Jyoti Bhatia sat down with Pritpal Singh saini, the CEO of Bid2travel.com, which provides bid2travel bidding advice.
Q.: Why would anyone want to use Bid2travel.com?
A.: You'll save a lot of money (up to 60%).
Q. Is there any particular time hour when we can
bid for hotel rooms?
A. You can
bid on hotel rooms bid2travel.com for hotels. That's easy and you don't have to get up at 4:00 a.m. because bid2travel.com allows bidding 24 hours.
Q: Sure, but I don't want to stay in some crummy place.
A: No, no, no.
Bid for hotel rooms three or four-star hotels. You pick the quality.
You'll end up at a Hyatt, Hilton, Holiday Inn Crown Plaza, Sheraton, Marriott, or Shangri-La -someplace like these.
And, over a few days, you'll save hundreds of dollars.
In fact, I predict you'll save on average at least Rs. 4000(US$100) a night over the prices you get on Yatra.com, makemytrip.com, or similar discount hotel sites. Bid2travel hotel savings average some 40 percent over these sites.
Q: What about location?
A: You decide on that, too.
Q: So you can't pick a specific hotel or just a general neighborhood area?
A: That's right. You can choose your favorite
hotel rooms for bidding.
That's why hotels use Bid2travel.com to sell un-sold hotel room inventory at prices they don't want their regular customers to find out about.
Q: So would it be correct to assume that if there's a big event going on in the area and hotels are heavily booked, rooms won't be available through Bid2travel?
A: It's never that all the rooms are full or sold out. But sure chances are less if rooms are full.
Q: How do I know what to bid?
A. We have an entire site devoted to that! Go to the Bid2travel.com and enjoy hotel bidding all over the India.
Q: Just give me three main tips.
A: Okay. First, bid on three or four-star hotels. That's where the real savings are.
Second, look up the best prices for the star quality and neighborhood you want on a site like Yatra.com. Or makemytrip.com Knowledge is power, and that way you won't overbid.
Third, find out what yatra.com or makemytrip.com charges.
Therefore, bid 10 - 20 percent below yatra.com or makemytrip's price.
See Bid2Travel.com, though, if you want to refine this process to maximize your savings.
Q: What if I still overpay?
A: Bid2travel.com has a policy of best price guarantee.
Q: There must be some drawbacks to using Bid2travel for hotels.
A: There are.
Most importantly, you'll get no refund if you cancel. You won't be able to change dates.
Q: What about smoking or nonsmoking?
A: This is never absolutely guaranteed regardless of where you book.
When using bid2travel or other online sites, I usually call the hotel directly to make sure it has me on its nonsmoking list. I also try not to show up too late, when the hotel may have run out of certain types of rooms.
Jyoti: Thanks. I'll try bidding next time after reading the tips on your site.
Travel Web Site Solution
If any one industry has benefited most from the advent of the Internet, it would have to be the travel industry. With more and more people doing their research and trip planning online, make sure that updated and relevant information on your web site is reason why they choose to do business with you.
