Doing Oktoberfest & some travellings - which website best to book hotels? Agoda?

[Froggy]

Anyone could recommend me the best website to use to make booking for European hotels? I tried Agoda but seems price a little high. I am looking for a very reliable website like Agoda.

 

[Froggy]

I just found a www.venere.com offering pretty decent prices. Anyone used this before? Is it safe and reputable?

 

[singham]

i think agoda is more suited for asia, btw, you can download expedia and tripadvisor on your iphone. have a good trip, bro! and dun forget field report be it you in paris or amsterdam.

I just found a www.venere.com offering pretty decent prices. Anyone used this before? Is it safe and reputable?

 

[GaoGaiGar]

You might want to consider booking.com, cheers

 

[Raiders]

You might want to consider booking.com, cheers

Yes, booking.com.

Agoda normally charges you full fees. If you suddenly face with a flood in Bangkok, cannot fly, then all money wasted.

Booking.com only reserves the hotel for you and you pay at the hotel.

 

[Froggy]

GaoGaiGar & Raiders, I'd made a booking with agoda before your replies about bookings.com. Price for the 3 nights stay with agoda is THB 32,278 while quoted by booking.com is THB37,600 that's quite a big difference of more than 5,000 baht or more than $200.

Anyway thanks very much as I will use this as a comparison.

Agoda


Booking

 

[rotikosong]

Looks like you've already booked but for future reference, use kayak.com to search.

It searches all the hotel booking sites from one interface.

Bo pian, if you go to oktoberfest and lagi, you want to stay near the Munich hauptbahnhof, rates will be at least double. People I know usually stay out of the city center e.g. Ausberg and take the train in to save on cost

 

[Froggy]

Looks like you've already booked but for future reference, use kayak.com to search.

It searches all the hotel booking sites from one interface.

Bo pian, if you go to oktoberfest and lagi, you want to stay near the Munich hauptbahnhof, rates will be at least double. People I know usually stay out of the city center e.g. Ausberg and take the train in to save on cost

I only booked my first stop Munich. Eurostar Book Hotel within 10mins walk to the Oktoberfest thingy. Still have another 12 days need to book will look into kayak.com. Thanks. Planning to go north after that then into Copenhagen and end up in Belgium for 3 night then fly back from Brussels.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

The only good thing about agoda is it let's you pay by paypal which i like cos you don't have to give your cc details all over the place and since it's thru paypal you can open a dispute if there is a problem and paypal is a better mediator compared to the bank or visa/mastercard etc.


Anyway agoda's prices are well actually i find on the high side not too much higher but definitely pricier than say hotels.com for example.


I think tripadvisor.com is a better site to look for hotel prices cos it actually isn't an actual hotel booking site but more like a portal that provides links to hotel booking sites like agoda, hotels.com, booking.com etc and also the pictures are more accurate since they are submitted by ppl actually staying in the hotels and not hired professionals that photoshop the shit out of the pics. Take a look at agoda's hotel pics and they are all enhanced to make the rooms and hotel facilities look better than they are. Anyway i have booked a number of times thru agoda so i have points i can use.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

GaoGaiGar & Raiders, I'd made a booking with agoda before your replies about bookings.com. Price for the 3 nights stay with agoda is THB 32,278 while quoted by booking.com is THB37,600 that's quite a big difference of more than 5,000 baht or more than $200.

Anyway thanks very much as I will use this as a comparison.

Surprised that agoda offered a much lower rate cos for me that isn't the case. Maybe it's a flash deal. Agoda offers some special deals where the rooms can come in very cheap cos of offers but no free cancellation.

 

[rotikosong]

I only booked my first stop Munich. Eurostar Book Hotel within 10mins walk to the Oktoberfest thingy. Still have another 12 days need to book will look into kayak.com. Thanks. Planning to go north after that then into Copenhagen and end up in Belgium for 3 night then fly back from Brussels.

Not sure if you're there for pleasure or work but I'd rethink spending 3 days in Brussels - it's just a lot of Euro government. If you have to be in Belgium, I'd go to Bruges (see the movie: "In Bruges") and stay a night. Or take the train (Thalys) west to Paris or east to Amsterdam for a day.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

Joe why not visit some exotic Eastern European countries like say maybe Ukraine or maybe Hungary.

