So I go check out a hotel to see the prices, my family is coming and I was gonna get them a room for a few nights.
The front desk lady tells me they charge per person and that it would be like 2.4万 per night for two people. I take a pamphlet and a memo of the price from her and leave.
I check Expedia and it gives me a flat price for 1.2万for two people per night. I reserve the room online and the fine print says it is the price for two people. Not per person. I know when I go to ryokans with my wife we pay per person, how come this is so wildly different in price?
Should I double check my reservation to see if two people are ok?
10 comments
That’s pretty normal. It’s called rack rates and it’s the rate they charge if you walk in off the streets. But many hotels now use dynamic pricing for their online bookings, so the price changes depending what the dates are and how far in advance you book, how well the rooms are selling as you get closer to the dates you want to book. If you booked through Expedia, then the hotel should honor the pricing. If you’re worried, try booking directly through the hotel’s website (but sometimes, it’s priced higher when booked direct).
Ryokans typically provide half board, which includes breakfast and dinner, so they list a person price because they include meals. Their prices also fluctuate based on season, holidays/weekends.
walk in prices in most hotels that are also bookable online via services like rakuten travel or etc are often quite different. I don’t know about 50% difference but it’s not impossible.
Say you have a hotel with 100 beds. If you just took bookings out the door and directly on your website or advertising yourself at the same price, you would be able to have 100 beds sold sometimes, sometimes 0. Depending on so many factors.
This is extremely risky as you need to pay staff and other things regardless of whether customers show up.
In comes Expedia. Expedia (and others) makes sure 60% of your beds will be booked. You give them a bottom rate, but they almost guarantee you will have 60% occupancy. You can still book 40% at a higher rate and make a higher commission but in the worst case you will at least be at 60% capacity.
Never hurts to double check, but it is not all that surprising.
whenever the hotel im staying at is completely booked in the company system i go to the desk and always get a room, usually double or triple the average online price.
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when you are there in person, they have less competition, when you are online, it is fierce…
It’s pretty much the case with anything right? If you go to rent a car at the desk it’s always going to be much more expensive than reserving it online. Pretty much anything I see in a department store I can get cheaper online.
As you said, just make sure it’s for the correct number of people, includes all tax and service charges, and is a comparable room. Even online you’ll get different prices at the hotel website, and at places like Booking.com, but sometimes directly from the hotel gave us benefits like free breakfast or use of certain facilities etc., whereas booking.com sometimes just gives barebones rooms which of course is fine if that’s what you want
Thats normal world-wide
In most cases, it is either cheaper or comes with better terms to book via Expedia (or one of their subsidiaries like Orbitz) than via a channel in Japan.
It can be stuff like two people being automatically included, cancellations being free, or breakfast being included for free (or like 500 yen extra per person).
If you are from the US (or not even) you can use Rakuten Rebates to get a ton of money back as well….
That’s normal. One time I needed a hotel for the night and they quoted a high price, walked out, booked it online on my phone for a higher price, walked back in and used my new reservation.
Online prices are often cheaper than booking in person. More competition online, so they can’t really charge more than other hotels. While if you’re there you’re not seeing the prices of other hotels at the same time, they have the opportunity to charge a higher price so they do.
Well you booked through a 3rd party. So at the cost of a cheaper rate – you are sacrificing a lot of customer service and flexibility.
If anything, and I mean anything happens with your reservation you are basically out of luck. It’s nearly impossible to change anything about a 3rd party reservation through say Expedia or whatever after you make it. At the hotel your reservation is the bottom of the barrel. If something is wrong with your reservation and you need it changed the hotel literally cannot help you, they can only refer to you back to the 3rd party who frankly just wants your money and they have no incentive to give you good service. Often times they’ll call the hotel when a guest wants a refund and the hotel sometimes will approve it, only to turn around and tell the guest “sorry hotel said no” and keep the guests money that the hotel gave back to the 3rd party.
If you booked a hotel for 2 people at that price and it states it in the reservation, then you are good to go.
How far in advance were you asking? If you walk in to ask, they may assume desperation/urgency and jack up the prices accordingly.