Here's out top three reccomendations if you are looking for late availability for a Valentines hotel break
LateRooms.com - Great late deals and a massive choice of hotels and room types all accross the UK makes this our top pick.
Mr&MrsSmith - Upmarket hotels for anyone looking for chic, unique boutique hotel stays.
HotelVoucherShop - HotelVoucherShop’s Gift Vouchers & Hotel Gift Certificates are the Perfect Gift for Valentines Day. They are presented in an attractive wallet and they can be personalised with your own unique message. You can choose either postal vouchers for FREE delivery to yourself or your chosen recipient, or send instant e-vouchers which have the benefit of allowing you to send your voucher immediately or arrive on a selected future date! The Hotel Vouchers can be used at 8,000 city, country and spa hotels in the UK plus 62,000 hotels, in 5000 destinations Worldwide.
Showing posts with label Booking Hotels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Booking Hotels. Show all posts
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, March 19, 2009
James Villas Booking Review
Despite the name, James Villas sell more than just villas.
For starters they sell packages including villas and flights which gives full ATOL protection.
The reason I am writing about them though is that they also offer a selection of leisure resorts. What they have done is handpicked a collection of properties which offer private accomodation with the facilities typically found in a villa, but on leisure complexes so you get excellent sports facilities and or restaurants a flying champagne cork two's distance away.
I just did one price test to see how they compare and did the first hotel in their list the Royal Garden Villas in Tenerife ( sounds amazing by the way!). Randomly, I selected a one week holiday from 11 Sep 2009, 2 adults and 2 kids, and looked at the below websites in this order and got these prices :
James Villas - £2988
Cheap hotels in Tenerife - £2043
Low Cost Holidays - £2050
Thomson - £2212
Hotels.com - £2589
In each case I was looking at the entry level villa the "princess villa" and with B&B.
So, unfortunately for James Villas in this review. just one test they came out the most expensive choice for this option so either they were just unlucky or they should stick to villas.
In reality, most people would add flights to the booking so I should have tested that out, in a future review I will revisit this and do a couple of package price comparisons. If there are particular websites you want me to consider on my next review or if you have first hand experience of a James Villas booking please share by using the comments section.
Click the banner below to find out more about James Villas Holidays.
For starters they sell packages including villas and flights which gives full ATOL protection.
The reason I am writing about them though is that they also offer a selection of leisure resorts. What they have done is handpicked a collection of properties which offer private accomodation with the facilities typically found in a villa, but on leisure complexes so you get excellent sports facilities and or restaurants a flying champagne cork two's distance away.
I just did one price test to see how they compare and did the first hotel in their list the Royal Garden Villas in Tenerife ( sounds amazing by the way!). Randomly, I selected a one week holiday from 11 Sep 2009, 2 adults and 2 kids, and looked at the below websites in this order and got these prices :
James Villas - £2988
Cheap hotels in Tenerife - £2043
Low Cost Holidays - £2050
Thomson - £2212
Hotels.com - £2589
In each case I was looking at the entry level villa the "princess villa" and with B&B.
So, unfortunately for James Villas in this review. just one test they came out the most expensive choice for this option so either they were just unlucky or they should stick to villas.
In reality, most people would add flights to the booking so I should have tested that out, in a future review I will revisit this and do a couple of package price comparisons. If there are particular websites you want me to consider on my next review or if you have first hand experience of a James Villas booking please share by using the comments section.
Click the banner below to find out more about James Villas Holidays.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Lowcostholidays website
Looking at the lowcostholidays website today, as they have had a bit of an overhaul, it's pretty fresh but the text a bit small for my liking. The company is independent from the big operators so not being tied to any particular suppliers, has a massive range of bedstock. They offer this as hotel only as well as packaged with flights. With the flight+hotel you get the protection of ATOL bonding.
There's all sorts of ways to find a holiday or hotel. Click on the map to view by destination, use a classic search box, or one I like is the matrix where you can see at a glance holidays prices by month of departure by destination and board basis. The cool thing is you can also specify your departure airport, and star rating. In terms of duration you can only choose 7 or 14 nights but that is what most people book anyway.
If you're after a specific hotel use the search box in the top right. I've tested it with good results.
Overall very impressed with the lowcostholidays website will definitely be checking it out next time I need a break.
There's all sorts of ways to find a holiday or hotel. Click on the map to view by destination, use a classic search box, or one I like is the matrix where you can see at a glance holidays prices by month of departure by destination and board basis. The cool thing is you can also specify your departure airport, and star rating. In terms of duration you can only choose 7 or 14 nights but that is what most people book anyway.
If you're after a specific hotel use the search box in the top right. I've tested it with good results.
Overall very impressed with the lowcostholidays website will definitely be checking it out next time I need a break.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Booking Sandos Hotels direct
To continue my little series of looking at booking direct with the lesser known hotel brands, today I am looking at Sandos Hotels. Sandos Hotels and Resorts have all inclusive hotels in Lanzarote, Benidorm and Mexico (Riviera Maya near Cancun). They are certainly good hotels, that I know from my time working in Mexico for Thomson.
