1

I dont know about Asia but I had really good places to stay thru www.Airbnb.com

You can filter for a private room, prices were really good and dealing with the owners was painless.

2

For all levels of accommodation, I have always had good service from wotif.com . I have used the n Australia and Europe, and they were excellent when I had to cancel due to the Iceland volcano.

3

Hihostels.com cheaper on their site I think than if through another service. I have heard that many hostels reserve some beds for those who show up at the door. .....sometimes though this is at a higher price. I used to use Hostelworld a lot....cheap hotels as well as hostels......but now I like using hostelbookers.com because there is no cost to me and therefor I do not need to worry about a credit card bill showing up at home while I am away or need to do internet banking on strange computers.

4

just join iyha your worries will be over not cheapest hostel but certainly well run i found. no surprises as to conditions .easy done on line

5

I find agoda.com fantastic for Asia, and their prices beat the others hands down. They are also very helpful with after-booking information should you need any.

6

Thanks Whatsoff
Could you pls give more details in your "They are also very helpful with after-booking information should you need any."
what is the scope of their "after booking information"?
Thks

7

NG @ #6: As Agoda books hotel rooms only they do not offer other services such as arranging for airport pickup, contacting hotels to let them know of late arrivals, all that sort of stuff. I booked a room at a hotel in Narita, Japan, through Agoda (super price deal) but then discovered I was landing so late I wasn't sure my pre-paid room would still be available. I contacted Agoda and they sent me a link to the hotel (that for some reason I couldn't find via Google), I was able to e-mail the hotel to advise them that I might be booking in late. I also asked the hotel about transportation to the hotel but got no reply. So I e-mailed Agoda again and they sent me a detailed list of the free shuttle bus services from Narita airport, both terminals, including bus times. It was more useful than the one I found through Google (don't remember the differences now, though). What surprised me most was their quick responses and they also followed up with e-mails to make sure I got all the information I needed.

So, I was impressed. Having said that I've only used one other hotel booking site before, don't remember which one, and was not overly impressed. This was for an overnight stop in Houston.

8

i never went through agencies since 66 just iyha online for hostels however if hosteling not for you quite a crowd out there with there hands out. never been interested in 3rd worlld countries enough panhandlers where i live as it is.

9

poppageorge,
Those listed in OP aren't agencies. They're booking sites.

I've used a few of those when going for NYE, when I know places get fully booked. Those booking sites are also good if you want to book an apartment.
Recently I used agoda.com in Japan. We were going to a place where there was only one youth hostel. Since we knew how Japan was expensive we didn't want to miss that opportunity. We stayed there a couple of days.
But, then we moved to little guest house that wasn't listed anywhere. The price was the same as at the youth hostel, but we could negotiate and got a good discount. You don't get discounts neither you can negotiate with booking sites. So, that's a disadvantage when using booking sites.

10

Thank you 'whatsoff' for your discourse on 'after booking information' , which builds my confidence in using Agoda..

11

You can always try the hostel/hotel tab on this Lonely Planet website - it's always worked well for me. (And no, they haven't paid me to say that!)

12

I used agoda.com last year for Malaysia- Malacca, KL, Kuantan. Since then, I have been receiving their weekly newsletters. In general, it seems to me they deal more with the smaller/cheaper hotels and hostels rather than the four and five star, although the KL one was definitely five star. Maybe it is just because I booked hotels in Asia, but the hotels in their newsletters seem to have a weighting towards Asia. The three hotels I stayed in were all OK- nothing flash, but a clean room, which was all I wanted. All the booking arrangements worked OK. I would use them again.