How to pay with dreams on the island. Free hotels and for bonuses: the secrets of booking. Credit card requirements when booking a hotel
When it becomes necessary to finally get out somewhere in distant or not very lands, the question of accommodation arises sharply: in which hotel or hostel to stay, what conditions do they offer, so as not to miscalculate. Special sites come to help us - online hotel booking systems. There are a lot of them on the Internet now.
It is logical that tourists are looking for ways to optimize their travel expenses. I want to get good quality for the same money. Loyalty programs can be a good solution to the problem. hotel booking websites. They make it possible to book rooms in hotels around the world and receive bonuses and other privileges for this.
The competition is high: service owners have to come up with marketing moves to attract users. And this is a great option for us, dear travelers, because you can save a lot of your money. AND even stay in hotels for free!
Yes Yes! This is true! But there is usually something that needs to be done. In most cases, you can live for free when debiting loyalty program points (covering 100% of the cost of living). Sometimes it happens that a profitable promotional code appears with an indecent discount, and we, of course, will tell you about it 🙂
The information in this article will help you get the most out of your price by using loyalty programs sites for booking hotels, guest houses, hostels and hotels. In general, we share information on how to use award points, miles, nights to reduce the cost up to free accommodation. 🙂 By the way, accumulating these points is not so difficult if you carefully read and follow the advice from this article.
when searching for hotels, we try to optimize our time as much as possible, and therefore we use services where all the information on prices and conditions for the same hotel is collected on one page in all popular booking sites. After all, even paying with points often has to be less in order to live for free 🙂 This is a site.
We make a request and get prices for the same number from, and many others. We recommend using them every time you look for a profitable booking service.
Booking a hotel on Booking
What service most often comes to mind when we think about finding a hotel in Russia and abroad? Of course, ! One of the most popular online hotel booking services around the world.
The search engine database contains a really large number of offers not only of hotels and inns, but also of hostels and guest houses - everything that is so necessary for an ordinary tourist and on business trips. The strength of the service is the European direction (if you are going to Europe, then the choice of options for where to stay for the night will be quite extensive).
How to get 1000 rubles for Booking as a gift?
Booking service user Vitaliy shared with us a link that guarantees a cash reward 1000 rubles for the first booking from 8000 rubles in the equivalent of any currency. That is, in fact, this is a cashback for a purchase: you get a pending discount of 1000 rubles for staying in a hotel or hostel in the form of a separate payment. We also note that this is a promotion of the Booking service itself. They also pay money. Therefore, everything is reliable!
Booking: important information about the bonus of 1000 rubles
You can only get 1000 rubles once per account. If you have already received this bonus before and want to use the gift of 1000 rubles from Booking again, then register a new account (no sanctions will follow for this) and only after that follow the link and book your stay. In this case, use a new bank card to receive a reward. Otherwise, Booking may not pay you anything. After all, it will be very insulting, you must agree, therefore we warn you in advance.
To receive a bonus from Booking before booking a hotel just follow the link, and if the transition is fixed, then you will see a pop-up window: " Get 1000 rubles. (And don't forget to thank your friend)". Thank you in the comments to this article 🙂
Attention: it is very important to click on the link immediately before booking your stay, because otherwise the bonus is not guaranteed!
One more point: do not cancel your stay, otherwise you will cancel your bonus, and in order to receive a gift of 1000 rubles from Booking, you will have to register a new account. Please consider this! It is better to check several times whether you can really go, and only after that book.
An information window should appear after clicking on the link. But maybe just the information at the bottom of the page. Or a picture of a gift. This is a guarantee that you are doing everything right! Hurry up to book and get your 1000 rubles while the promotion is valid!
Money (cashback) will be transferred to the payment card linked to your Booking.com account (pay with real money!) within a month after eviction From the hotel. It must be a card Visa or mastercard(both credit and debit are suitable). You can pay at the hotel with the same, any other card or in cash. No difference!
The card linked to your Booking.com account is a guarantee that you will receive money ( cashback from Booking) after check-out from the hotel as soon as possible.
We confirm receipt of a reward of 1000 rubles from Booking.com!
Booking sends money by direct transfer to the card 2 days after check out from the hotel. Commentary of the Internet bank payment: BOOKING.COM, BELFAST, GB. The payment comes from the UK (Belfast city). At the same time, it lists Russian rubles. That is, there are no currency conversions. Feel free to link to your Booking account ruble map. Preferably Visa- money comes to her instantly(not always, but usually) mastercard money becomes available for spending within 3 days from the date of transfer(also not always, but, in general, such a practice).
Booking and Mastercard: a joint promotion
You can also get cashback 8% from the cost of booking with your card mastercard. To do this, make a booking using this link, check the box "I want to receive cashback" and save any of your Mastercard cards in your profile. Cashback will be credited within 64 days from the moment you leave the hotel.
Booking Genius: what is it and what discount does it give?
