Asia Rooms

[sydneyboy]

Has anyone had experience with booking hotels in any part of the world with this organisation? They were recommended by a contributor on another gay web site and he expressed great satisfaction. They are certainly cheaper than comparable wholesalers for certain hotels, I have made comparisons. However I "googled" them and found great extremes of satisfaction and absolute horror stories of incorrect quotes when arriving at a hotel and hoteliers requiring people to fork out the difference "on the spot" to even worse stories of difficulty of cancellation, unanswered e mails after credit card debits etc., in one quoted instance the credit card company had to intervene on this persons behalf. But I repeat others have been thoroughly praiseworthy. The main problems appear to be cancellations and altered itineries. You can read these for yourselves. Your experiences good, bad and indifferent appreciated.

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[Smiles]

I have used Asia Rooms a number of times and never had a problem. In my experience they get back to you very prmptly with all the necessary info and ~ most importantly ~ on arrival at the hotel the booking was always there waiting patiently for us to turn up.

Not that I've had a lot of trouble with other booking agents ~ I haven't ~ but twice we've been left waiting at lobby desks for them to retreive bookings that (1) they lost, or (2) never arrived. These problems always ended up settled to satisfaction, so not a big deal in the grand scheme of things (i.e. LOTS of hotel booking over LOTS of years!) But with Asia Rooms this has never happened to us.

Cheers & happy booking ... (I won't use a smilie here seeing as how Khun Wowpow has demanded their discontinuation)

I've used them and no problem giving them your credit card details etc, but I only used them once, and found if you steer away from the standard "I want a room", then they get it wrong, they ignore requests that you insert on your request form. For instance, WE wanted 2 rooms in Sydney, and paid for them, when we got to Sydney, ooh sorry thought it was one room for 2 of you and "they didnt say anything about non-smoking" - eventually sorted, but annoying all the same. Best to ring the actual hotel up a couple of days before staying there to confirm.

[TrongpaiExpat]

I have used them too without problems. First check the Asia Rooms price then google the hotel and many have their own web pages for reservations. Compare prices if you can. Sometimes it's not easy to compare as your not sure if a deluxe room is the same as the superior room or was it a standard room on Asia rooms. Then, is that with breakfast or without. Then, watch the taxes, added to the price or not.

I tend to go with the hotel web sites. I find them less restrictive and more straight forward in what your getting.

Anyone do priceline for Hotels?

I have post my experience here in another thread before. I used Asiarooms.com 3 times with pleasant success, and twice failed.

Basically, Asiarooms runs under the bussiness models similiar to Priceline.com, except everything is manual. The rates shown on Asiarooms.com may or may not be available. You book the room (give them your credit card number), then they put a hold on your c/card and contact hotel to check availability for you. Once they found availability, your c/card is immediately charged...no, they don't re-confirm with you at this point. So, you can not change your mind once you give them your credit card info. They response within 48 hours of your booking request. Keep in mind, they operate in Thailand, in general, you definitely have to wait 24-48 hours before you hear anything from them, either yes or no. For some people, it can be frustrating to wait 48 hours just to be informed that you don't have a room, especially if you need the room soon.

Cancelation or change of reservation will incurr a fee. Room/bed types (smoking or non smoking, king or 2 twin beds, high or low floor) are not gaurantee, so basically they just don't put in any room type request for you most of the time.

If the room is not available, they will tell you it's not available under this rate. But they don't tell you if the room is avialble under some other higher rates or higher category rooms (e.g. delux, suite instead of standard). I have experience where Asiarroms didn't find availability, but other travel agent/website found availability with same hotel but slightly higher rate. So, you wasted your 48 hours with Asiarooms.

Hope this help.

Agree with all the above comments. Asia Rooms have been an excellent way to book cheap accommodation. The only problem I had once (out of several times booking) was when I booked a hotel in Malaysia which advertised itself as having deluxe rooms, tennis courts, gym, sauna, jacuzzi etc when all these things either didn't exist or where 'closed for refurbishment'. The hotel was a nightmare to deal with and I left after two days but Asia Rooms refunded the fee I had paid minus the two days stay.

A couple of times Asia Rooms have contacted me with a 'cannot confirm booking' message due to rooms being unavailable at the price I chose, but that isn't a real hardship unless you book really late. Once a hotel is booked with Asia Rooms I have always found that my room is ready and waiting on arrival.

However, I also agree that it is worthwhile checking the hotel website or emailing the hotel directly, once you have settled on the hotel you like and before making a booking on the Asia Rooms website. The hotel may get back to you with an even better deal. :cheers:

[GWMinUS]

On my last trip, I booked at hotels in Tawain and Manila through Asia Rooms.
No problems and the rooms I recieved where to my expectations.
I did note that they seem to book though other Agencies.
The names that came back on the confirmation where different in each case.

I have used several other web booking services and the only bad experience was with the Malia Hotel in KUL.
They claimed to not have recieved my booking, but I had a confirmation letter.
After some hassel they provided a better room than had been booked.

As with all things, it may be better to book thorough the hotel web site.
And you may pay a bit more or a lot more...

ENJOY,
Hotman

I recommend reviewing this recent thread - http://www.sawatdee-gay-thailand.com/fo ... =precision

I've used AsiaRooms several times. They can often have the cheapest rates for a particular hotel. I just booked 3 nights in HongKong with them. For the hotel I picked.. they were over $100 cheaper for the 3 nights than Travelocity and Orbitz, and $50 cheaper than the next cheapest one.. for the exact same room.