[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] The Amazing Race 14, Episode 10 (China, and online hotels)

[Edward Hasbrouck]

This is a long article with lots of links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001678.html

If you aren't interested in China, and prefer to skip to the directory of 
recommended hotel and accommodations booking Web sites:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001678.html#hotels

Previous column on how online hotel discounting works:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001669.html

Complete index of columns on this season of "The Amazing Race":
http://hasbrouck.org/amazingrace14/index2.html

=====

The Amazing Race 14, Episode 10

Guilin (China) - Beijing (China)

The latest two-part episode of "The Amazing to Race 14" was spent entirely 
in China, punctuated by advertisements from online travel agency 
Travelocity.com for discounted hotel rates, and for part of the time with 
the teams of racers required to carry half-meter (18") high Travelocity 
mascot dolls with them through the streets.

Which gives me two things to talk about: travel in China, and online hotel 
discounts .

In my previous column I talked about the "merchant model" of hotel 
discounting, how it works, and how and why it has developed since 11 
September 2001. Finding hotel discounts is, however, as much about finding 
the best-value hotels (and knowing where to find them) as it is about 
finding the lowest prices at those hotels.

Most travel in the USA -- and for that matter in China and many other 
countries -- is domestic. Online travel agencies based in the USA 
typically have quite limited listings of hotels in other countries, 
especially outside the biggest cities and the destinations most visited by 
travellers from the USA. In places where USA-based Web sites list only a 
few hotels, these are likely to be the most expensive hotels in town.

This is why, outside the First World and unless you insist on five-star 
"international" hotels, the best hotel values are rarely found on the Web 
sites of companies based in the USA. You'll find more options, including 
many more lower-category hotels, on local and regional Web sites like 
those listed below . 

Both business and leisure travellers have cut back on their spending (if 
they are still traveling at all), and are staying in less expensive 
hotels. As each group of travelers downgrades their accommodations, that 
leaves the highest vacancy rates at the most expensive hotels. As a 
result, the largest dollar and percentage discounts are currently being 
offered on four and five-star hotels.

Even in the most expensive big cities around the world, you can currently 
find at least a four-star hotel room, and often a five-star one, for no 
more than about US$100 per night -- the price point being advertised most 
heavily by Travelocity during "The Amazing Race 14". That's what I paid 
for four-star hotels in London and Brussels in recent months (although 
through Hotwire and Priceline, not Travelocity), even during the busy 
Easter travel week in London, a normally expensive city where rooms would 
have cost twice that much a year ago -- or this year if I'd been a walk-in 
guest who didn't haggle and paid the rack rate..

But what's the best value for you depends on your destination, your 
budget, and your preferences. In a less pricey destination, or if your 
standards aren't as high, you may get a better value, even with less of a 
discount (or none at all), at a three-star hotel for US$59 such as 
Travelocity switched to advertising this week.

Many of the fittings and components that go into a hotel in the USA are 
made in China. They're cheaper at the source in China, as is the labor to 
assemble them into a hotel. Even before the current wave of discounting, 
you could get ample comfort, comparable to the facilities of a four-star 
hotel in the USA, in any city in China (including little-touristed 
provincial cities of "only" a few million people) for no more than half of 
what similar facilities would cost in the USA.

The teams in "The Amazing Race 14", for example, changed planes in 
Guangzhou without leaving the airport. What would it have cost them to 
spend the night?

Right now, the semi-annual Canton Trade Fair is entering its third and 
final week. It's the world's largest trade show, where 200,000 buyers from 
around the world descend on Guangzhou ("Canton") to place their wholesale 
orders with 20,000 Chinese manufacturers for tens of billions of U.S. 
dollars worth of every conceivable type of export goods.

Normally, hotels in Guangzhou triple their prices during "trade show 
season", and are fully booked weeks in advance. Rates double and hotels 
fill up in Dongguan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and throughout the Pearl River 
Delta as well. I was in Hong Kong a year ago, just before the start of the 
Canton Trade Fair, but couldn't afford the hotel prices to stay there once 
the flood of foreign buyers began to arrive.

This year, attendance at the fair is down along with exports from China, 
and buyers are cutting their own expenses by making their visits to 
Guangzhou as brief as possible.

