booking hotel direct

sunshine

Hi,

My head is spinning trying to find out information, so hoping someone can advise me. Been to Majorca for 3 years - once with TC and twice did DIY - using Travel Republic for hotels and booking low cost flights separately. This year it's cheaper to book hotel direct, therefore needing separate flights. Hotel is deposit of 25% and pay rest during our holidays. We do take out travel insurance that has independent travel cover on it. Am I better booking flights with flightline - therefore having their cover on top? Are Thomas Cook flight only covered under ATOL? It's a minefield trying to make sure I've covered everything, and I don't want to book anything until I'm sure. Thanks in anticipation

Susan1942

I almost always book my own flights whether with low cost Airline or main stream such as BA Singapore Airlines etc. I always pay by credit card
I book my hotels doing some research and looking at reviews on Trip Advisor. I have never chosen a hotel which did not meet my expectation. I will always look at the Hotel web site and see what sort of deal they would give me.
eg Last week booked a 5 * Hotel in Glasgow for 4 nights. Did the search through Trivago and Travelsupermarket but the hotel had a 15% discount for Autumn and I saved considerable as their rate was the best in any case.
I have booked a hotel in Barcelona for 2 nights next week. Booked through Otel and initially had some problems in getting the booking which had 10% discount to go through.
I always check out the Hotel to see whether my booking has gone through to them. Sometimes certain Booking Agents will only give the Hotel the names a week or so prior to travelling. I also will email the Hotel with any requests I have and thereby establish a relationship with them. This has stood me in good stead many times.
I do a lot of Cruising and most of the time I book Cruise only getting a good discount from my trusted TA which I have used now for many years. Flights hotels etc and any extra's I do myself. Not only that but I am often asked to book things for certain family and friends and I enjoy doing the ground work to find a really good hotel at a very good price! I will be a long time dead so as my Granddaughter says "Live your life when you are living"" Love it

Sue

moronic50

If you book everything seperatly you are not ATOL protected. I believe I'm right in saying ATOL only covers package holidays. As Susan1942 says book your flights by credit card, this covers you in the event of the airline going belly up, much like ATOL, expect to pay a slightly higher booking fee.

Are you planning on booking car hire too? If you are, you could book that at the same time as your flight (if possible). Then you have ATOL protection for those aspects of your holiday, since that is classed as a package holiday.

apt

If you are booking with a big airline with substantial reserves it's not going to go bust anyway. Thomas Cook comes into this category, even though it is currently making loses. If you book with a visa card you can claim a visa chargeback from your bank if the services you have paid for are not supplied. Paying by a credit credit card would give you even more protection if the flight costs over £100. So do you need ATOL if the supplier isn't going to fail anyway and if it did, the bank you return your money a lot quicker than relying on ATOL?

sunshine

Thanks for your replies. I spent last week narrowing down hotels to one we like and the best prices. As I've said booking direct is cheapest. I usually do flights myself anyway and pay by credit card. What confused me is we went into TA this morning to check their prices and she started on about not being covered doing it ourselves etc. I didn't even ask about price matching but the TA immediately got all defensive and said we don't price match with our web site (not TC by the way).

No we're not hiring a car, but will need transfers. Why I ask about TC flights being protected is that on Travel Republic if I do the flights, hotel and transfers using Easy Jet, then do it with TC flights, only the TC one has ATOL cover mentioned.

Sue, it's good to hear your experiences with booking hotel direct, any emails I have sent hotel have been dealt with efficiently and I feel encouraged to book direct with them.

isplumm

Hi,

I tend to use the cheapest method for the hotel - book direct or use someone like hotels.com. I don't tend to book package holidays.

Normally use cc for added protection.

Mark