Unlike one of our members who is travelling within Tasmania in his RV & had a windy issue with his gazebo, we left our van back in Warrnambool & are staying in motels, houses, hotels, etc. I am finding it pathetic that our Aussie tourism businesses are being taken over by overseas interests. When we are looking for accommodation near XYZ town, we sometimes get pages of places or only one page - & it's all through various agencies like Wotif.com, Booking.com, Stayz.com.au, Lastminute.com.au, etc. Often there might be only two companies marketing a few places.
I was stunned a couple of nights ago when I booked a place (the cheapest rooms of four in a single floor of rooms). The cost was nearly $600 for three nights! Luckily I spotted the break down of the costs. The room was $445, then there was VAT (the overseas version of our GST) of 10% but then there was another 10% "City Tax". Googling City tax shows it is an extra cost on visitors to European countries as well as within the USA. Australia (I thought) didn't have this charge - so why do I have to pay it?
Unfortunately with the reduction of the use of Yellow Pages, etc, country hotels & motels are being pushed aside by these "easy to use" online mobs & we are the ones being screwed!! I wonder how many battling Aussies are aware of this issue?
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Warren
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If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!
A plague on all their houses, I say.
Had the misfortune to book though Wotif last year for a Dubbo Motel (1 week planned visit) - travel was stopped by NSW Premier's decree not to travel = Cancelled Motel with direct phone call to Motel - Wotif would not refund even though Govt directive, hundreds of dollars taken from our account.
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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan
Sent from my imperial66 typewriter using carrier pigeon, message sticks and smoke signals.
I would only use one of those booking sites if I really had no other option. I much prefer to use their search facilities, then call the accomodation place directly. I tell them where I saw the listing but that I prefer to book directly with them. Typically, that international organisation will mandate that the accomodation must never be cheaper than what is offered by them.
The problem is more and more people use them, so the poor accomodation provider who tries to do it alone does not get seen by those searching. So 70% after commission is better than 100% of nothing.
Weekend before last we were at an AirBNB at Mudgee, booked 12 months ago for a wedding weekend. 2 nights, 4 people and around 1268 bucks. We didn't pay for it, someone in the wedding family paid for it but the big thing was when reading the paperwork we were given, not anyone from Australia on it. Texas and Spain if you have any problems. And for an AirBNB, was dirty, taps not working properly, dishwasher full of green slime and doors not shutting, cobwebs everywhere.. Hope whoever paid for it complains
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Age does not weary us, makes us go travelling more
I see I'm not the only victim.
Are We Lost - I thought that I could go direct to the accommodation place a few times in these last two weeks but to find the direct phone number was almost (pardon - no 'almost') possible to find those numbers. In the good old days, we had the Yellow Pages but that source is drying up too.
We arrived on Bruny Island today & found far more 'holiday lets' available in the village we're booked in. The place we hired due to it being sold at the same time was put through the new owner (who lives on Sydney & bought it off the internet, unseen), so there weren't the extra fees as we had been looking at. It's a nice place but is above the dirt road where everyone zooms up & down with their rowdy cars, utes.
There are pros and cons for the owners - what my main grouch was the un-Australian taxes that we have to pay & lack of competition offered. I'll see what my local MP has to say about it.
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Warren
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If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!
Hi Possum,
Sorry I didn't get to respond to you last night - swmbo called.
I noticed when booking that most of these sites offered full refunds - only up to four days from booking. Too bad in our case where we were booking up to nearly three weeks in advance!! Fortunately everything has gone ok up to & including next weekend.
My daughter-in-law had a not so nice experience with AirB&B last year - it took her quite some time to get a partial refund. It appears that most of these internet crowd s are in there for a fast buck - what happened to the Aussie spirit?
We had a good trip today - on to the edge of the Great Southern Ocean, which today was reasonably calm with 20kts of wind, up to 1m of swell. See Bruny Island Cruises for details. Saw quite a few of pelagic birds on the way home.
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Warren
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If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!
You are much better to ring any motel direct. Firstly check prices through those booking apps etc prior to calling the motel direct. Talk to them and ask them for their best price as you do not wish to use a booking app. You will be suprised of the outcome. Also you will find you will get a better room this way. I know from experience that a lot of the motels will give you one of their "lesser standard" rooms if you are booking via an app. So ring them direct, tell them up front why you are calling direct and tell them you don't wish to book via an app/booking company. You will be suprised at the result.
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Cheers
Col
(Picture of my beloved Molly (2003 - 2016) who loved the travels as much as I do. RIP old girl. Gone but never forgotten).