With the Canton trade fair still going on, you could get a room tonight at 
the Customs Hotel , my favorite boutique hotel on semi-pedestrianized and 
relatively peaceful Shamian Island, ideally located in the center of 
Guangzhou, for CNY435 (about US$64) including taxes, fees, and breakfast, 
through Ctrip.com. Last year during the trade fair this same hotel was 
charging almost US$150 per night. Check out the room photos if you haven't 
been in a Chinese hotel recently. (Some hotels, naturally, use misleading 
photos or exceptional rooms in their ads, but these are true to my 
experience of this hotel.) A computer with high-speed Internet connection 
and flat-panel monitor is provided free for guest use -- subject to the 
filtering of the Great Firewall of China, of course -- on the desk in each 
room, among other amenities. Next week, after trade show season, prices go 
back down to their usual CNY277 (US$41) for a room with two twin beds, or 
CNY346 (US$51) for a king room.

Prices are similar on eLong.net -- always check both Ctrip and eLong 
before booking any hotel in China, as there's no clear pattern to which 
has better rates or lists which hotels. These are also the two best Web 
sites for booking domestic flights within China. (See my previous articles 
on flights and train travel in China.)

If you prefer a larger hotel where there's a better chance of finding a 
staff person who speaks English, the four-star Guangdong Victory Hotel 
nearby has a range of room types available at similar prices.

If that's not deluxe enough for your tastes and budget, there's the White 
Swan Hotel just a few blocks away, also on Shamian Island. Once the most 
prestigious and expensive hotel in the city, it's lost some of its U.S. 
business since the U.S. Consulate, formerly next door, relocated to a more 
secure fortress further from the city center. While the White Swan has 
been upstaged by several newer high-end hotels, they are mostly in 
business neighborhoods less attractive to tourists. So what's the price of 
five-star high-rise luxury in the best tourist location in town? CNY678 
(US$99) during the trade fair, CNY574 (US$84) at other times, half what it 
cost a year ago.

You can find similar deals today throughout China. Speculative real estate 
investment in new hotels has been as widespread in China as anywhere else, 
and was boosted by exaggerated expectations for an Olympic tourism boom 
that didn't materialize or persist after the games. The global economic 
crisis has impacted not only Chinese exports and business visits to China 
by foreign buyers, but domestic travel by the new upper class of Chinese 
whose wealth and ability to afford those hotels came from export-oriented 
businesses whose sales have plummetted.

China offers exceptional value, this year more than usual. If you've been 
putting off a trip to China, now is the time to go. I expect that the 
Chinese economy, and Chinese hotel occupancy and rates, will recover 
sooner than the USA or Western Europe. For more, see my previous articles 
on communicating in China; navigation, logistics, and hotels; and recent 
changes to Chinese visa rules. (More background on the visa changes here. 
The key new rule that remains in place is that you can't get a Chinese 
visa in Hong Kong any more unless you live there. You have to get your 
visa in the country of your citizenship or residence, before you leave for 
China.) 

The cheapest and best-value accommodations, in China or anywhere else, 
aren't necessarily in hotels at all. (Although three-star hotels in China, 
or the USA, cost hardly more than two hostel beds.) Across the street from 
the White Swan Hotel, you can get a dorm bed in the Guangzhou Youth Hostel 
(all ages welcome) for CNY60 (US$9), a single room with private bath for 
CNY138 (US$20), or a room with a double bed and private bath for CNY178 
(US$26). Riverfront double rooms with views on the upper floors are only 
slightly more.

In other places, apartment rentals are better value than hotels, even for 
stays as short as a week. Last year in Buenos Aires, we spent two months 
in a one-bedroom top-floor apartment in a high-rise sliver building with a 
doorman, a block from the Subte in the Palermo district. It currently 
rents for US$285 a week (equivalent to US$41 per night), fully furnished, 
including all utilities (cable TV, high-speed Internet, etc.) and weekly 
maid service. By the month, it's even cheaper, of course. That's a price 
in line with the local market: there's a glut of condos for rent to 
foreigners by local people who took out mortgages denominated in U.S. 
dollars before the Argentine Peso collapsed in 2001-2002, and who are 
desperate to get enough rent (in dollars) to keep up their payments. 
Meanwhile, with tourism to Argentina booming but little local capital 
available for new hotel construction (and foreigners scared to invest), a 
good hotel room in such a great location would be likely to cost more than 
twice that much, for much less comfort.