This is what a Genius discount looks like
Main bonus: genius traveler status (special premium service conditions + 10% discount on some hotels). The usual way to get it is from 2019 2 paid bookings(instead of 5), but you can get it for free thanks to a life hack (see below) 🙂
How much is valid: constantly.
It is not difficult to get it, especially considering the popular function "" - " Low Price Guarantee“, according to which you will be compensated for the price difference for the same room with another online booking service.
Try genius status from BOOKING for free:
As it appears, all new accounts on Booking.com get Genius status for a week for free. To do this, you just need to accept the invitation to try Booking genius status on the main page of the service.
Discounted AirBnB Coupons in 2019
Click on the image and get 2100 rubles ($33) as a gift for booking accommodation For a present! You can spend money immediately or wait (your bonus will be valid for a year).
The world-famous rental service "" can be very helpful when traveling around the world. The trick is that here you are not offered rooms in hotels and inns, but apartments and even entire houses for rent Worldwide. Accordingly, the price depends entirely on how much the owner will take. And you can often save a lot on travel.
In general, the service is convenient. Many people use it. It would seem, where does the loyalty program?
The fact is that the creators came up with a very cunning, but quite good benefit scheme for renting housing through this service. Discount can be obtained on special coupons. They are issued for a variety of reasons. However, there are also permanent promotions.
Airbnb coupon for new customers: a gift of 2100 rubles ($33)
We immediately want to warn you to register directly, as this is a direct path to pay for accommodation! And you need to do the following: there is a special promotion, according to which everyone new customers who register on Airbnb will be given a gift - welcome 2100 rubles for rent in the equivalent of any currency ( usually they give only 1500, but for our readers we managed to knock out an increased rate). This is very good, because it is on accommodation that a huge part of the budget is spent on trips.
Airbnb Coupon Applied automatically for the first booking from 4 500 rubles($72 or equivalent in any other currency). You don't need a discount coupon code, just . From the moment the new account is activated, it is valid year to any country. Can be used immediately. If you already have an account, but didn’t use the discount, it’s okay. In system you can have multiple accounts. It's not against the rules! So feel free to get your money for travel 🙂
NOTE:
the conditions of the Airbnb promotion often change in the direction of lowering the payout amount, so we advise you not to hesitate and rather, so as not to lose your 2 100 rubles. Fix the discount, and you can book your accommodation later, during the year.
Not enough of this? There is an opportunity to get more!
You can invite your friends and get extra from each booking 1,500 rubles each, and if your friend decides to go into business and publishes an advertisement for renting his property for tourists, then you will receive more 3500 rubles. All this money summed up, and they can be spent on any apartment or house rental. That's it!
There are also Airbnb permanent discount coupons, which will additionally help to throw off the price tag. You can try the ones in the Airbnb promo code that have an ending 2015 And 2016 (strange, but still working). There is another promo code PayPal2000.
Airbnb coupons for 2019. Universal. Can be applied to multiple countries.
Example: coupon POLOGNE2015(the price of housing is not less than $ 87) and NORVEGE2015(unlimited) will give you $11 discount for any booking in Europe and Russia. There is no official list, so substitute the names of cities and countries in French and knock out a discount by brute force. Most likely, in April it will be possible to use promotional codes with the names of cities already over 2019 .
This is a list of current Airbnb promo codes by city name (can also be applied to previously registered accounts). Now it's 2019. and they are still relevant.
Discounts are often sent via email, so be sure to sign up for Airbnb updates. We love the Airbnb system and maybe you will love it too!
Discount for booking a tour from Travelata
Convenient system for searching and booking accommodation. Even before the moment of payment, you will already know who the air carrier is, what parameters the hotel has, reviews about it from real visitors, and the availability of a transfer. And yes, in "" they guarantee that the cost of the tour will be same as tour operator. They say that even if you find more expensive, there you will get a price reduction! When booking a tour, you can use promo codes to get a discount.
In particular, right now you can get a promotional code at discount 500 rubles when ordering a tour from 30 000 rubles. promo code NICE2MEET - you just need to enter it in the appropriate form when you make a reservation.
Loyalty program "Islet: bank of dreams"
The housing booking service "" is quite popular in Russia and in the CIS countries. Its main focus is the domestic market, but you can book accommodation in other countries.
Main bonus: "dreams", they can pay for hotel stays. That is, it is completely free to live in hotels for dream points 🙂 They are easy to save and spend. If you paid online, then the dreams become available for spending 5 days after check-out, if at the hotel, then after 60 days.
How much is valid: no more than a year.
