Hotels for Asia Cruise

[evelynborntoshop]

Has anyone used the site asiarooms.com to book hotel rooms? They seem to have very good rates although there is a fee for cancellations. We are looking to book rooms for the Singapore to Hong Kong cruise in January, probably Raffles the Plaza in Singapore and Intercontinental in Hong Kong. Evelyn and Dave

[A J Theodore]

Each of those can be booked directly by the hotel's own websites or by e-mail and, perhaps by 800 number as well. I would recommend doing this as you will be able to see what you can get directly for the best rates and can be sure that they give you exactly the room type and placement you want.

[greatam]

I will disagree on this with A J Theodore, although you normally provide first rate information. I cannot come close to the prices directly with the hotels as compared to AsiaRooms.

 

Examples: Beijing Hotel

$635.00-3 night package inlcudes breakfast and airport pickup

 

Same room-direct with hotel-$235.00 per night, no breakfast ($18.00 per day per person) and airport pickup-$35.00

 

Nan Hai Hotel-Shenzhen

1 nite-Executive Floor-AsiaRooms-$117.00, including breakfast for 2

Direct with hotel website and via email-$165.00, no breakfast

 

Peninsula, Bangkok

AsiaRooms-2 night package-grand deluxe room, with breakfast, skytrain passes for 2 days, high tea and airport pickup-$420.00

 

Direct with Hotel-$260.00 per night, and everything else was a la carte.

 

Leading Hotels of the World had a cheaper package by $20.00, but did not include airport pickup.

 

I have NOT stayed at these hotels booked through AsiaRooms yet. I just hope the reservations and arrangements are as good as the prices. I prepaid all hotels with a credit card fax directly to Bank of Asia. Will let you know when I return in November.

[makai 7]

Did your reservations work out as expected? We are planning a trip to Tahiti and their rates are much better than anyone else, but they have had a lot of complaints on some web sites.

 

Thanks!

[greatam]

Did your reservations work out as expected? We are planning a trip to Tahiti and their rates are much better than anyone else, but they have had a lot of complaints on some web sites.

 

Thanks!

 

Yes. The Beijing Hotel package was handled EXTREMELY well. And I sure saved a lot of money.

 

The hotel in Shenzhen was not handled well, but had NOTHING to do with AsiaRooms. The hotel upgraded me-gave me a suite. Should have been great, right??

No, all the suites look out over the pool/cabana area. I wanted the executive floor, as it looks directly out at Hong Kong Harbor. The day after I was there was the start of the largest Asia high tech conference in 2005, so the hotel was really overfull. I took the suite, but made sure the manager was well aware of my displeasure. AsiaRooms had no part in the hotel upgrade and the hotel did offer me a 50% discount on a future booking.

 

Peninsula in Bangkok-I changed the booking to Leading Hotels of the World. The hotel sent a car to pick me up and the price was only slightly more. I wanted Leaders Club benefits (upgrade and late checkout), so changing had nothing to do with AsiaRooms. AsiaRooms promptly credited back by credit card.

 

Since I posted in August, 2005, I have been back to China, Vietnam and Cambodia two more times-three times total since October 2005. I have run into a lot of people who used AsiaRooms and have not heard one complaint.

[Smiles3usa]

Did your reservations work out as expected? We are planning a trip to Tahiti and their rates are much better than anyone else, but they have had a lot of complaints on some web sites.

 

Thanks!

 

We used asiarooms.com for a hotel in Xi'an and Angkor Wat. Everything at both hotels went smoothly. Not only did we save substantially over the hotel's own website (Hyatt and Meriden, respectively) but a delicious breakfast was included in the rate we obtained. From what I have read, Asiarooms.com is not to be used if there is a decent chance that you will have to cancel the room--even folks who followed the procedures for obtaining refunds seem to have come up on the short end of the stick--and most complaints are about room cancellations. BTW, also be advised that just because asiarooms.com advertises a rate does not mean they have a room available at that rate. Sometimes it can take 2 days before they advise you if a room is available.

 

Enjoy your trip!