RoomAuction.com Ltd was established in 2003 and since then it has generated booking offers exceeding £2,500,000. With 55,000 hotels worldwide (170 countries) live on the site and its unique business model, RoomAuction.com is a great alternative to regular booking sites.
http://www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/select-stories/leisure-travel/how-bid-rooms-choice-hotels
„The 130 best travel websites”
A great idea for saving money by booking online. Roomauction.com is a portfolio of hotels around the UK open to offers. A fun alternative to phoning and haggling or surfing the many online travel websites.
“Bag a holiday bargain on an online auction”
Want to go on holiday, but don’t have a lot of money?
Don’t worry. Travel companies want you to go on holiday too, and they don’t have a lot of customers. Which means one thing: discounts. Increasingly, they’re resorting to under-the-radar methods such as online auctions to shift unsold packages.
The luxury specialist Abercrombie & Kent is the latest to reach for the hammer to tempt those on tight budgets to part with their cash. (...)
Roomauction.com for UK hotels
This one has many hotels and self-catering cottages in the
UK,
including the Adelphi, in Liverpool, which has a rack rate of £119, and the Fallen Angel, in
Durham, a
five-star restaurant with rooms, where the usual rate is £150; a handful of American properties;
and a
random assortment elsewhere, including that well-known tourist trap?... Gdansk. It acts as an
interface,
so your transaction is direct with the property, with no booking or registration fee. You can
bid as low
as 50% of the rack rate (although the site reckons most savings are between 25% and 35%) and you
should
hear whether your offer has been accepted within 48 hours. Tip: bid at the last minute, when
hoteliers
are more anxious to fill rooms. You’ll increase your chances of a weekend room if you’re able to
spend
Sunday night too and offer to eat in house one night.
“Haggle”
It’s cheap, it’s tawdry — and it works. Hotels are the obvious target here, but you have to play
hardball. Ask for their best offer at 8pm and they’ll know they’ve got you over a barrel. Try
the same
trick at 3pm, when you could still haul your brazen hide elsewhere, and the discounts can come
rolling
in. The more outrageous the rack rate, the more they’ll be willing to discount. There are two
obvious
drawbacks: one, it’s a stressful game on the actual day you need the room; two, frankly, it’s
embarrassing.
Step forward www.roomauction.com, where you can post discreet
offers
direct to more than 200 hoteliers in the UK, with bids in the region of 30%-40% below the list
price
regularly successful.
„101 Really Useful Websites”
A time-saving, fun alternative to haggling on the phone, this offers hotels around the UK that are open to offers.
“Make a bid for a break”
If you’re too shy to walk up to reception in a
British
hotel and haggle a deal on a last-minute booking, a new website is coming to your
rescue.
Each hotel makes rooms available on the site at standard rate, inviting bids from travellers
keen to try
their luck.
“Bids must be at least 40 per cent of the quoted rate”, says RoomAuction.com
managing director Bob Drapella. “If a room costs £100 per night, bids must therefore be at least
£40”
So far hotels in the scheme are situated in such popular spots as the Lake
District, the
Cotswolds, Cornwall and London among other places.
Bids can reserve a room for two years
ahead,
so this isn’t just a ploy by hotels to shift empty rooms on Sunday night, says Mr Drapella.
“The new eBays”
Savvy bargain-hunters are now demanding that little extra from online auctions. Look out for
freebay
(cyberspace car-boot sale) or haggle for hotel rooms at www.roomauction.com.
“Room service. Empty Hotel Rooms go up for online auction”
Want a cheap
hotel
room? Now you can bid for one online. RoomAuction.com is a new site that enables visitors to bid
on
vacant rooms for less than the standard rate offered by the hotel.
Roomauction.com shows
the
standard rate for the different types of rooms at around 90 featured hotels in the UK and the
customer
offers the lowest price they that they are willing to pay, sparking a bidding war with a
hotelier. It’s
a great way to secure a room more cheaply than by booking directly with the hotel
itself.
Bob Drapella, MD of RoomAuction.com, told .net that he used to be a
hotel
manager and was always trying to generate better ways to fill vacancies. “Potential guests can
get the
rooms cheaper as they will see what the rate usually is and hoteliers aren’t left with empty
rooms”, he
says.
On receipt of a bid, the hotelier decides if the offer is reasonable. The service
is free
and no registration or credit card details are required until a booking is confirmed.
“Is there a competitor to eBay for the hotel product?”
RoomAuction is
"the place
where you set the rate you want to pay for a hotel room...". That sums it all, eBay has found
its
challenger, at least for a travel product.
This company has been founded in 2003 and
seems to be
quite easy to use. The booking process is still in different phases meaning you have to wait for
an
answer from the hotel to know if your bid has been accepted. Have you already bid for a room
before?
“Online Hotel Room Auction Service Launches for Holiday Season
http://www.RoomAuction.com
starts the bidding on hotel room prices.”