Regardless of where you find what seems to be a good deal on a hotel, 
always check directly with the hotel, to see if they'll match the price, 
before you make your reservations through an agency or intermediary. 
Anywhere in the world, all else (including the price) being equal, it's 
better to make your reservations directly with the hotel, for two reasons:

First, there is much less risk of showing up to find that the hotel has no 
record of your reservation, which is always a risk when you book through 
any intermediary. Even if you make your reservations online, that doesn't 
mean they're instantly or automatically transmitted to the hotel or 
entered into its own room inventory management system. Frequently, 
bookings made through online travel agencies are transmitted to the hotel 
by individual faxes, which can easily be misplaced or overlooked by front 
desk or reservations staff. Whenever possible, print out your reservation 
confirmation to show to the hotel when you check in. If that's not 
possible, be prepared to show the front desk your confirmation on the 
screen of your laptop, or in a pinch to use their computer, or go to a 
cybercafe, to show them or print out an e-mail confirmation.

If you made your reservation through an agent or intermediary, and the 
hotel has no record (or an erroneous record) of your booking, your 
ultimate recourse is with the company with whom you have a contract (and 
in whose name your credit card was charged, if you paid in advance). In 
most cases, especially with discounted or merchant model hotels, that's 
the company behind the Web site, not the hotel. If you can't tell before 
you confirm your reservation who to call, at what phone number, if you 
show up late at night at the hotel and they say they've never heard of 
you, that's not a Web site you should be using to make your booking. 
Always write that phone number down, and be sure you have it handy when 
you try to check in.

Second, making your booking directly with the hotel means that the hotel 
gets 100% of your payment, rather than as little as 50-60% if you book 
through some discounters or packagers. Hotels don't necessarily treat you 
differently depending on how much you've paid, but those that do are 
guided by the amount of revenue they receive (the wholesale net price paid 
by the discounter, packager, or tour operator), regardless of how much 
it's been marked up for retail sale to you. Some hotels will give you the 
best room available after they've accommodated higher-paying customers, 
while others will assign you to the worst remaining room, no matter how 
many rooms they have empty, in the hope of getting high-paying last-minute 
walk-in customers for their better rooms. In my experience, this is the 
sort of decision in which front desk staff tend to have a lot of 
discretion. So if you booked a room at a deep discount, it's especially 
important to be on your best behavior when you check in. If you have a 
confirmed reservation, you are entitled to a room. Anything else, or any 
better than the worst room in the house, is at the hotel's discretion. 
Demands or argument will be entirely counterproductive.


Here are some of the online sources I use to look for deals on 
accommodations in different parts of the world, to supplement the general 
advice above and in my previous column :

Hotwire.com
The first place I usually look for hotels in the USA, or business hotels 
in major cities in Western Europe, especially when I'm travelling on 
business and/or with a car, and thus don't care as much about the exact 
location of the hotel as when I'm on vacation and on public transit. Not 
much use in the rest of the world. Like Priceline, Hotwire gets lower 
wholsesale rates from hotels because they hide the name of the hotel until 
after you've paid. Usually you can figure out which hotel is being offered 
from the list of amenities in the hotel description, the number of 
TripAdvisor reviews, and by using BetterBidding.com to see which hotels 
other customers have gotten recently in that category and location. Never 
use either of these Web sites, however, unless you are genuinely willing 
to accept any hotel in that area and approximate category. Usually the 
cheapest hotel is cheapest for a reason: maybe it's under renovation, or 
maybe it's just changed its affiliation form one hotel chain to another. 
Hotwire is a division of Expedia, but its hotel listings and prices are 
completely different from those on Expedia.