The Ostrovka loyalty program is more interesting than that of , because it allows you to accumulate points (here they are called “dreams”) in order to later spend them on accommodation at the rate of 1 ruble discount = 1 dream. What is interesting - you can write off bonuses fully (100% of the hotel value for points) or partially. Even cheap hostels! Just imagine: you don’t have to pay money for a hotel! Spend the accumulated "dreams" and live for free! If saving is difficult or long, then get a discount for dreams! Everything is quite simple. This is what we like about Ostrovka. 😉
You can get your first "dreams" right now: quite simply - 100 dreams. Install the mobile app and get 400 more dreams. For each hotel booking through "" you will also receive dreams. If you write a review about the place you stayed, Ostrovok will reward you 100 points. As you can see, accumulating points is quite convenient, simple and fast. However, the validity of dreams - 1 year from the moment of accrual. The maximum limit for the accumulation of "dreams" during the month - 5000 .
The bet is:
accrued 2%
"dreams" from the cost of booking accommodation, and 4%
can be obtained if you pay for your stay online - on the website in 90 days before check-in, or book in « mobile application» ( don't forget about 400 welcome dreams just for installing this application on your gadget).
Note:
for new users, an initial spending threshold is set (you need to accumulate a minimum 1500 dreams to write them off to the hotel). In the future, the restriction will be lifted, and it will be possible to spend from 500 dreams. They can pay up to 100% of the cost of living (not in all hotels, but in most places it is possible). That is, in fact, to live for free in hotels, hostels, hotels for dreams 🙂
Free hotel booking on Agoda for bonuses
Strong side "" - Asian countries. The largest number of proposals is presented in this region, but this does not mean that if you need another region, then you do not need to look. On the contrary, you can often find even lower prices for the same rooms.
Main bonus: accrual of miles for more than 20 airlines of the world (there are no Russian airlines in the database), you won’t be able to live in hotels for free, but you can fly on airplanes 🙂
How much is valid: See the conditions of the airline whose points you are receiving. 🙂
The service has a kind of loyalty system PointsMax. Here you are offered not free nights, but airline points! Yes Yes. "" has an extensive catalog of bonus miles. We list only the most "fat" offers: topbonus Air Berlin, Iberia Plus, FlyingBlue (KLM + Air France), British Airways Executive Club, American Airlines (AAdvantage), AsiaMiles, Quatar Privilege Club, JetPrivilege, China Airlines, Velocity Frequent Flyer.
Points are credited one month after check-out from the hotel directly to your airline's bonus card. Be guided by the rules of the air carrier in order to have time to use them. In general, Agoda is doing well in this regard - it implements an atypical direction of the loyalty program, and they are doing it well.
HOTELS.COM: free hotel nights (Rewards)
Dial 10 days for a year and get 1 free night. It can be spent on free booking and accommodation in any hotel that offers "Hotels".
Another, albeit less popular, but interesting booking service is. It is mostly known abroad, but it has an extensive base of hotels, inns, hostels and guest houses. The site for online booking is used daily at least 10 million users around the world (in the database over 275,000 hotels).
Main bonus: One free night for any 10 bookings.
How much is valid: during a year.
For a domestic traveler, "" is an excellent alternative to the main competitor. Here you can often catch good discounts on the same rooms that are presented on Booking, and it's great to save money. Note that there is also a program Best Price Guarantee“: Compensate for the cost of living (We, by the way, took advantage of it! Recommended).
When using promo code ADMOCT- gives an additional discount 7% for any booking (until January 31, 2017).
The highlight of the service is the bonus program "", according to which you can get free accommodation in one of the hotels of the world of your choice. According to the conditions, in order to receive this gift, you need to book at least 10 nights. It can be a day both in a separately selected hotel, and in others. It is important to do this within a year, otherwise accumulated nights burn down. Naturally, any booking must be confirmed 😉
The cost of a free night will be formed based on the average cost of the previous 10 nights. Please note: it taxes and fees will not be included(They need to be paid separately!). Free night can be spent on any date.
Hotels.com promo codes
On this booking service, you can also use promotional codes that give an additional discount and benefit when checking into hotels. We have tested the following: RU1150 discount 1 150 rubles for bookings from 9 000, RU3580 discount 3 580 for bookings from 25 500 rubles. And RU5700 discount of 5,700 rubles for bookings from 38,000.
Promo codes are temporary. Some of them may no longer work, but you can always test any for free. We will be glad if you share with us relevant information about which Hotels promo codes work, and also send us your finds in the comments to the article! Thank you 🙂
Bot abnormal prices for air tickets
We have tested it and now use it regularly. Very comfortably! The New Year holidays are coming soon, you can fly somewhere very profitable 🙂 The service is provided by a company - an air ticket search engine with good experience in this area. In addition, we attach a video that clearly shows how the bot of abnormal prices for air tickets works.
Discount coupons for hotels, hostels and guest houses (2019)
In this subsection, we will collect for you all currently relevant coupons from various hotel booking sites. These services may be unknown on the market and may not even have loyalty programs, but their promotional codes and coupons allow you to really save money and even live for free around the world.
Get 1000 rubles in cash as a gift for any booking on Booking from 2000 rubles!
