In Reply to: thanks so much tina :) posted by Shak_n_chris on Monday, 11. August 2008 at 17:27 Bali Time:
i work in the travel industry in Bali and can tell you that right now, many hotels are overbooked.
a smart manager or reservations person will ensure that you have accommodation in one of their partner hotels for the part of the stay that is over booked. that is their responsibility.
now, if you book yourself, you will be on your own with nobody going in to bat for you in the event that you do not have a reservation.
if you go through any of the big agents, you will (should) have somebody on the ground here to assist you with any problem that you have. normally this person does not work for the travel agent, but they work for their ground handler. that means, that they are not responsible for actually booking your accommodation, but they will do all they can to ensure that you do find accommodation for your stay.
having said all that, august is such a busy season here in bali and you are really pushing it to get a room anywhere at the moment. if you are booking for low season, you should not have any problem at all.