- Time of past OR future Camino
- Pamplona to Santiago (2013)
Le Puy to Pamplona in segments (2013 - 2016)
Pamplona to León
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Try onlypilgrims.com I would normally book my first night and if I cant contact the albergue directly, i have used this site. Then as I approach Santiago its the same thing. Either direct or the same booking site. You pay a euro or two more than at the door so you pay the service not the albergueIn 2013 my wife badly sprained her foot several days into our hike on the Le Puy route. We were forced to conclude our hike and to kind of treat ourselves we spent a couple of nights in a nice hotel in Aumont-Aubrac. When we returned two years later to continue our hike we again stayed at this hotel.
This morning I received an "e-letter" from this hotel. In it, the manager makes clear that the property and its employees will struggle if the current trend of reserving rooms using booking sites continues. I was shocked to learn that the commission charged was 18%. That's a huge amount and I don't know whether it is representative of the commissions negotiated by property owners in France as well as in Spain and other countries.
Giving up the ease of using these sites means more effort and hassle on my part. But I am going to try and reserve directly (after looking at a property's website and evaluating the rate and cancellation policy). And I realize that this may not be feasible for modest properties or for those walking without knowledge of where they might spend the night. But as I said, I am going to try.
Thanks for considering.
Thanks @TMcA for your considerations.
There are indeed many reason not to reserve a place through booking.
No competition
The usual rate for booking is indeed 15% which is a huge part of any income. 15% is a lot if you consider this company made a profit last year of 2.3 billion Euro's. Be aware that is only the profit it made. They can do this because there is hardly any competition any more. Booking can ask what it wants, and that is what they do. Instead of lowering the percentage (which would be the thing when there is a normal competition) they don't do this. Just because they don't have to. Everyone also on this forum is mentioning booking.com, not any other.
So, no there is no competition any more and booking is misusing it's power. Booking is based in the Netherlands. Last week it became quit a scandal that booking is one of the first companies who asked the government for financial aid....., with 2.3 billion profit and all they have to do is keeping up one website.
Anyone using booking is helping this ruler just by earning more money. Never feel pitty for them.
Search engines and publicity
What happens if a hotel is on booking is that on al internet searching engines the own website is pushed away by booking. They know very well how to do this. For many hotels there is no other choice then joining booking, which at the same time means that less people find their website directly. So, there is no fair deal anymore about making your own advertisements or not.
As we all know what happens in a field where there is no competition any more: this is not good for customers. While any hotel/albergue owner need to work so much, investors earn easy money.
Most pilgrims places are not on booking
Another thing is that most pilgrimsaccomodations are not on booking. If you just look at that site you might miss the best places for pilgrims. At the same time you force accommodations to put a hight price.
Please use any guide or app to make a choice. Don't make yourself, and all accomodations dependent of only one site with 2.3 billion profit.
I always book directly and it gives me an opportunity to make a connection with the owners. I have never been asked to give a credit card number either. The two times I did use Booking.com I had to cancel and was not able to get my $ back.
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