Users of the service can save a lot of money by booking hotels through each other's affiliate links. You just need to follow the link and book a hotel . Can return 1000 rubles for booking. The Booking service will pay you money after check-out from the hotel. Pays directly to the card that you link in your account. Live money! In the article just above, we provided such an economical one. It is not known how long this promotion will last! You have to take advantage of it 🙂
Promo code from OneTwoTrip
The hotel and ticket booking service offered its visitors a profitable promotional code in 2017 EAH3LL0W33N. This code allows you to get 1000 rubles as a gift when booking a hotel through this service. The hotel must be booked for the amount from 5000 rubles. Can be applied to any date.
Also within the site operates bonus program, which allows you to save and spend points ("tripcoins") on your travels. A very nice savings opportunity!
You can also buy a ticket or book a hotel in interest-free installments for 3 months on service for free map "". In the velvet season and during the winter holidays, it is especially relevant 🙂
How to competently search for hotels through booking services?
Now we will share with you a very useful life hack, which we ourselves actively use and recommend to you. 😉 Going through each booking service is, of course, interesting, but at the same time quite tiring. It is much more efficient to immediately find out prices and living conditions on most sites for the selected hotel or hotel in one go. Fortunately for travelers, there are special services where this can be done easily and naturally: for this purpose, we invariably use the site (Hotelluk search form at the bottom of the article).
We make a request and get on one page the prices for the same room from, and many others. Beauty! 🙂
When you find the best offer for the price of the desired hotel, continue to follow the instructions in this article to get more benefits from loyalty programs 😉
All of the above loyalty programs for booking services are perfectly combined with cashback on Visa and MasterCard payment cards. If you have a card that will accrue cashback (especially an increased one for travel), then you can and even need to use them when booking hotels.
Loyalty programs can greatly simplify the life of a traveler and save a lot of money. We have tried in this article to collect as much practical information as possible about all the benefits of booking hotels around the world "wisely". Congratulations! Now you are a professional traveler!
An important point: we are not official representatives of the sites that we write about in the article, so if you have a question of an individual nature (for example, problems with logging into your account / not receiving bonuses or money / identification, etc.), then it is better to ask them directly to service providers.
Were we able to open the topic? Share your opinion, question in the comments to the article. Let's help, tell us more, discuss!
Did you travel a lot in 2017? Personally, I have already had to travel around Russia 4 times, in particular: Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. Moreover, this year I went to Moscow for the 4th time. When making the first trip to the capital, it became necessary to book a hotel, since we had to live there for almost a week. Among the huge mass of official websites of hotels and hotels, I came across an interesting and convenient hotel booking service - Ostrovok.ru, which, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. Without further ado, I will say that the service is really convenient and has a number of advantages: 1) Prices for Ostrovok.ru are lower than on the official websites of hotels (although not very significant, but it's better than paying the full price). 2) Payment for the booking can be made by using the special currency "Dreams" in the ratio of 1 dream = 1 ruble. In fact, with the accumulation of the required number of Dreams, payment for the reservation can be made up to 100% of the cost. To be honest, I have always loved such services that charge internal points for using their services. 3) As a safety net, Ostrovok.ru offers everyone an additional service - the "Calm" package, which is useful for those who, for example, are traveling somewhere for the first time and are very worried about their booking. If you activate this service, the Ostrovok.ru manager will contact the hotel and check all the details of the booking and inform you, as well as perform a number of other useful functions. 4) As it was indicated on the site - when booking, you are shown the final cost for the entire period of stay. It really is. All 4 times I paid once directly when booking and that's it. Ostrovok.ru has other advantages, but I have listed the main ones above. In addition, in early December, I went on a business trip to the Russian capital and after returning, the accounting department demanded documents confirming my stay at the hotel. This issue was resolved within 2 days. We called the Ostrovok.ru help desk and we didn’t even have to fully explain the situation - we were immediately informed that the accounting documents would be sent by the Russian Post and duplicated by e-mail (since the hotel was booked through a third-party site, the hotel itself does not issue any documents). The service staff is very friendly (without false modesty), they know what the client needs. This means you do not have to hang on the telephone line for hours, waiting for you to be transferred from one manager to another! In addition, when booking my first trip (July 2017), Ostrovok.ru, together with the hotel, provided me with a luxurious room for a price that is almost half the real cost of a room of this category. This is taking into account the fact that in the summer everyone goes on vacation and the demand for hotels is actively increasing. We have not booked abroad yet, but I hope it will still be)))
In Europe, payment for services by card has long been the norm, but a Russian person always has questions: How secure is this payment method? Can I pay by card in rubles? Why does the hotel need card details if the reservation is free? Why is money sometimes withdrawn when booking for free? Which card is better to pay, debit or credit, Visa, MasterCard or American Express? How to indicate card details if the surname and name of the owner are not indicated on it? Do I need a fully paid hotel bill to get a visa? In this article, we will explain why such situations can arise.
So, let's look at each question separately.