Priceline.com
Watch out! For the hotels in the USA and Western Europe on which it has 
discounted prices, Priceline typically has the lowest price through it's 
"name your own price" scheme -- but only if you don't bid too much. 
Because Priceline makes you make the first offer -- the worst possible 
negotiating system for the consumer -- it's easy to offer more than 
necessary, giving Priceline a windfall profit. Never make an offer on 
Priceline without first checking the lowest prices for hotels in the same 
category and location on Hotwire. BetterBidding.com also has bulletin 
boards of other travellers' bids and which hotels they got. If you have 
time to make several bids -- you can make a new one each day, if your 
initial bid is too low -- start about 20% below the lowest price on 
Priceline, and work up gradually if your initial bid is rejected. It's 
harder to guess in advance which hotel you'll get with Priceline than with 
Hotwire. I've often been guessed correctly with both, but you shouldn't 
count on any specific hotel with either. Only the "name your own price" 
hotels on Priceline are worth bothering with -- the other hotel listings 
you get if you start with the search form instead of clicking first on 
"name your own price" are at the same prices you can get directly from the 
hotels. Not much use outside the USA and Western Europe. More about 
Priceline hotel bookings here .

Expedia.com
Expedia's standalone hotel or standalone airfare prices are generally poor 
compared to what you can find elsewhere (although generally better than 
those on Travelocity or Orbitz), but Expedia's prices for "packages" in 
the USA are often quite good, if you need a car or flight in addition to a 
hotel anyway. Especially useful for business trips in the USA, when you 
can get a "vacation" package including discounted airfare without needing 
advance purchase or a Saturday-night stay. Expedia has integrated the 
hotel listings and prices from its Hotels.com division into Expedia, along 
with Expedia's package prices, so it's generally a waste of time to check 
prices on Hotels.com if you've already done so on Expedia. Not much use 
for anywhere outside the USA -- yes, it has some listings, but usually not 
many and not at preferred prices.

Booking.com (a division of Priceline)
Venere.com (a division of Expedia)
Despite having been acquired by online travel agencies in the USA, these 
two European hotel booking agencies remain largely separate from their 
parent companies' USA Web sites. The prices on these sites aren't always 
less than what you can get directly from the hotels, but they list many 
quite adequate 2-star (and sometimes below) hotels, including traditional 
European budget hotels with shared bathroom and toilet facilities, that 
you won't find on USA-based hotel booking sites. And of course they let 
you book hotels throughout Europe in English, even at places where not 
everyone who answers the phone speaks good English.

LateRooms.com
One of the largest online agencies for discounted UK hotel bookings, both 
in London and throughout the country. Hotels in the UK that participate in 
Hotwire or Priceline, especially those affiliated with USA-based chains, 
may offer better deals through those USA-based agencies than through this 
or other UK agencies. But LateRooms.com has a much wider selection, 
including fully-furnished "serviced apartments" that you can rent for as 
little as a two or three-day stay, and 2-star and below hotels and B&B's 
that aren't listed on most USA-based Web sites. Prices vary widely, from 
deep discounts when rooms are still unsold at the last minute to well 
above rack rate during peak travel periods or special events.

LastMinute.com
A division of Travelocity. The LastMinute UK site offers "top secret 
hotels" (like the offerings from Hotwire, with which you should always 
compare them) and other discounted hotels in the UK and elsewhere in 
Europe. The quite different and less useful USA site "US.LastMinute.com" 
(formerly "Site59.com, which I've written about before), offers mainly 
packages in the USA.

Ctrip.com
eLong.net (a division of Expedia)
Taregtted primarily at Chinese domestic travellers, but with English-
language interfaces (and, one reader commented recently in my blog, 
adequate English-language telephone customer service, which didn't used to 
be the case) so you can get the same prices as locals, even if you don't 
speak Chinese. Be aware, though, that these sites list many hotels where 
few of the staff -- sometimes none at all, or sometimes only one or two 
members of the staff who aren't always on duty -- speak English. You 
shouldn't have any trouble checking in if you show your passport and a 
printout of your confirmation, but don't expect an English-speaking 
concierge or an easy time explaining complex service requests if you can't 
make yourself understood in Chinese. More in my earlier article about 
dealing with these Web sites and communicating in China.

International Tourism Center of Japan
International Tourism Center of Japan (ITCJ), also known as the Welcome 
Inn Reservation Center (WIRC), operates both an online English-language 
booking service for accommodations throughout Japan, and hotel booking 
counters at Narita (Tokyo) and Kansai (Osaka) airports and a few other 
locations. It was established on the instigation of the government's Japan 
National Tourist Organization (JNTO), "to help individual overseas 
travelers who have difficulty in finding reasonable accommodations in 
Japan because of the language barrier". It's a way for Japanese hotels to 
fill their empty rooms without undercutting the higher prices they offer 
domestic Japanese customers, since the service is only offered in English 
and only to travellers with non-Japanese passports. Listings include a 
wide range of Western and Japanese style hotels, B&B's, and hostels, in 
all price ranges. As with Ctrip and eLong in China, many (but not all) of 
these are places where few, if any, of the staff speak English, so be sure 
to bring a printout of your confirmation to show when you check in.