With the holiday season fast
approaching, clued-up holiday makers will be seeking cut price accommodation for their UK
breaks. Now,
thanks to an auction service launched by RoomAuction.com, customers can book rooms at hotels in
popular
locations such as the Lake District, Cotswolds, Cornwall and London for less than the standard
rate.
On certain days, especially Sundays, most hotels have empty rooms they need to fill to avoid
losing
revenue.
RoomAuction.com shows the standard rate for different types of rooms at
featured
hotels, and the customer offers the lower price they're willing to pay and can 'haggle' with the
hotelier. By placing a bid on RoomAuction.com, the customer can secure a better deal than if
they booked
directly with the hotel itself.
On receipt of a bid from a RoomAuction.com customer, the
hotelier decides if the offer can be accepted. By treating each enquiry individually, hotels can
choose
to take bookings that will fill empty rooms. The service is free to RoomAuction.com customers
and no
registration or credit card details are required until booking is confirmed.
Bob
Drapella,
managing director of RoomAuction.com, comments: "Our service is ideal for people who are
planning a
short break or romantic night away but don't want to risk the embarrassment of asking the hotel
for a
reduction in price. By using our service, customers can rest assured that the hotelier won't be
offended
by an offer that's lower than their standard rate. In turn, the bidding system means the
hotelier is
confident of obtaining the best rate for a particular room on a `slower' night".
“Haggling for hotel rooms via web”
Report by David Banner
British people are not the bravest on the planet when it comes to haggling for a cut-price
deal. You
can usually spot the stiff-upper-lip UK tourist on location at an African bazaar, shuffling
rather
uncomfortably as they attempt to put on a confident, cocky or downright cheeky façade to try to
secure a
good price for that imitation Gucci leather bag on the local market stall.
Reception
And
when it comes to holidays on home shores, the majority of us wouldn’t dream of trying to quiz
the
manager about whether that really is the best price he can offer.
If that’s the price he
says in the
book, that’s what we’ll have to pay…
But fear not – if you’re one of those who are simply
too shy to
walk up to reception in a British hotel and haggle a deal on last minute booking, a new website
is
coming to your rescue.
RoomAuction.com has signed up more than 200 hotels,
including
many in the distinguished Old English Inns chain. Each one makes rooms available on the site at
standard
rate, inviting bids from travelers keen to try their luck.
Hotels in the scheme are in
the Lake
District, Cotswolds, Cornwall and London, and if the project proves a success, many
establishments in
Shropshire, Mid Wales, and the North Wales coast are expected to be added in the coming
months.
Bids can reserve a room for two years ahead, so this isn’t just a ploy by hotels to shift empty
rooms on
Sunday night, says Mr Drapella.
“Travel Agents”
RoomAuction is a unique database of hotels, where you can find a better deal on accommodation
rather than
booking direct. Each hotel has its complete info together with their standard
rates.
All
you need to do is decide how much you are willing to pay for a room and bid today! Hotels are
likely to
accept any reasonable offers when they wouldn't be able to sell rooms at standard rate.
“Save cash with a click”
The World Wide Web contains information on anything and everything - the problem is where to
find it
when you need it. The Medway Standard's computer columnist David Lindsay is here to help you
make the
most of the internet and your computer.
This week he has sought out five top websites you
never knew
you needed.
From the wonders of the web to top tips, Rainham-based web designer David is
here to
help. Happy surfing!
(...) www.roomauction.com
Fancy whisking your loved one
away for a
romantic weekend but your budget is tight? Well this site allows you want to set the maximum
amount you
want to pay for selected hotel rooms. The site warns that any bid under 50 per cent of the
standard rate
is unlikely to be successful, but if you’re feeling lucky and can leave your gateway to the last
minute
you could just snap up a bargain. The database of hotels is not that extensive but will grow as
the site
becomes more popular.
“Haggle for a room with RoomAuction. It’s easy to bag a great-value hotel room for the
night”
Although the promised UK heat wave seems to have been a bit of a damp
squib,
it's not too late to take yourself off on a jaunt somewhere more interesting, and most probably
hotter.
There has been a boom in cheap travel options over the last few years, with
low-cost
airlines taking off (sorry!), as new and ever cheaper destinations open up across the world. But
those
tropical hotspots come with worries of their own. Airline delays, hurricanes, unpredictable
weather -
we're even being told that the flight itself can give us deep vein thrombosis! So why travel to
far-flung shores when some of the most beautiful scenery and fascinating culture can be found on
your
doorstep? The lush greenery of the Lake District, Scotland's rolling hills and rich historical
background, the bustling streets and excellent night life of London - just a few reasons not to
head for
the runway this autumn!
Paying for somewhere to rest your weary head is
invariably the
most expensive part of any UK holiday, but you can get great value for money if you know where
to look.