Is it safe to pay for a hotel reservation online? It is completely safe if you make a reservation directly on the hotel website or a trusted search engine site (aviasales, hotellook), - the main thing is to make sure the secure connection settings (the image of the lock in the browser line). Also, for the security of payments, we recommend activating the "Mobile Bank" service, which makes transactions only after confirming the password sent to your mobile phone in the form of an SMS message.
Is it possible to pay bills in euros in rubles? Yes. Please note that always paying for purchases with a card in rubles, currency conversion takes place at the bank's internal rates, which may differ slightly from the official rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation plus 1-2% commission of the payment system.
Why does the hotel ask for all card details even with a free booking? First of all, it is necessary to confirm your solvency. Thus, the hotel checks whether the card is valid, and the booking system can also check the balance on the account, whether the amount necessary to pay for the stay is available.
Why is money sometimes withdrawn when booking for free? This may be one way to check if the card is valid.
More often payment pre-authorization carried out in three ways:
- debiting the cost of one night's stay from the card and returning it in a few minutes;
- blocking funds on the card to pay for one night's stay (in rare cases, the entire amount is blocked as a reserve (deposit), and its release occurs at the time of cancellation of the reservation, if you decide to change the hotel);
- no action is taking place, that is, for preliminary authorization, the system had enough data from your card.
What is the difference between a debit card and a credit card? Which one can be used in Spain? Both, but preference is still given to a credit card.
We all know that a debit card is a card issued to use your account, often referred to as a "salary" card. A credit card is an opportunity to use a loan, the amount of which is set by your bank. Almost all credit cards have a grace period of payment, paying accounts payable during this period you do not pay interest for its use, that is, as a client you will not notice much difference.
What is the best thing to use when booking? Credit card.
First, some banks have special fees for converting currencies from debit cards.
Secondly, when checking the balance on the card at the time of pre-authorization of the payment, with credit cards, the procedure for pre-authorization of the payment is simpler, rarely with the withdrawal and return of funds to pay for one night of the hotel, usually the system simply receives confirmation of the available limit. In a word, European companies are more loyal to credit cards than to debit ones.
What should I do if the owner's data is not indicated on the card? Cards that do not contain the owner's data are called non-embossed. Usually these are credit cards issued by banks as an additional bonus to their customers, or express credit cards where customer personalization is not provided. When filling out the booking form in this case, you enter in Latin letters the surname and full name of the cardholder yourself.
MasterCard, Visa, American Express - what is the best way to pay for a hotel reservation and which card is better to take with you? A few years ago, the main differences between Master Card and Visa were different exchange rates. For Master Card cards, the main currency was the euro, for Visa - the dollar. When paying for services in euros from a ruble Visa account, rubles were converted into dollars and dollars into euros. Now there are no fundamental differences between them.
We would especially like to note that American Express is a less common payment system due to its rather expensive annual maintenance, but it is thanks to it that American Express is considered one of the most reliable systems in Europe. You yourself can cancel your payment in disputable situations, for example, if the airline where you bought the ticket went bankrupt, and the refund procedure is a very long process (alas, we had a similar experience while traveling in Russia).
Do I need a fully paid hotel bill to get a visa? No, it's not necessary.
When booking a hotel, you need to consider two factors: you can book a hotel and pay for the entire stay at once, or simply make a room reservation, with payment on the spot upon arrival.
With a regular booking, the price may be slightly higher than with a direct payment, but in this case you have a number of advantages:
- by tracking the prices of offers of other hotels, you can find better price / quality closer to the date of the trip;
- by taking out travel insurance, you reduce the insured amount;
- without travel cancellation insurance in case of visa refusal, you simply cancel the reservation.
We draw your attention to the conditions of the reservation, whether the cancellation of the reservation is paid or free. Usually, free cancellation of the reservation is possible up to a day or three days before the date of the intended entry, depending on the conditions of the hotel. If this condition is violated, the hotel may deduct from your account an amount equal to one night's stay.
What should I do if money was withdrawn from my account during a free booking and did not come back?Please read the terms and conditions of the booking again.
If the booking was free, you must contact the customer service center (contact details are indicated on the sites) to clarify this issue. In practice, 90% of such cases, unfortunately, are inattentive reservations, but the technical factor cannot be ruled out either. In case of illegal debiting of funds from the account, their return takes only a couple of days.
Publication date:
2013-07-05 The information in the article is periodically updated, now it is relevant as of August 2016
Greetings tourists and travelers! In this article, we will dwell on the question of how to book a hotel on your own. There is nothing difficult in this. First, it is important to decide what type of number you want to receive. Next, you need to learn the difference between booking systems and hotel search engines.
Hotel booking systems- Huge catalogs containing hundreds of thousands of hotels. There are at least a few dozen such systems. The largest brands in the Russian-speaking market are such brands as booking.com, ostrovok.ru and agoda.com, and the leader of the international market is the same booking.com (expedia.com, hotels.com and venere.com are close to it). As you can see, we have already counted six systems, although there are others that are not so popular, but this does not mean that they do not have interesting proposals. Therefore, in order not to visit every booking system (in the hope of finding the best price), special hotel search engines appeared.
