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Alternative Holidays – Exchange Conversation for Accommodation in Spain’s Englishtown Project
Madrid, Spain -- For the last three years, over 3,000 people have participated in the unique English language immersion program known as Englishtown. Two venues, a 16th century abandoned village and a plush country-style hotel, play host to a...
Doing British Things In France
There are plenty of “British” things to do in France but you may have to be a little more imaginative as far as entertainment goes. A nice meal with a good bottle of wine is quite straightforward, but the stylish restaurant, even if there is one...
How to Pick a Vacation Rental
What you need to know about Vacation Rentals That time of the year is finally here. You know what I'm talking about, the one or two weeks you get every year to escape from "real life" and just be you. Relax, eat and drink well, enjoy your family,...
See the most beautiful places when you travel to Galapagos
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Why Use Priceline.com?
Why Use Priceline.com?
An Interview with Don Nadeau
Of BidonTravel.com
Rick Archer sat down with Don Nadeau, the president of BidonTravel.com , which provides Priceline bidding advice.
RA: Why would anyone want to use...
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What to Consider when Booking Business and Holiday Accommodation
When you want to make a reservation at a hotel, guest house, B&B
or resort you surely want to get the best possible accommodation
at the most reasonable rate. This article outlines some tips for
achieving this.
Booking accommodation - how to get the best room rates
What you need to keep in mind when you make your reservations is
how much of your money the accommodation establishment is going
to actually receive. If you book directly with the establishment
then they get all of it. The more intermediaries you use, the
less the hotel receives. The less the hotel receives the less
likely you are to get a room upgrade for what you have paid.
It is necessary to differentiate between the booking methods for
hotels versus smaller establishments. Let's start with hotels.
Booking Accommodation through a Travel Agent
To a greater extent hotels are part of large chains and when you
book such a hotel you have great convenience. Any travel agent
can book it; the chain no doubt has a central reservations
office, maybe per country, certainly a central reservations web
site. Travel agents no longer earn most of their revenue from
commissions on airline bookings. Their main sources of revenue
are commissions on hotel bookings and car hire apart from
service fees. The rate which a hotel publishes in its brochure
and on its website is its rack rate. Travel agents normally earn
a commission of 10% of the published rack rate. The central
reservations office of a chain also takes commission or a fee on
the booking.
The situation gets worse when you are booking a hotel in a
different country. When you contact your local travel agent that
agent may well deal with a wholesale travel agent in your home
country. Both the retail travel agent that you talk to and the
wholesaler take 10%. The worst situation of all is when the
wholesaler in your country deals with an inbound operator in the
same country as the hotel - all of them take commission. The
situation is similar when your booking is via the airline that
you are travelling on. Most airlines get commission on the
accommodation that they package. So you should not be surprised
if booking through your local travel agent for a hotel in a
foreign country gets you the worst room in the hotel at the most
expensive rate.
Booking Accommodation on the Internet
When you book on the internet you need to be careful of what
channel you are booking through. If you are on the website of
the actual hotel then you may have a choice of a real time
booking or sending an email. The real time booking engine on the
site may well offer commission to a third party or possibly only
a fee. Check out the email option and make sure it is being sent
directly to the hotel and not some other third party. That way
you are reaching the hotel directly without any third parties
involved to get commission on the deal. The chances are that if
the website is for the actual hotel all the contact details as
well as the address for the hotel will be shown.
Booking Accommodation Directly
Once you are contacting the hotel directly with no third parties
involved you are in a much stronger position to ask for their
best rate which may well be lower to you in place of the
commissions they would have paid to the third parties.
Next you have to look at when you are visiting. Is it high
season? The hotel can sell the rooms 5 times over. Then forget
it. However if you are contacting them very early when they are
not yet sure if they will have the kind of season where they
will be able to sell the rooms several times over you have a
better chance. It is not only the main holiday seasons that fill
up hotels. If you are going to a large conference then that is
an opportunity time too for the hotel to make some extra profit.
Don't expect any discounts.
Getting the Best Accommodation Rate
So to sum up: your best chances are to contact a hotel directly,
and if you are going to the place out of season, if you book
very early or arrive very last minute and fill a room that would
otherwise have been empty, those circumstances supply the
greatest opportunities for you to get your accommodation at the
best rates.
With independent hotels and the larger guest houses and
self-catering resorts the situation is similar but of course you
do not have a central reservations office.
Guest houses, self-catering and B&Bs do their pricing
differently. Many of them set rack rates that do not include
travel agents commission. If a travel agent makes a booking then
the travel agent has to add on his commission. For a once off
booking the seasonality factors apply and it is always worth
asking but their rates do not allow for a lot of discounting. Of
course repeat customers and long stays are often given
discounted rates so once again, do ask.
Accommodation Options
It is impossible to generalise when it come to accommodation
because there are so many different types of hotel experience
and so many different types of guest houses and B&Bs. It depends
on your reasons for travel, how many of you there are, the
location of the available accommodation in relation to where you
want to be and what price the accommodation is offered at.
Accommodation for Business Travellers
If you are a business traveller you may need a business centre
and meeting rooms. In this case a hotel is more likely to be
best for you. You are also likely to be booking through a travel
agent who can spend 5 minutes at her computer and the booking is
confirmed. Travel agents in general find it much more time
consuming and hence expensive to book guest houses and B&Bs -
they are unlikely to have an online booking system which means
you have to fax and wait or phone. Phoning the first time may
not result in a confirmed booking which adds to the travel
agent's costs.
