Agoda seems very popular in this region but not much is Euro and US. In US i often use Hotwire or Priceline where they also have secret hotel which is much cheaper. Hotwire is also my favorite to get cheaper car rentals.

Was informed Booking.com is under same organisation with Agoda. I found Agoda is always cheaper, booking.com is a trap where they didn't put taxes.
At 5 star hotels is normally cheaper if book direct if long stay.

How about you guys.

This post has been edited by sdin3269: Jul 2 2017, 10:18 AM

Wait, I thought Agoda is the one which didn't include tax?

hotel?

US will go for Priceline. Like their anonymous deals. Can get really good prices. Around Asia, just search around for the best prices.

Hate those that don't include taxes in the price, though.

in asian country, we do prefer agoda indeed.
please take note that trivago having problem on their pricing which much expensive by abit. unless you dont care about.

while for europe country, their own hotel's booking is much affordable.

Depends, but for business stay, I would book at Hotels.com, 10 nights will get you free one night

Have often used booking.com for my travels in and out of Malaysia
Price was always with taxes included

Try to book from rentmarket.com.my
They have everything

Oic have not use booking.com long time already. Last time price always without tax but now terbalik. Its agoda price not include taxes. LOL

Just browse through booking.com most are about the same price with agoda.

i will usually book with the hotel.. reasons:

- i have a direct legal contract with said hotel, not through a third party
- i don get the shittiest room in the hotel by default
- reward points

I checked book with hotel directly is expensive compare to book via agoda. Thats why i always book via agoda first

Never email to them directly except using hotel own site for booking. I think that is good for long stay or group?

used to use agoda and hotels.com
but now EXPEDIA the best
gets 10% disc with cimb and still gain points

hotels.com won't get points if u use vouchers or cc discounts

agoda stopped using after they convert to new point system and scrapped all my collected points. F U agoda

booking.com strength is only on refundable rooms. not for bargain searcher.

the rest? meh, been using online booking for many years, the rest never is cheaper than those above

This post has been edited by pr0pofol: Jul 2 2017, 10:34 AM

priceline basically owns agoda so if you're outside of US and Canada Agoda is your best friend

Raya time i book via asiatravel.com, agoda, hotels.com,traveloka,booking.com and all other sites dont have room left, even called the hotel they say sorry no more available rooms. But at asiatravel i managed to book 3 rooms lel

hotels.com a bit leceh u have to collect ten nights and it expires in 1 yr
while expedia and agoda can immediately use

Oic Expedia got 10% on CIMB didnt realise that, BTW RHB card got 7% discount of Agoda.

Agoda conver new point system? My points still there , and now they auto deduct the points.

agoda previously use agoda points, not pointMAX
now they can incorporate their points into other points system like enrich etc
so if u want to consolidate ur points, agoda better
but i prefer cheapest rate, which makes expedia better

Agoda.com - got special price and last min. Offer , plus credit card promotion, and use tgt with the CC rebate, besting if u wanna book some normal chain hotel, where their website don't gv any discount


Expedia - sometime collaboration with some CC got special code in a short few days promotion, upto discount of few hundred if booking is above certain amount. used few times to book japan onsen resort where the package comes with inroom dining etc , cheapest that I can find after compare all website including jalan.net and rakuten

Airasiahotel - best if wanna go for short trip with AA to benefits the cheap tix, done few times Thailand trip under this website, cheapest if inclusive air tix

Some others are rakuten.travel hotel and jalan.net, fhey r good if u wanna book japan hotel and car rental, most of the times got special rate and voucher coupon, and the type of package offer there for the japan hotel got more variety, just go register for their website member

bedsonline.com

That one kena register first, a big no no.

Try hotel quickly app. It does give me savings for last minute booking especially

Ayam got genius status on booking.com already

YOU KNOW IT IS ALL THE SAME COMPANY OWNED BY EXPEDIA RIGHT?

The one year expiry is applicable to the latest booking, not from the first night of booking. If you sleep one night per year, after ten years you can redeem one night lol. That's why for business purpose, I would use Hotels, two months can easily rake up free night

always booked with agoda...

1st: because of such promo: http://www.maybank2u.com.my/mbb_info/m2u/p.../PRO-Promotions

2nd: got free stay, yesterday booked a Hotel @ Fukuoka Japan - got it for free too.

Traveloka cheapest.

i'd normally use booking.com via shopback cos can get 6% cashback

the maybank promo no more liao. eff 1 July ended

oh yah! thanks did not see the fine print haha.

Important Notice: Effective 1 July 2017, the promo offer of 7% discount and 5% discount will be discontinued.

but that's the only card i have. :s

11street

traveloka and trivago is third party search engine only
they don't directly sell the rooms

you want cheap, that is cheap
wholesale price

Didn't knw tat

And It Doesn't mean all same price, no? Onsen hotel easily RM1.5k a night, few % discount promotion means alot

Airasia oso under expedia?

