Users of Expedia check this out

[seaboy4hire]

A lot of travel and a lot of us of course use travel sites to book our hotels. If you use or have used Expedia to book a hotel this might be of interest to you espicialy if you use the site a lot. Just click the link and read http://www.hbsslaw.com/expedia_lawsuit.htm

 

Hugs,

Greg

Greg Seattle Wa [email protected]

http://www.male4malescorts.com/reviews/greg_seattle.html

http://seaboy4hire.tripod.com

Palm Springs April 28th and 29th.

[Guest zipperzone]

So?

[+ ArVaGuy]

All the online booking services do this so it’s not really news to me. In my line of work I deal with hotels on a daily basis and there are a number of tricks to the trade like this.

 

It’s not unusual to have a 10% commission tacked on to a hotel room rate which is paid to the third party vendor after the guest's stay. That 10% is calculated on each night of the stay and the tax basis on is on the full amount. Only recently have hotels begun to require by contractual obligation that the 10% commissions be disclosed. Even then when dealing with large blocks of room nights the third party can have the clout to force the hotel to accept not disclosing this arrangement.

 

Further, the hotel industry is in a love / hate relationship with the online booking services. The hotels use the sites to unload inventory not picked up by group or transient business. However, by doing this it cuts into the profit percentage on the room rate. In some instances they are selling the rooms at a level that barely covers the cost of servicing the debt and the cost of every day maintenance i.e., changing the sheets and towels. It’s called Revenue per Available Room (Revpar) and some money is looked on as better than an empty room.

 

Consequently, an online guest booking is looked at as a necessary evil but don't expect them to bend over backwards for you. It’s likely you will get the room with the lousy location next to the ice machine, the broken television, or the one where the frat party the night before left broken bottles under the bed.

 

I am not saying that this happens to all online bookings but there are many instances where it does. There might be little or nothing a hotel is willing or able to do to adjust the rate on such bookings if you get a lousy room. Guests need to insist in these instances and be real nice to the front desk agent. Find the gay one and the chances of an upgrade increase.

 

Actually, the hotel industry would rather online users book through their corporate owned sites than the majors such as Expedia and Travelocity. The discounts are relatively the same and the hit the hotels take on profit percentage is lower. Nearly all of them have policies that if you find a lower price rate for the EXACT SAME room on a consolidator’s site they will match it.