaper. Using the .de, .com, default or local domain can give different prices as well.

I used to do most bookings with agoda, but that didn't work on a recent trip to China (I had to verify my account, and there was a software issue that got me into a loop). But trip.com worked well and I have been using them a few times now.

I prefer agoda over booking.com because they send you a single-page pdf with all your data, whereas booking.com you would have to print the email, which can be pages (and if I want to print it elsewhere, extra steps).

[Jun]

I was toying with the idea of trying the Pattaya B2 hotel.
It has reasonable reviews, looks quite new and the B2 hotel in Hua Hin was OK last year.

However, once I changed the review order from "Most Helpful" to "Most Recent", it's clear that the place is going downhill fast and has a lot of bad reviews recently. So I abandoned that idea.

On the positive side, I note Agoda now offer 3 price settings for search. -the useless daily excluding taxes, daily average with taxes or total for the stay. The second option works for me.
Also, on my most recent bookings the default has been to bill in baht. Perhaps their algorithm is hoping I stop checking, so they can sneak one billed in GBP through. Or have they mended their ways ?

[Jun]

There was quite a nice looking Hyatt hotel near to my somewhat cheaper hotel in Phnom Penh.
Just for amusement, I checked the price on Agoda. About $120.

Shortly after that, I find I'm on a mailing list for Hyatt! Their UNSUBSCRIBE option didn't work. I'm trying to get customer services to totally delete me off their system.
Fortunately, I don't get put on a mailing list for the other 99.5% of hotels I look at on Agoda.

[Gaybutton]

Their UNSUBSCRIBE option didn't work.

I've had things like that happen to me. The way I deal with it is to set my Email so that anything coming from that address is sent directly to the "Trash" and I never see it until I'm emptying the trash. Their spam goes out with the rest of the Trash, so as far as I'm concerned, they can send all they want. It's kind of a triumphant feeling when I see everything they sent to me is already in the trash.