In Reply to: Please Be Very Careful ! posted by DonRon on Friday, 9. February 2007 at 21:38 Bali Time:
Having been in the travel business for many years I am probably qualified to comment on how the system works. Asia Rooms (and the majority of other wholesalers) do not have contracts with all the individual hotels they advertise, it would be impossible for them to do so. What they will have is access/arrangement with another wholesaler who has got a contract with that hotel. That is why on many requests you cannot get immediate availability. It is not always that they are asking the hotel for availability, but they have to get in touch with their 3rd party to see if they have any of their allocation available and willing to share the commission.
Clear I hope so. But just as an example I know that Asia Rooms use Asian Trails (Indonesia) for a number of their advertised hotels in Bali. So their price IS REAL provided they can get availabiliy.
By doing it this way individual wholesalers are better able to guarantee a hotel more room bookings and therefore able to drive down the price, rather than a whole shedload of wholesalers just booking a few rooms. Everybody wins, even the hotel who has guaranteed ^bums on beds^ and can better plan there other sales, internet direct etc.
Ron (using Caths sign in)