 

[Froggy]

Jah actually whenever I book an unfamiliar hotel I will always use Tripadvisor as reference and read its reviews.

European trips I prefer to do neighboring countries and limit to mostly 2 countries so that we can have more time to learn each country. For this trip it's focus in Oktoberfest so we limit ourselves to Germany and travel north into Denmark and into Copenhagen. Belgium I agree with Rotikosong is not much so since its nearby we just go there for 3 days to buy some chocolate and enjoy its mussels which is in season at that time. After this trip I think no more Belgium la.

In fact Denmark could be just an option only too if my planning for Germany is full I will skip Denmark altogether and go straight into Belgium and leave Denmark for another trip with Sweden and Finland.

Next year's European trip had been fixed, Spain and Portugal only.

 

[Froggy]

Not sure if you're there for pleasure or work but I'd rethink spending 3 days in Brussels - it's just a lot of Euro government. If you have to be in Belgium, I'd go to Bruges (see the movie: "In Bruges") and stay a night. Or take the train (Thalys) west to Paris or east to Amsterdam for a day.

Its a holiday roti. Thanks for suggesting Bruges I'll surely put this in my plan. I've been to Brussels before and I agree nothing much. We'll be flying back from Brussels however I will never miss my favourite restaurants there Chez Leon and Aux Ames De Bruxxelles near the square.

 

[Froggy]

Rotikoson, can you believe this rate for car rental? Pickup car in Munich and return in Paris for 7 days so cheap? Any catch or not?



This is the result if I select the car

 

[rotikosong]

It looks good. USD528 for 7 days is not unreasonable. Works out to $75/day. I had thought it might be cheaper but Auto Europe is a reputable site

 

[Froggy]

It looks good. USD528 for 7 days is not unreasonable. Works out to $75/day. I had thought it might be cheaper but Auto Europe is a reputable site

Thanks for the reply roti. I was afraid there is a catch cos I find it cheap compared to renting a car in Singapore, very cheap indeed. I'm sure it'll cost at least $150 per day for a Corolla from Hertz.

 

[rotikosong]

Thanks for the reply roti. I was afraid there is a catch cos I find it cheap compared to renting a car in Singapore, very cheap indeed. I'm sure it'll cost at least $150 per day for a Corolla from Hertz.

Of course you know you cannot compare with Singapore. If you want cheaper around 30-40 euros/day, you can go with a 2-door, manual hatchback. In fact hatchback is a good idea because some roads in Europe are very narrow.

But you are already doing good on pricing - pickup and return in a non-airport location like Gare du Noord (the train station in Paris, must go and see inside, the Thalys and the Eurostar leave from here) will usually get you better prices.

Drive slow, be safe, and go round and round the Arc De Triomphe a few times

 

[neddy]

Since you are starting from Bavaria, have you drive on the stunning German Alpine Road (Deutsche Alpenstrasse) to Salzburg ?
Best driven in a convertible that you can speed. But the signposting can be improved, the fun is making the wrong turn and discovering some nice country roads.

Must see Konigssee, Neuschwanstein and Tegelbergbahn

 

[Froggy]

Of course you know you cannot compare with Singapore. If you want cheaper around 30-40 euros/day, you can go with a 2-door, manual hatchback. In fact hatchback is a good idea because some roads in Europe are very narrow.

But you are already doing good on pricing - pickup and return in a non-airport location like Gare du Noord (the train station in Paris, must go and see inside, the Thalys and the Eurostar leave from here) will usually get you better prices.

Drive slow, be safe, and go round and round the Arc De Triomphe a few times

Since you are starting from Bavaria, have you drive on the stunning German Alpine Road (Deutsche Alpenstrasse) to Salzburg ?
Best driven in a convertible that you can speed. But the signposting can be improved, the fun is making the wrong turn and discovering some nice country roads.

Must see Konigssee, Neuschwanstein and Tegelbergbahn

roti and neddy, thanks very much for the suggestions. I've taken note of these. If you have anymore lobang please let me know.