In Reply to: rooms posted by MikenLiz on Thursday, 26. January 2006 at 12:03 Bali Time:
I can remember a few years ago we were considering staying at the Bali Garden.At the time a close Adelaide BTF friend of ours - Phil of the Phil & Melissa ,Father daughter team was in Bali.We had been sending each other sms while he was away.He called into the Bali Garden & was quoted a walk in rate for a week which was 50 % dearer than we could get from a local travel agent for the exact same thing ! Naturally we ended up booking the package deal through a local travel agent,staying there & loved it.
You can never tell exactly how it's going to work out & it's all a bit of a gamble in my eyes.Over the years we have been to quite a few places where their walk in rates are heaps better than paying before you go or the web sites but on the other hand we have also been to places where it's worked out the other way & they want more than travel agents or online.
After having stayed at a number of hotels over the years & being repeat customers at a few of them we have found the best way for us is to get a minimum lead in package & then go to the places we are know for our regular customer rates - BUT this is after we have let them know before we leave Australia that we are on our way to Bali & our approxiamate dates of arrival at their hotel.Since we travel around a fair bit when we are in Bali we always phone ahead a day or so before we arrive & a room is always ready for us at the places we frequent.Sometimes our plans have changed at the last minute because of expat friends not being in Bali at the time we were supposed to stay in their area to see them & we have moved onto the next area a day or so ahead of time but this has never proved a problem because our regular hotels know round about when we are coming & hold a room for us.
I think it's much the same as anywhere,including Australia or any field of work or business involving customer after you have got to be known as a loyal & regular client/custome- you get really looked after.You know exactly what you are going to paying up front & exactly what you will be receiving for your money.