Hotel finders- aggregators that search for hotels using booking systems, compare and select the best offers so that the tourist can make the final choice faster. That is, search engines are not engaged in the provision of booking services - their job is to search and compare hotels. The booking procedure itself takes place on the corresponding website of the booking system. There are only two similar Russian-language hotel search engines - roomguru.ru and hotellook.ru. Naturally, their use allows not only to significantly save time, but also to book hotels cheaper.
Room rate
When looking for a hotel room, pay attention to any information, especially the text in small print. Be careful, some online hotel booking systems indicate the cost of rooms without taxes and fees. Such tricky rates are very common with agoda.com and hotels.com. To find out the real cost of the room, you need to start the booking procedure, but stop at the stage of entering bank card details (if you need personal data, you can enter obviously incorrect ones).
Cancellation of hotel reservation
Booking a hotel online does not exclude the possibility of refusing a room. If canceled in advance, the service is free of charge. However, if there is little time left before check-in (usually 5-10 days before check-in), then the tourist must pay a cancellation fee. There are options when the date is set on the penultimate day of arrival. It is these booking conditions that are most in demand among experienced tourists. The amount of the fine, as a rule, is equal to the cost of one night's stay at the hotel.
Booking special offers for a discount or promotion
Such offers are always attractive in terms of cost, but they include two serious drawbacks - the need for full payment at the time of booking and the inability to refuse the booked room. What is the risk? You may be denied a visa, you may cancel your vacation, or other circumstances will arise that are beyond your control, which means that the reservation will turn into money down the drain. By agreeing to a special offer, you must be 100% sure that the trip will take place.
Separately, we draw the attention of novice tourists, who, as a rule, do not distinguish a special offer from a regular one. You can regularly come across topics on travel forums where one or another booking system is condemned for refusing to cancel a booking. We explain. Even if you read NNNNN.com does not charge any change or cancellation fees", this does not mean that the rules of the reservation system do not state the following " the cost of the reservation is refundable if you cancel it no later than X days before the date of arrival, provided that your reservation is not marked PREPAID / NOT REFUNDABLE (Prepaid / Non-Refundable)". The term "PREPAID / NOT REFUNDABLE" is the nuance.
Hotel booking payment
When paying for the booked room, two options are possible: prepayment (that is, payment at the time of booking) and payment upon accommodation (on the day of arrival or on the day of departure). At the same time, for a booking that is paid upon the fact of accommodation, such a forced measure is applied as blocking a certain amount of money on a bank card (in order to verify the intentions of the tourist, as well as guarantee payment for a possible cancellation of the booking). Once again, we remind you that prepayment and blocking are two different things. Prepayment is the debiting of funds from the tourist card, and blocking is the “freezing” of funds, which will later be “unfrozen” and returned to the account within 5-30 days (depending on the bank). The conditions and amount of the blocking amount are determined by each hotel individually (as a rule, the amount is equal to the cost of one night's stay). Blocking times also vary - sometimes it falls on the day of booking, and sometimes it happens 5-10 days before arrival. In some cases, the hotel may block a symbolic amount (for example, 1 euro), just to check if the bank card of the future guest is valid.
- booking.com - booking system, payment in which takes place upon accommodation;
- agoda.com and hotels.com - booking systems that require prepayment;
- ostrovok.ru is a booking system in which the client can independently choose one of two options (the difference in price is 3-15%).
Of course, experienced tourists prefer to pay for hotel services upon accommodation. This gives much more freedom, and most importantly, the opportunity to leave the hotel or get a discount if the living conditions and service do not meet the declared level. What awaits a tourist who has already paid for accommodation? Maximum - cordial and sincere apologies for the inconvenience. There is no question of any compensation or the possibility of returning your money in order to settle in another place. The hotel staff is well aware that a tourist flying away in 7-10 days simply will not sue. Having made an advance payment, you will have to be content with what you have chosen. Although, there is a remedy for this - do not take the time to study the reviews and comments about the hotel on the Internet. Look at the search results for photos of the hotel and its rooms. Some tourists even use Google Maps' Street View service to "wander" around the hotel. .
Important! Prepayment does not affect the right of the tourist to use the cancellation of the room reservation. The conclusion from the conditions of prepayment, payment and blocking of funds on a bank card is as follows - carefully read the conditions for booking a hotel online (if you do not know a foreign language well, use only Russian-language services).
How is payment on the fact of residence
You can pay for hotel services in cash or by credit card. However, there is a nuance here regarding the part of the funds that were blocked (frozen) as a guarantee. Sometimes this is a relatively small amount, and sometimes it is a very solid one. The inconvenience lies in the fact that you need to pay for accommodation services in full immediately, and the blocked amount will be returned only after a few weeks. For a tourist who often has a shortage of funds at the end of his vacation, this can become a serious problem.