Keen bargain-hunters will be pleased to see that the trend for auction sites has stretched as
far as the
leisure industry, meaning that a relaxing break needn't be a strain on the wallet. Indeed, many
of the
big net names are catching up with the auction trend - Lastminute.com offers a rather low-key
auction
element where you can snap up exotic foreign breaks or cultural city weekends at slashed prices.
Well,
we've unearthed a great hotel site that can offer a break in a UK hotel of your choice - where
you name
the price!
Of course, it's not quite that easy. Business is business, and the hoteliers
featured
at www.roomauction.com still need to make a living, but you can get around 30 per cent off the
standard
price of a hotel room (this can be as much as 50 per cent at quiet times such as Sunday night).
This
leaves both parties happy - you've got a great deal and the hotel has filled an otherwise empty
room!
With 5,000 rooms on sale every day, RoomAuction.com certainly offers plenty of choice.
It’s not
a true auction site, as you'll see, but the absence of competitive bids makes booking your break
a less
stressful ordeal. Unusually, very little of the bargaining part happens through the site itself.
You'll
be able to search the guesthouses and bid down for the room you want at the price you're
prepared to
pay, but after that you'll need to do your wheeling and dealing with the hotel itself. It sounds
unorthodox but it's actually a great way of getting back to a more genuine, human way of dealing
through
the internet. Many of the guesthouses featured are smaller, family-run affairs - these are far
more
personal places to stay than personality-free chain hotels, and are bases from which to explore
the UK!
Trade Secrets: Judging your bid
In posting rooms on this site, these hotels rely on customers
who put
forward sensible bids. Don't waste time with insulting offers that are far too low for the
proprietors
to consider - if you bid £25 on a room that usually costs £150, you are likely to receive no
response at
all The hotels here pay a set fee to advertise on the site - they are not tied into offering
rooms
regardless of cost.
Explore the variety of lodgings on offer:
01: Browse about
The RoomAuction.com home page is easy to navigate. Although you can
search for
a specific hotel by name, we found that the best way to browse is using the 'Region' drop menu,
as the
database can be limited in some areas.
02: Hotel hunt
After browsing for
hotels in
the Lakes, we are presented with three options, all in Windermere (you'll find that bigger
cities yield
many more results) . Click on the 'Details' hyperlink on the right to read a little more on your
chosen
hotel.
03: More detail
Here you can browse your chosen lodging in more detail. Many
of the
hotels will link through to their own websites, so you can have a proper nosey at what's up for
grabs
(it's also an opportunity to cross-reference the prices touted here).
04: Make a bid
Scroll
down to the auction and details section and prepare to get tough. Read through the packages,
along with
the usual hotel price and decide what to offer. Tap it into the box on the right, fill in a few
of the
usual details and click 'Send'.
05: Is it a winner?
Within 24 hours your chosen
guesthouse
will telephone or email to let you know if your bid has been successful. If you want to obtain
any
further details, there is a wealth of click-through menu headings available under 'Typical
Questions'.
06: Make cash
Own your own site? Why not become a
RoomAuction.com
affiliate? There are no setup fees or charges, and you could earn up to £20 for encouraging
hoteliers
and guests to use the site. Your site needs to be fairly relevant to the industry.
07:
Latest
news
The RoomAuction.com newsletter features special promotions, unusual or distinctive
hotels, such
as the site's individual range of castle hotels. There's also a link you can use to sign up to
the free
newsletter back at the home page.
08: Site souvenir
The 'Free Mug' link on the home
page
gives you a chance to get your own RoomAuction.com souvenir. All you need to do is tell five
friends
about what the site offers, or actually take a hotel trip through the site and then send in your
feedback.
RoomAuction Active
This is RoomAuction.com's term for the
section
where you tap in your bid. Most of the UK hotels are 'Active', but the international guesthouses
give
minimal details, indicating they are willing to negotiate but can't accept a bid via the
site,
Affiliate
The term used in website eCommerce to refer to those that link up to a site in
order to
try and make some extra cash.
Bidding down
This isn't exactly the same as bidding with
eBay, as
you're not fighting for a room against other travelers. Only one 'bid' is made through the Web
site -
you're just suggesting how much you'd like to pay. From there, it's up to the hotel to bid you
up!
“Best New Websites”
If you fancy a weekend away and you want to chance your arm at getting a discount this site may
be worth
a try.
It's a one step auction site where you set the maximum price you want to pay for
a room
but don’t go too low because it won’t be accepted. The site warns that any bids under 50 per
cent of the
standard rate are unlikely to get the nod. The database of hotels is not yet that extensive but
the ones
that are there are well presented.
Each has a standard price per room and after
making
your bid and filling out a form you wait to hear from the hotel to see if your bid has been
successful.
To get in touch with us, please use the Contact Us section.
To add your hotel, please use the Add your hotel section.
