TS, if u hav frens in travel agency, they can explain better !

Generally, there are 2 hotel booking types.

1 type they work closely with agents, and slash to very very competitive price to agents coze of volumes. So apparently price in hotel web pages are sort of published rates, and booking thru agents often much lower.

Another type, they have strong marketing team + only allow web booking or direct booking. Agents are getting the same price as normal web booking customer, you are being charged additional booking fee by agents, hence most of time you pay more.

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Added on January 2, 2009, 2:17 pmyes, agoda is 1 of the big player in hotel web booking. Another is Asiaweb direct

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Added on January 2, 2009, 2:20 pmDo keep some contacts of local agent office. Call to compare price.

And, sometimes it save u hassle in Cards & rates. Coze u swipe RM here. No conversion, no misc fee. U pay what agent quote u, n get the hotel voucher for your stay.

This post has been edited by marchkingdom: Jan 2 2009, 02:20 PM

but still booking with web agents gives more accuracy in estimating the final bill. From your experience, I can see paying the hotel direct is somewhat "no no" ...