Many business travellers do opt for guest houses and B&Bs.
Smaller places are more personal. You will be recognised by
someone who remembers when you were last there and can pick up
on the conversation with you. Price wise it is now no longer
that much cheaper in some guest houses than in hotels but the
personalised service and flexibility make it the desired
experience. Of course really good hotels strive for the same
level of personalised service but you need good record keeping
and technological back up for staff members just to be able to
call every guest by name and remember which rooms they prefer,
not to mention your particular breakfast order.
A Hotel - A Destination
A hotel which has a lot of facilities is a destination in
itself. It is an experience just to be in the space. That you
won't find with a guest house or B&B. It is a place to sleep and
eat but the destination is the area around you. Good guest house
and B&B owners and managers (only the larger ones have managers)
know about the area in which they are located and take the
trouble to help you find your way around or even to take you
around.
The distinction between top of the range guest houses and hotels
blurs in the case of boutique hotels. Many boutique hotels do
not have a lot of facilities and they may not be very large. But
the experience of staying there is special.
About the author:
Essential Travel Info is the largest online travel database in
South Africa. When you make a reservation enquiry via Essential Travel
it goes directly to the establishment and is free of any
commission. No matter where you are travelling, Easy Travel Info
will provide you with a host of destinations as well as quality
information backed by the AA.
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| Holidays on the Net - Welcome |
| Includes music, graphics, historical information, suggested activities, kids pages, links, and other features for most holidays. |
| www.holidays.net |
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| Kids Domain - Holidays |
| HOLIDAY FUN with crafts, recipes, printables, games and activity suggestions for your family to enjoy. |
| www.kidsdomain.com |
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| Earth Calendar |
| Every day is a celebration! The Earth Calendar is an online calendar of holidays and observances around the world. |
| www.earthcalendar.net |
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| Federal Holidays Calendars from 1997 to 2010 |
| Offers a list of federally-recognized holidays celebrated in the United States. |
| www.opm.gov |
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| TELETEXT HOLIDAYS : Cheap Flights, Last Minute Deals, Ski Holidays ... |
| Search for package holidays from over 250 tour operators, find last minute charter flights, ski holidays, snow reports, cruises, destination guides and ... |
| www.teletextholidays.co.uk |
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| Thomson.co.uk - Great Value Holidays from the UK's no.1 Tour Operator |
| Thomson Holidays Online offer cheap package holidays, flights, sun holidays, faraway holidays to exotic destinations, late deals, city breaks, hotel booking ... |
| www.thomson.co.uk |
|
| Holiday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| 4.1 Holidays traditionally in the winter holiday season ... Public holidays can be either religious, in which case they reflect the dominant religion in a ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Bargain holidays and cheap flights from Bargainholidays.com |
| Choose from 2 million+ late availability cheap flights and last minute bargain holiday packages departing from the UK. Order online from an ABTA bonded and ... |
| www.bargainholidays.com |
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| First Choice - Book your dream holiday online - Great value ... |
| Find great value package holidays online with First Choice. Book last-minute holidays, all inclusive holidays, family holidays and villa holidays. |
| www.firstchoice.co.uk |
|
| Holidays Around the World for K-12 |
| Holiday Internet links for US and international holidays, religious holidays, and a holiday calendar for K-12. |
| falcon.jmu.edu |
|
| Holidays - cheap holidays, bargain holidays and bank holiday deals ... |
| Book your cheap holidays and bargain bank holidays at lastminute.com. |
| www.lastminute.com |
|
| Cheap holidays and package holiday discounts - Holiday.co.uk |
| Cheap Holidays and package deals from all the major UK tour operators including Airtours, Argo, Avro, Balkan, Club 18-30, Cosmos, Crystal, First Choice, ... |
| www.holiday.co.uk |
|
| Virgin Holidays |
| Tour operator offering holidays to mainland USA, the Caribbean, the Far East, South Africa and Mauritius as well as a ski programme in California and New ... |
| www.virginholidays.co.uk |
|
| Saga Holidays, Travel Insurance, Short Breaks, Vacations, cruises |
| Specialists in providing travel services to people over 50. Details of river and sea cruises, resort holidays, tours, short breaks, special interest and ... |
| holidays.saga.co.uk |
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| Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators - Holiday Information |
| A categorized, annotated list of over 2500 sites to help educators, teachers, and parents enhance instruction and support the curriculum. |
| school.discovery.com |
|
| Queensland Holidays - Queensland Holidays |
| Queensland Tourism & Travel Advice - Find accommodation, events & activities as well as special packages & deals - Queensland Holidays. |
| www.queenslandholidays.com.au |
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| BBC - Holiday |
| Information on worldwide destinations as covered in the series, plus advice and travel information, presenters, message boards and postcards. |
| www.bbc.co.uk |
|
| COSMOS - Package Holidays, All Inclusive Holidays, Self Catering ... |
| Looking for cheap holidays online? COSMOS offer great value deals on package holidays, all inclusive holidays self catering holidays, villa holidays ... |
| www.cosmos.co.uk |
|
| Late Holiday Deals and Discount Holidays at DirectHolidays.co.uk |
| Book late holiday deals online at Direct Holidays - discount breaks to destinations around the world. |
| www.directholidays.co.uk |
|
| Contiki Holidays - Holiday packages for 18 to 35 Year Olds |
| Contiki Holidays offers holiday packages and budget travel tours for 18 - 35 year olds including destinations to Europe and the UK, Asia, Latin America, ... |
| www.contiki.com |
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