An excellent way out of this situation is to write off the blocked amount in favor of the hotel with an additional payment of the remaining part. However, be aware that hotel employees are absolutely not obliged to do this. You can only ask for it in the hope that they will come into your position. In rare cases, such situations can go to extremes. For example, when the full amount for accommodation has been blocked and is waiting to be unlocked (according to the rules of your booking), and you must pay for the room separately. Of course, the blocked amount will be returned sooner or later, but how inconvenient it is to feel “no money with money”.
Russian-speaking support service
For novice travelers, we strongly advise you to book hotels only on Russian-language sites. This way you can significantly reduce the chance of missing important details. Even more significant is the presence of a round-the-clock Russian-speaking support service, which you can call not only while at home, but also Abroad. As a rule, if a tourist has real difficulties, then this happens at the time of arrival / departure. That is why we recommend booking.com , ostrovok.ru and agoda.com . With them, you can always tell about what happened in your native language and not worry about solving the problem that has arisen.
A good support service is also the main argument in the age-old dilemma (but only for novice tourists) of how best to book hotels - using the booking system or on the hotel's official website. At the same time, keep in mind that the second option can only occasionally cost you less, since almost all hotels sign agreements with booking systems, according to which they are required to adhere to a common pricing policy.
Regionality of different hotel booking systems
Some online hotel booking systems differ in that they focus on one of the geographic regions. It is from them that you can find the largest database of hotels in a particular country. For example, venere.com specializes in Italy, hrs.com in the Benelux countries, agoda.com in Asia, sawadee.ru.com in Thailand, expedia.com and hotels.com in the United States.
Hotel Booking Confirmation for Visa
Confirmation of the booked hotel room is necessary, first of all, for issuing a visa (if the country has a visa regime). It may also come in handy to explain the purpose of your visit when crossing the border.
For an embassy (consulate or visa center), it is best to receive booking confirmation by fax, since not all such representations trust to accept e-mails. It is recommended to first enter the names of all persons requiring a visa on the hotel voucher, and then ask the hotel to send a fax on company letterhead. In rare cases, the embassy may request confirmation of the prepaid hotel room.
Booking confirmation for hotel check-in
After booking a hotel room, the tourist receives a special hotel voucher(hotel voucher). It is available in your personal account on the website of the booking system, and is also sent by e-mail. Be sure to check every item on your hotel voucher. If you find any inaccuracies, please contact support. Some experienced tourists advise to write a letter to the hotel 7-10 days before the trip to clarify whether everything is in order with your booking.
When checking into a hotel, only the booking code is important. It is not necessary to print a hotel voucher, but it is necessary to have access to it electronically. If the room is not paid for, and you plan to check in late, notify the hotel manager about this (otherwise your absence may be mistaken for a no-show, and the room can be given to another client). To do this, write a letter, or even better - make a change to your booking (there is a corresponding field). The length of time during which the tourist is obliged to check into the hotel is indicated in the hotel voucher (for example, "Check-in YYYY-MM-DD from 14:00 - 00:00").
Best Price Guarantee
The realities of the modern struggle for the client are such that almost all hotel booking systems provide the best price guarantee service. Of course, it has a lot of conditions and different “ifs”, but they are quite feasible. The standard sentence goes like this: if you have booked a hotel room through our website and then show us that you could book the same room, for the same dates, but at a lower rate that is available to view and book on another website, then we. ..
- ...we will provide the same price» writes booking.com;
- ...we will offer you the same price or lower» lures agoda.com ;
- ...we will pay you triple the difference in the cost of the room or provide this room at the lowest price» ostrovok.ru promises.
Bank card security when booking
Passing your bank card number and CVV code from the online booking system to the hotel makes your card vulnerable. It is a fact. As an example, here is an excerpt from the booking.com rules. What does it threaten? - in hotels, especially mid-level ones, information can easily leak. Therefore, we advise you to open a separate card for bookings, and transfer funds to it only as needed.
excerpt from booking.com rules Another important nuance. In those rare cases when the client has indicated an erroneous card number or CVV code, the hotel, not worrying much about the safety of the tourist, informs about the incident in a regular letter and asks for the correct card number and code in the response letter. You shouldn't do this. Reply that you would like to be sent a special secure link for entering data and transferring them over the secure HTTPS protocol.
Credit card requirements when booking a hotel
- the card must be a higher level than VISA Electron or Maestro;
- A prepaid or blocked card may be asked to be shown at the hotel. This rule has long been outdated and rarely used, but in theory it is still in force, so be sure to take the card with you (even if you expect to pay for your hotel stay in cash);
- it is allowed to use a third-party bank card (for example, when booking several rooms at once with one card), but read how to do it correctly (otherwise you may violate the previous paragraph). Previously, in such a situation, it was necessary to present an “authorization letter” (a simple formality);
- you must use a card that expires after your stay (even if the terms and conditions clearly state that there will be no prepayment or hold). An expired (not valid) card may be the reason for the cancellation of the reservation.
