Booking Direct with Hotel

[Fullenglish]

Hi all,
Maybe I'm preaching to the converted. In which case please ignore this, but I had heard that it can be cheaper to book your stay at a hotel if you negotiate direct with the hotel. Well I found this to be true.
I booked our return trip to Pedi Beach Hotel at the same dates for next year and I have got a reduction in price by £22 from the price of 2016 hoiday.

[Adriana]

Aside from the possibility of getting a better deal, by striking up a personal relationship with the hotel as opposed to using an on line booking system they also know who you are, can answer your questions, advise you on ferries and are more likely to be able to help you if, for example, your flight is delayed and you miss the ferry and have to spend a night in transit. I get a lot of emails from people who have booked through sites like TripAdvisor or Bookings.com and then found that they have lacked essential information that they should have had to make an informed booking. Ticking boxes on line may seem quick and efficient but at the end of the day you can't beat dealing with a real live human being

[Fullenglish]

Adriana,
I have already got a deal direct with Pedi Beach hotel which is favourable on price which is also good because it is not subject to rates of exchange, but the snag is that they will want an electronic transfer of money nearer the time in 2017.

The other deal I have is with expedia.com for the same hotel which is £20 more than last year, is quite good but it was before Brexit. The advantage is that I can cancel one day before travel without paying any surcharge and claim the money back on my credit card should I need to, but that is hardly likely.

I'm not sure about the deal I've done directly with the hotel because the bank will charge me for the electronic transfer and it will end up a lot more expensive than my booking with expedia. Therefore the deal with expedia is probably favourable.

Phil

[Adriana]

When someone cancels a hotel room at the last minute in a small place like Symi it can really hurt as the hotels are small and there is no passing trade so the chances are high that room will remain empty. Losing a night in a hotel with 100 rooms or with all year round trade is a drop in the ocean. Losing a night in a hotel with 10-30 rooms is a significant dent in the hotel's income, particularly as the season is getting shorter and shorter due to lack of boats in April, May, early June and October.

By the way, the cheapest way to send money from the UK to Greece is through Royal Mail as they don't charge anything for the transfer. I can't remember now what the minimum amount is but a lot of our UK clients use that, or Transferwise. As we don't have card facilities at SVA all our payments are by bank transfer

[Fullenglish]

Adriana,
Thank you for that. I checked with the Post Office. If I did go this route then firstly I would have to set up an account to tranfer the euros over to the hotel.
It is also done on a live rate of exchange and at the time of enquiring it worked out almost three pounds more expensive than the set price with Expedia.com. So it mabe worth waiting for the a suitable exchange rate since I know the exact amount I will need to send in Euros.

I think that is called having your cake and eating it!

Phil