On the booking form there is an option for holiday bookings including flights, but don't use this is only for Americans booking from USA to Mexico. The booking form after the initial page is actually quite nice - you get to see photos as well as a description of the rooms you are booking so there is less confusion about "what is a junior suite" for example. When I was working for a tour operator, confusion over the room type was one of the biggest factors that led to customer complaints.
The booking is initially quoted in Euros but you can convert this so you can the see the GBP equivalent. They accept Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Tip : There is a drop down menu for rate type of which on my test bookings there was a few, just go through them all to see the price. Best available rate isn't always the cheapest!
The Sandos Hotels website is worth a look if you are thinking of booking a holiday to one of Sandos hotel's destinations - to compare prices with a package - but don't forget that by booking with a tour operator you have more financial protection if the airline that you book flights with should cease operations.
On the booking form there is an option for holiday bookings including flights, but don't use this is only for Americans booking from USA to Mexico. The booking form after the initial page is actually quite nice - you get to see photos as well as a description of the rooms you are booking so there is less confusion about "what is a junior suite" for example. When I was working for a tour operator, confusion over the room type was one of the biggest factors that led to customer complaints.
The booking is initially quoted in Euros but you can convert this so you can the see the GBP equivalent. They accept Visa, Mastercard and Amex. Tip : There is a drop down menu for rate type of which on my test bookings there was a few, just go through them all to see the price. Best available rate isn't always the cheapest!
The Sandos Hotels website is worth a look if you are thinking of booking a holiday to one of Sandos hotel's destinations - to compare prices with a package - but don't forget that by booking with a tour operator you have more financial protection if the airline that you book flights with should cease operations.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Cashback when you book hotels
Would you like cashback with your hotel, Madam ?
Selection of current offers
6% cashback at Hotelopia
6% cashback at Ramada Jarvis
3% cashback at Best Western
2.5% cashback at Hilton
2% cashback at Marriot
2% cashback at Travelodge
£5 cashback at hotels.com
How it works
Some hotel companies offer rewards to websites for referring people to them. Cashback sites like Rpoints share this with their users
What's the catch
Well you don't pay anymore for the bookings, but you do have to wait a couple of months for the cashback to be available to you, and you do have to reach a minimum cashback balance before you can redeem your points.
Selection of current offers
6% cashback at Hotelopia
6% cashback at Ramada Jarvis
3% cashback at Best Western
2.5% cashback at Hilton
2% cashback at Marriot
2% cashback at Travelodge
£5 cashback at hotels.com
How it works
Some hotel companies offer rewards to websites for referring people to them. Cashback sites like Rpoints share this with their users
What's the catch
Well you don't pay anymore for the bookings, but you do have to wait a couple of months for the cashback to be available to you, and you do have to reach a minimum cashback balance before you can redeem your points.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Top Ten Hotel Websites
The Top Ten most visited websites for 2007 in the accommodation / destinations category have been released :
1 www.laterooms.co.uk
2 www.travelodge.co.uk
3 www.tripadvisor.co.uk
4 www.ichotelsgroup.com
5 www.activehotels.com
6 www.superbreak.com
7 www.information-britain.co.uk
8 www.premierinn.com
9 www.hotels.co.uk
10 www.hotelclub.com
1 www.laterooms.co.uk
2 www.travelodge.co.uk
3 www.tripadvisor.co.uk
4 www.ichotelsgroup.com
5 www.activehotels.com
6 www.superbreak.com
7 www.information-britain.co.uk
8 www.premierinn.com
9 www.hotels.co.uk
10 www.hotelclub.com
Friday, April 4, 2008
What annoys you most about hotel websites
Following on from this article about annoying airline websites,
we would like to know what our readers find annoying about hotel websites or more generally the hotel booking experience. Please jump in and use the comments form at the bottom of this post to leave your thoughts.
Video below for a bit of inspiration!
Here's a few comments to get us started. We will add your comments as they come in.
we would like to know what our readers find annoying about hotel websites or more generally the hotel booking experience. Please jump in and use the comments form at the bottom of this post to leave your thoughts.
Video below for a bit of inspiration!
Here's a few comments to get us started. We will add your comments as they come in.
- You look for more information on a hotel by going to various other websites but find they all offer the same 2 generic small, generic photos.
- You look on a hotel review site but all you can find is one over enthusiastic review which must be from the owner and one from a Peruvian shepherd complaining that the hotel didn't have the Peru V Chile match on in the bar.
- You do a hotel price comparison search for a specific hotel and find all the prices are suspiciously similar.
- Hotel websites offering prices on large banners but you can't find them when you click the links.
- Lack of information about suitability of hotel for elderly / infirm.
- pop-up boxes
- "Over choice" of room types without adequate explanation of difference
- Having to register as a "member" just to do a booking
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