Wotif.com
Wotif has more than 80% market share in Australia and New Zealand as an 
online hotel booking agency. If a hotel in Oz says their lowest prices are 
"online", that almost invariably means that they are on the hotel's own 
Web site and/or on Wotif.com -- you rarely need to look anywhere else. 
More than once last year in Australia, I walked into a hotel, was quoted a 
price, then sat down in the lobby or went around the corner to a cybercafe 
and booked the same hotel for that same night for less on Wotif.com. Of 
course, that only works on dates and in places when there are plenty of 
empty rooms -- Wotif.com won't accept reservations more than a month in 
advance.

BYTArgentina.com
Well-established locally-owned reservation service for accommodations for 
expatriates and foreign visitors in Argentina, mainly furnished apartments 
in Buenos Aires for rent by the week or month. There are agencies like 
this in many cities and countries, typically with many more listings and 
better customer service in-country than international Web sites. The 
difficulty is in finding them, and figuring out which are reliable (and, 
if you don't speak the local langauge, which are able to provide services 
in English). If you have recommendations of agencies like this that you've 
dealt with in other countries, please share them in the comments.

HIhostels.com
IYHF.org
Hostelling International / International Youth Hostel Federation claims to 
be the world's largest accommodations provider, and definitely offers the 
cheapest reliable accommodations for solo travellers in many expensive 
world cities. (Couples can often, although not always, find a hotel room 
for not much more than the price of two hostel beds.) "HIhostels.com" 
offer online booking for HI hostels in major international gateway cities 
and some other destinations. "IYHF.org" links to member associations 
around the world (such as HI-USA), which sometimes list additional hostels 
is less-popular destinations that can only be booked by phone or e-mail.

Hostels.com
Hostelworld.com
Online booking agencies for private hostels, as well some bottom-end 
budget hotels that compete with hostels for business, or in places where 
there are no hostels. Both these Web sites list some HI hostels, but if 
you're booking an HI hostel it's best to do so directly through the HI Web 
sites above.

Hostelling-Russia.ru
Russia-Hostelling.ru
I'm not sure what distinguishes these two rival organizations, both of 
which claim to be the HI affiliate in Russia and which list many of the 
same member hostels. The important thing is that you need confirmed 
reservations at approved accommodations, or a local sponsor, to get a visa 
to Russia. If you reserve a bed at one of these hostels, they can sponsor 
you (more or less legitimately) for a Russian visa, for much less than the 
cost of pre-booking a hotel.

DirectRooms.com
AsiaTravel.com
AsiaRooms.com (TUI Travel)
I haven't used any of these three services (unlike all the rest of the Web 
sites listed above), but they all seem to have a pretty good selection of 
hotels in Southeast Asia (and to a lesser extent in the rest of the 
continent), at reasonable rates. I haven't usually found it necessary or 
desirable to book hotels in advance in most of these regions, especially 
in South and Southeast asia, but these can at least give you some idea of 
what to expect. All three of these Web sites are operated by travel 
agencies and tour operators. Don't be surprised if the hotel has the 
reservation held in the name of the agency or operator, not in your own 
name. DirectRooms and AsiaTravel are both owned and operated by agencies 
in Thailand, and have more smaller and lower-priced hotels. AsiaRooms is a 
service of mega-agency and tour operator TUI Travel, with more emphasis on 
higher-end "international-class" properties.

For more options, such as listings of home and hospitality exchange 
services, see the resource guide in "The Practical Nomad: How to Travel 
Around the World". Remenber that many of the best values are at places 
that aren't listed on any Web site, and that when there are lots of places 
nearby that all have empty rooms, the lowest prices are often those 
negotiated in person, on the spot. 

Bon voyage!


----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
(4th edition 2007)
"The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace"
<http://www.practicalnomad.com>

Around-the-World and multi-stop international air tickets:
<http://hasbrouck.org/tickets/>