I recently reviewed the site Indiahotelreview.com which is still in beta, but highly functional. As a test, I chose Bangalore as the city to review the site. I also selected the top hotels I typically stay in when visiting the city.
India Hotel Review claims it’s the largest online India hotel directory aggregating around 9000 Indian hotels spread across more than 800 destinations. “This includes wide category of stay options ranging from budget hotels to 5 stars luxury hotels, cottages, guest houses & home stays.”
IndiaHotelReview.com leading is aiming for both the budget minded and wealthy High Net Worth (HNW) individual and the local Indian and foreign Multi-National Corporate (MNC) business traveler for travel and vacation bookings.
The Positives:
-
The site design is well done and is pleasing to the eye
-
The range of hotels in the system appears to be the largest I have seen
-
They seem to have access to hotel rooms not on other competitive sites
-
The book by phone option is easy
-
The hotel review by traveler option is good
-
As the expert section, although there does not appear to be many responses yet
-
The distance markers to nearby landmarks and transportation centers are a nice feature
The Negatives:
-
Typing in a city – Pull down menu is too large to find a city quickly.
-
I found some hotel reviews but they were disconnected from the actual booking pages. This makes it difficult to see how a hotel was rated by travelers prior to booking it.
-
Some of the fares (see below) were far above what I found on other sites.
I also made some hotel reservations for the given dates below using my usual Expedia.com vs. Indiahotelreview.com The results were mixed, with Expedia cheaper than Indiahotelreview.com but IHR.com clearly had more options for my favorite hotels in Bangalore.
| Date of Booking | Hotel Name | IHR.com Price | Expedia Price |
| Oct 10 – Oct 17 2007 | Leela Palace | $3489 or INR 1,39,563 | $3130 or INR 1,25,200 |
| Oct 10 – Oct 17 2007 | Chancery | $2893 or INR 1,15,720 | $1463 or INR 58,520 |
| Oct 10 – Oct 17 2007 | Le Meridien | $2273 or INR 90,920 | $2667 or INR 1,06,680 |
| Oct 19 – Oct 23 2007 | The Oberoi | $1476 or INR 59,056 | No rooms available |
| Oct 10 – Oct 17 2007 | Hotel Royal Orchid | $2110 or INR 84417 | Expedia doesn’t have reservations for this hotel |
In summary the site is very deep and a very good answer for last minute travelers or those looking for bargain options in India. Some of the fares for the higher end hotels appear to be hit and miss when comparing to competitive sites. While the site is new, if it builds out with more user generated content, it will make hotel booking easier and more transparent. Like always, use 2 or 3 travel sites when looking for the best options and price. I do plan to add Indiahotelreview.com to my list of sites to check before booking a hotel.
0 comments:
Post a Comment