Financial responsibility of the tourist after booking a hotel
On travel forums, you can regularly come across interesting questions about what threatens to provide an “empty” bank card in cases where a hotel must write off money. Without going into the ethical side of the issue, we will answer that, at the request of the hotel, the bank can write off the payment even from a debit card with a zero balance. After the card goes negative, the bank will make a claim personally to the client. In practice, such a development of events occurs extremely rarely, only in cases of penalty payments (for example, for not showing up at the hotel). As a rule, if the booking system was unable to write off or block funds, this turns into a nuisance for the tourist - the reservation for a hotel room can be canceled.
How to book a hotel yourself
So, finally, we come to the most important thing - independent online hotel booking. You have long decided on the type of hotel room and know what to look for when choosing a hotel and booking conditions. Now open both hotel search engines at once - roomguru.ru and hotellook.ru to compare the current offers of all major booking systems. Then proceed as follows:
- Fill in the hotel search form (indicate the city, number of guests, dates of arrival and departure).
- Refine the search result by adding sorting by different categories (price, star rating, area, type).
- Carefully examine the search results after entering different categories. For convenience of perception, they can be sorted. The hotels that you liked the most, check the reviews on the Internet. Be sure to pay attention to whether the number is subject to cancellation and under what conditions.
- Choose a room and start the booking process. Fill in your personal data in English (full name, email address, phone number), and also indicate your bank card number and CVV code (sometimes not required).
- Check for confirmation by e-mail. Also, a hotel voucher becomes available in the personal account of the booking system. Check in detail the accuracy of filling out the voucher.
Useful resources for tourists
roomguru.ru and hotellook.ru - hotel search engines, search through different booking systems and compare results, helping to find the best deal
aviasales.ru and skyscanner.ru - air ticket search engines, free from the need to view the site of each airline separately
booking.com is a world leader in hotel booking, distinguished by high quality of services, transparent prices and prompt support service
Every passionate traveler participates in one or another aviation loyalty program. For example, I have cards of the three largest air alliances in the world - Star Alliance, SkyTeam, Oneworld. For all of them, I collect miles during my trips, which, upon reaching a certain level, can be spent on free tickets, a class upgrade, and partner services.
What is the situation with hotels? Many people simply look for a hotel (for example, through booking.com) and book it without the possibility of some kind of cash back. So, the team of the Ostrovok.ru online hotel booking service came up with and launched an unusual loyalty program - dream bank. They asked me to sort it out. Let's try to do it together, see how to use it and what advantages a solo traveler can get when booking hotels.
Step 1. Hotel search and booking. We go to the service website, log in through our favorite social network or register in almost one click: enter the email address and instantly get a password for it. Then, as usual, enter the desired direction, dates in the search field and find the hotel using various filters. Ostrovok is not a meta search engine for hotels: search, booking and payment are made here, on one site.
The number of so-called dreams that will be credited to a personal account is indicated next to the cost of the hotel.
For one booked night, depending on the cost of the hotel, you can get from 100 to 300 dreams. 1 dream is equal to 1 ruble.
We book a hotel, we receive a confirmation of the reservation by e-mail along with an electronic city guide. Everything is as usual.
Step 2 Travel. At the second step, we go on a trip, get a lot of impressions and watch real dreams, spending the night in hotels, for example, such:
Step 3. Crediting points to your dream bank account. Dreams are credited to the account after a trip of four to forty days.
When 1500 dreams accumulate on the account, they become "colored", i.e. from that moment they can be exchanged for rubles / coupons and spent on partner sites. Everything is simple. In addition, Ostrovok promises to give away two Mercedes rides from an Uber partner. Other partners in the infographic:
Minuses:
- Unfortunately, dreams cannot yet be spent on booking hotels through the service itself, but the development team promises to include this feature in the near future.
- It can take up to 40 days for dreams to be credited. It all depends on how quickly the service receives confirmation from the hotel. Always want faster.
Pros:
- Unusual and fresh idea of the loyalty program.
- The bank's project has just been launched, and in the program you can already find a number of interesting partners from whom you can get discounts and gifts for dreams. The project team promises even more: "In the near future, the company plans to launch the second phase of the program, in which customers who travel a lot will have access to exclusive benefits, such as VIP exits at Moscow airports, participation in private events and other pleasant bonuses."
- The possibility of cash back, which is usually not available on hotel booking sites.
- From 100 to 300 dreams / rub for one night - this is very good, up to 10% of the cost.
Outcome: Now, when booking hotels on a well-known online service, customers will receive points equivalent to rubles through them and can use them to buy goods from partner companies. Despite the fact that after the trip you need to be a little patient to see your points on your account, the program is interesting and worthy of attention. In fact, nothing has changed in the usual process of booking hotels, only additional bonuses have appeared. And it's always nice to get a discount or a gift!
Friends, travel wisely, it's very simple.