I thot they owned hotwire.com , booking.com is diff owner, priceline.com?

SPG website..

Point being?

Yes there is actually only 2 booking aggregator companies the the world - Priceline and Expedia. Everything else is artificial competition created by them

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comm...irecom_trivago/

You could also search Wikipedia or other article saying the same thing. The only thing I get from this is that it's better to book directly with hotel unless its too cheap. Example is that I use got Traders Hotel KLCC last month for 50% off because during Ramadhan. It is not shown in either of the booking website.

Also do you know almost all hotel can price match AND give you 10% off the closest cheapest price if you show them these website as evidence? I got that for Istana Hotel KL

So it means the hotel commit to the lowest price and another 10% off ? Really ?

Yes. Check website and I come across many with 'Best Price Guarantee'. Sent them an email and call about it before and they usually give lower than Expedia etc.

The reason is that Expedia paid for hotel room at a lower price so hotel actually lose out. So the rather take a bit of cut than a much higher loss.

Just do your research online. I prefer r/travel.

U so did not book with them nor expedia before you email to the hotel ?

And they still responded back and offer u better rate than expedia ?

Wao , good idea, should try this next time.... but how long is the hotel able to response back ? It will really be time consuming, coz instead of direct booking, now going through their customer service , is like double and triple work.....

Yeah that's why you can do it only when you not rushing. Must be a bit thick face for some hotel. But I don't care

Most 5 star hotel will get you back in 24 hours. Others not sure maybe can call them. Like Istana, just need to screenshot and email them the url. Quite simple. No need to buy from expedia, just show them they are making offers better than hotel.

If let say they only can price match, you can suggest giving you in-dining credit to make up or lunch buffet. This is advice I get on travel website. All of these is of course only if you really want that bang for buck. No need to do if it's a cheap hotel.

Just to share, i book direct to hotel in a cheap hotel near KL Sentral. I able to get RM20 off as Agoda actually take the deposit with them. I got that deposit back when I check out using own hotel booking website.

Most of the listed price exclude GST, right?

From what I can gather, the booking sites have some sort of quota allocated to each site for the same hotel.

Therefore, you can find one site sold out, and the others would still have rooms for the SAME hotel.

Which also affects the price, meaning some sites can be sometimes higher and sometimes lower than other sites, depending on the quota they have left.

I have found Booking.com to be quite competitive previously, but a recent booking (3 weeks ago) booking.com was 30% higher than Agoda which had a special going on.

So, the moral of the story is - shop around several sites.

This post has been edited by howszat: Jul 2 2017, 05:46 PM

how about UK? use priceline also?

my agoda points all missing. argh!

i usually compare agoda,booking,expedia. what i realized

a) Agoda, quite a sneaky website. need to be smart to navigate around. There's a slight price difference using app vs website (app cheaper). And sometimes,if there's member only price through email link, it will be cheaper VS not clicking the link. Sometimes, they also have promo code. You CAN only apply the code through the link given, and not manually going into agoda site itself(promo code tab is not available ). And again, there is price difference between them. . And remember to check for non refundable / free cancellation

b) booking, used to be quite competitive, but recently i found their rates ain't better than agoda.

c) expedia, i find their hotel selection a little limited. Not all listings are there compared to agoda/booking.

generally, i will compare the prices on agoda and booking. both of them give wider choice of hotel. Sometimes, direct hotel website could be even cheaper eg; ACCOR group (IBIS/Novotel/Mercure etc) early bird, 50% off, free breakfast etc.

use cashback/shopback for additional rebate. Shopback (max 9% booking) , milkadeal (max 4% agoda)

This post has been edited by kucingfight: Jul 2 2017, 06:25 PM

It's very variable....prices can be cheapest on any site or direct, at different times....

Both Agoda and booking, although same group, do have price match policy, and I have used that before....

Like everybody says, always check different sites....

Booking.com for me since their will not charge cc and paid at property

95% of the time i will use the hotel's own website especially when it's an international chain hotels because
- loyalty points!
- potential upgrade or preferred room...not stuck in the worst room in the house, the front desk wont pandang serong to 3rd party bookings.
- can use my corporate rate
- can 'runding' directly to the hotel when things goes wrong or to request something special when staying for a special occasion (got a massive twin tower view suite at Grand Hyatt KL last year..yay! Booked the room with cash+points rate)
- some chain hotels has shopback - Hilton & Accor

I only use 3rd party for independent non branded hotels...usually Agoda.

Oic never done that

When just use Google for popular hotel, it will show all the rates, so one glance know which site is cheaper, right?

No it doesn't, if you use Trivago.com it will compare agoda, booking.com etc etc. But still you have to go to specific booking website to search correct rates. But it is still good as you can make comparison. But I prefer to loyal to specific website for reward purposes especially doing company room booking.