Review: wotif.com
Last-Minute (or rather Last-Month!)Â Hotel Deals
 Cut-price hotel room rates have been around for years. But what has truly revolutionised this concept for travellers has been the internet.
 In the past, travellers looking for a cheap last-minute deal generally only found these deals if they happened to walk past the hotel and saw the sandwich board sign out the fron, or laboriously rang around the hotels in the hope that someone had a good deal going.
The widespread availability of the internet has opened up on-line booking opportunities for travellers, from airlines to accommodation, tours and other activities, duty-free shopping, and even airport transfers.
 One of the key players in the last-minute accommodation providers on the internet is Australian company wotif.com. Launched in March 2000, the range of accommodation available now spans more than 7,800 accommodation options in over 35 countries, and their website has over 1 million users a month and growing rapidly. Although based in Australia, the company now has offices in Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and New Zealand.
What They Offer
The term “last-minute” is a bit of a misnomer when applied to the accommodation available through wotif.com. In fact, you can book up to 28 days in advance (prior to October 2005 the limit was 14 days).
The website allows you to search by country, and then usually by city or region for a more refined search. The search results show a table of all the accommodation providers, and a list of the cheapest rooms they have available by day for the next 28 days.
 The room rates available may vary from day to day, depending on how many rooms the hotel decides to make available each day and at what room rate. On some days, the hotel may not have any rooms available. If you hover your computer mouse over any particular day in the table, a small pop-up box will show any inclusions or special offers relating to that room for that day.
 If a particular establishment attracts you, you can click on the hotel name for the full range of accommodation options offered and detailed info on the establishment, their room options, hotel facilities, location, transfer options from the nearest airport etc.
To start the booking process, click on the ‘Book’ button beside your preferred option, select the days you want to book the room, and follow the instructions from there.
Note that payment is required in full by credit card at the time of booking. Although the (non-refundable) booking fee is only $4, there is a $20 fee for booking alterations and the first night’s accommodation cost is forfeited in the event of cancelling the booking once it is made. So take care to book the right dates!
Once the booking has been made (including payment), a confirmation email will be sent to you, which you should print out and take with you to hand over at check-in.
The Pros
- The room rates offered are almost always the cheapest you will find anywhere - usually even cheaper than you will find on the hotel’s own website!
- The rates are usually cheaper than the hotel packages offered by travel agents, because these packages have usually been set many months in advance and apply for maybe 6 months or more, so the hotels have usually built in a safety margin in the rates quoted.
- The website is secure, the company is trusted and is listed on the Stock Exchange in Australia.
- The website allows you to make easy comparisons between establishments - all the hard work is done for you.
Things To Be Aware Of
- Often there will be a minimum booking period (such as 3 days) to qualify for the rates offered.
- If you are a nervous traveller, you may not be able to wait until so close to your travel to make your bookings. For example, if you are going to book 10 nights’ accommodation, you will only be able to make your booking no more than 18 days prior to departure, as this will be when the final night of your stay will appear in the wotif.com system.
- Be aware that the available room rates can vary significantly for future dates beyond the 28 days shown in the wotif.com system. For example, if you are planning a few months ahead, you might see that your chosen hotel has fairly steady room rates of $200 per night. But when you are actually making your bookings close to your departure, you might find the rates are $350 a night because the hotel has a conference booking (in which case you can usually at least find an alternative hotel), or it coincides with local school holidays (in which case you may have no choice but to pay whatever rates are on offer).
- Full payment for the room is required at the time of booking, rather than on check-out of the establishment.
- Some hotels will put travellers who book through wotif.com into rooms on lower floors or with lesser views than other rooms in the same class or category. This is because the hotel is getting a lower room rate through wotif.com, but note that the hotel cannot put you into an inferior class or category of room than what you booked (eg give you a 1-brm unit when you booked a 2-brm unit).
- The number of establishments in the wotif.com system is limited for some countries. If the hotel selection looks a bit sparse, you might want to check other sources before making your final decision.  Having said that, the range of establishments in the wotif.com system is growing all the time.
The Verdict
Wotif.com is hard to beat. They cover a significant range of leisure and business travel destinations, the range of hotels in each destination is expanding all the time, and the prices is most cases are cheaper than you will find anywhere else.
Personal Note
I have personally used wotif.com a number of times, and have been very happy with the whole process. On only one occasion did I find a cheaper deal elsewhere - a super-hot deal direct from a hotel’s own website. In two cases, the hotels upgraded me from the rooms I booked through wotif.com (these were 9/10 day stays).
Disclosure - the writer has NO financial interest in wotif.com, and the above is provided as a guide for fellow travellers. No responsibility is taken for any travel experiences you may have!!!
Travelbug
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2 Responses to “Review: wotif.com”
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August 18th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Question about the wotif.com
I call to the hotel and they told me that the hotel rooms are fully book (800 rooms). But I find the room at wotif.com. I am worry about after I book a room at wotif.com. After I arrive to hotel, they told me no room for me? Do you have any experience? What can I do at that time?
August 19th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Hi John
Often hotels will allocate most or all their rooms to travel wholesalers and tour operators. Thus you will sometimes find tour operators offering rooms at a particular hotel, at the same time as you cannot book a room direct with the hotel.
Over time, these wholesalers and tour operators may hand some unsold rooms back to the hotel for the hotel to sell itself, so the availability of rooms direct from a hotel can change from day to day.
On the About Us page on the wotif.com website, there is the following:
“How do I know if a room is really available?
All Wotif.com deals are loaded by our accommodation suppliers as part of their live allotment, and they guarantee their availability. Our bookings are all fully pre-paid, so you can rest assured that once you have your booking confirmation, the room is yours.”
Personally, I have used wotif.com about 12-15 times to book accommodation in a number of different countries, and I have never had a single problem. Wotif say that their booking system is live (real time) with the hotels, so I think if you get a room confirmed through wotif.com, the booking is as secure as it would be from any other source.
Have a good trip!
travelbug