Online bookings

I spent most of yesterday evening trying to book a short break for next year in Scotland. I visited several well known hotel booking sites and found the whole experience very annoying.

With all the sites, you have to input the dates you want to travel just to be told that they are not available. Would it not be better to list the dates that ARE available rather than those that are not?

Theoretically you could try every week for the whole year without success, whereas if they told you they were fully booked, you would try a different hotel.

I even tried the Hotel's own website but that was the same. I have decided the best way is to ring them.

So much for online booking.

Re: Online bookings

I agree with you, I always ring.

But with good B&Bs there will often be an availability button you can click to see if they have rooms for when you want.

Re: Online bookings

Thanks ruthio.

I didn't notice any availability buttons but I might have another look. I get the feeling with these online booking sites that they just want you to book somewhere, even if it's not where you want to go.

I have booked the cinema online in the past and it's good. You get a seating plan and you just click the seats you want. They are then held for a few minutes so that you can book.

Re: Online bookings

Few booking sites are perfect.

I recently attempted to book my twixtmas break online but they showed no seating plan for the coach. It's imperative that Tony has a seat with the most leg room on account of his arthritic knee so I abandoned the idea of booking online & phoned them instead.

I have however booked our independent holidays when we go by car quite successfully using booking.com

Only one time was I not satisfied with a hotel booked through them and booking.com refunded me their booking fee which I thought was a nice gesture.

Re: Online bookings

I've booked lots of holidays and short breaks online in the past and never had a problem. Recently however I have heard of so many people who have booked online and then found that the holiday is non existent and they have lost their money. I'm now a bit concerned and will only reserve with recognised holiday companies. Maybe I'm being over cautious?

Re: Online bookings

You are not being over cautious Summer you cannot always trust these sites.

A lot of the properties do have an availability calendar for you to click on, others prefer you to ring them directly. Which ever way you should always receive confirmation of your booking and I would always follow it up with a phone call just to be on the safe side.