I love a good adventure and I love a mystery, but one thing that makes me feel uncomfortable when I’m traveling is not knowing where I am going to be resting my worn out feet for the night even if it’s only a for a few hours. There’s nothing more tiresome, then trying to find a place to spend the night while you’re exhausted late at night. You’re stuck with rows of hotels that have no vacancies or unsympathetic hotel managers offering inflated rates for a desperate young traveler.
Well with that said, I believe it’s important to have a reservation booked and confirmed any time you arrive to a new city prior to arrival even if you are a lover of adventurer and playing everything by ear. My first night in Bangkok is a prime example of why I try to hold true to this belief, but was in the midst of failing at my own rule. Lugging around my luggage until I find place to stay is not fun, but luckily we were able to make new reservations and get a cab quickly.
17 hours after flying from Portland, Oregon, we got into Bangkok just before midnight, looking forward to sleeping off my jet lag in a plush boutique hotel, Metropolitan by Como. I could not wait to collapse into bed. However, once we arrived at the hotel, tired and exhausted we found out two things: our reservation never came through and if we still wanted to stay there we would have to pay $200 for the night.
We had booked the suite using the Hotel Quickly just before we boarded our connection from Tokyo. Hotel Quickly is a hotel app that helps you book reservations at hotels in Asia at heavily discounted rates. Basically, they offer last minute deals for staying at a hotel the ‘day-of’ a stay. Plus, every time someone books a stay using your referral link you earn credit that you could use for free stays.
We happened to have enough credit to book almost an entire night. So we booked one night at the Metropolitan and received confirmation that the payment went through. What we didn’t know was that after we boarded the plane, we received another email rejecting our reservation because of a technical error. We didn’t become aware of the email until arrived at the Metropolitan and the concierge could not find our reservation. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get a hold of Hotel Quickly’s customer service either.
At this point it was already midnight and we were beyond exhausted. Our options was to re-book at the actual rate of $200 without Hotel Quickly, which seemed ridiculous to us because a five-star hotel in Bangkok can go for about $75 per night. On top of that, the fact that we were only going to be in the room from midnight until early morning would have been a huge waste of money and realistically speaking, spending that much was just not an option for us.
The concierge at the Metropolitan were very understanding and helpful in getting us a cab to take us to the Park Plaza which we ended booking with Club Carlson points. From there we had a great nights sleep even though it was only about 6 hours and had breakfast at a restaurant that serves breakfast all day. We could have booked a reservation at the Park Plaza to begin with, but we figured we would save those points for another stay and take advantage of our Hotel Quickly credit.
We took the proper steps in booking a hotel, but if we didn’t wait until the last minute to book our stay, we may have caught the email before we boarded the plane and lost access to wifi.
If we felt like we were in a desperate situation, as far as being able to get to a more affordable hotel or accommodation, we would probably have felt like we should stay and pay the $200 for the night. Fortunately, we didn’t let our tired state of body fog our minds and literally waste an amount of money that could be used for several days of travel in Thailand.
Here are some points to consider when traveling and not sure if you should book in advance:
- If you are arriving at your destination at night, it might not be easy or safe to wander around town with a suitcase or valuables looking for a vacancy. Especially if you’re alone. For one, you may seem vulnerable to those who see you as an opportunity to take advantage of. The best thing to do is make a reservation, lock down a rate and have directions or the address of the hotel with you.
- Traveling in the busy tourist season may make it difficult for you to find a vacancy at a hotel or hostel at the last minute. If you use Hostelworld to make a reservation, you can cancel your reservation for free if you change your mind as long as you put down a refundable deposit. It’s better to be safe than be stuck out in the cold.
- Download hotel booking apps to your phone so if you do need to make a last minute reservation, you can book a night somewhere with a click of a button since your credit card information will already be stored, but make sure you receive a confirmation before leaving a wifi zone.
Happy and safe travels!
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