Nov 15 2008
Booking an Australian Hotel On-Line
Looking to book an Australian hotel on-line? First, unless you are travelling at absolutely busiest time e.g. Sydney at New Year you will probably find the best deals around a month to 3 weeks before you need the accommodation. This is probably because the home-grown site wotif has developed a great business by ONLY offering bookings within the next month.
With these sites you do get genuine bargains and they are legit - make sure you take the receipt with you though. The downside is that you have to pay for the accommodation in advance. Charges are made in A$ so regardless of your home currency make sure that you compare prices in A$. Of course if you think the $ is going to recover a bit then booking earlier means that you have also locked in the exchange rate.
Originally developed for locals looking for a weekend getaway this site is now worldwide but I have only used it for local bookings. You can only book 28 days ahead and restrict the search to weekends only. If you are not fussy about which property you stay at you can book the “mystery deal”. You restrict your search to suburb required facilities such as kitchen, broadband internet.
Part of the international hotelclub consolidator this site offers great deals and members get another few percentage discount to use on their next booking - which doesn’t need to be in Australia. The searching is poor and you have to scroll through screens if you have a specific requirements such as a kitchen or broadband. Although most properties are hotels also includes campground’s cabin accommodation and hostels (private rooms)
2 Responses to “Booking an Australian Hotel On-Line”
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Wotif.com definitely gets my vote. I’ve always found the information accurate and the rates very good. Naturally, you’re not going to find much (if any) choice on wotif.com if you’re travelling at the busiest holiday times in Australia - exactly when those are might be worth a post on its own!
It doesnt work so well in some small towns in my experience too - but we found a great deal in Sydney with them last year.