As an example, Starwood BRG team will not match a Ctrip price despite Starwood having the most lenient policy. I cannot recall any western hotel brand giving me a best rate guarantee on a Chinese travel site price. They have usually cited "consolidator pricing".

As moondog stated, it is not too unusual to find a cheaper rate on a Chinese travel site, lower than the hotel/hotel brand website.

[QUOTE=uanj;23924338]Jiejie, I used to use qunar and gave up on them because of the high rate of problems just as you described above for Ctrip. So, in comparison, elong and Ctrip are far less painful.

Qunar is a consolidator site and unlike elong and ctrip does not contract or book with hotels. They simply display rates from third party agencies. Often these are the smaller agencies that are displaying rates without actually having an allotment at the hotel. This means each time someone books, they need to contact their wholesaler(s) to verify availability. In addition, many of these smaller agencies are violating terms and conditions on the rates they buy from wholesalers, resulting in bookings being refused and/or agencies being "shut down" and blacklisted.

While ctrip resorted to similar practices for a while, they have recently developed their own product to compete with the lower rates found on Qunar and this seems to be working well.

I would describe qunar as an aggregator --or a marketplace-- more than a consolidator.

Agreed

Ctrip seems to be getting more international:

They must have bought "space" on Tripadvisor to display their rates. (Hotel not in China)

However, seems the interface isn't working that smooth yet, as it doesn't display the final price (which isn't better of hotels.com or Venere anyway - so I'll go with them and 8% cashback...) on Tripadvisor directly, only once you click their link.

Is booking a prepaid hotel via ctrip pretty reliable for a stay in Shanghai?

Since ctrip is HQed in Shanghai, do they do a high volume of hotel bookings in Shanghai and well known to the hotel industry? Are the chances that a hotel booking will have problems less for Shanghai hotel booking?

If you were to compare ctrip to an American online travel agency, are they more like an Expedia or a Priceline?

1. Shanghai or elsewhere, matters not IME (Ctrip is prevalent everywhere)
2. I honestly don't think Ctrip is any less reliable than Agoda, Expedia, Orbitz, etc... though its website and mobile app are not especially stellar
3. On the off chance that things go wrong, you can always call them (their phone support is outstanding)

I appreciate the reply. It's been 36 hours since I booked a prepaid hotel on their website and they have not been able to confirm the booking with the hotel, as per the email from ctrip.

Is this typical or possibly a delay due to the Chinese New Years holiday weekend? I wonder if they go through a consolidator, rather than the hotel directly for prepaid hotel bookings, as the consolidator may be closed for the holiday.

I suggest you call them to sort this out. (I've experienced similar issues with them in the past, and the phone call always works wonders.)

CNY holidays might very well be part of it, yes. Today, while most shops/business were back open again, quite some people will only return to work in the next days.

So, either wait 1-2 days more (if not urgent), then call, or call right ahead..

It has now been 72 hours since I made the hotel reservation online with ctrip and the reservation is still not confirmed. I called ctrip and spoke with a English speaking phone representative. She told me that due to the holidays, their agent who books these prepaid hotel bookings have not been able to confirm the reservation. When I inquired how much will this take, she wasn't able to give me a time frame as this is handled by an agent for ctrip. The hotel stay is still several months away. Is there anything I can do except just to wait?

Update: ctrip finally emailed me ~ 84 hours after making the online prepaid reservation saying the reservation will be canceled as the rooms were sold out. I wonder if they even had rooms available at the rate they advertised. I can't imagine a US online travel agency pulling these kind of tricks. But I suppose in China there is no regulation oversight.

Anyone else have a problem like this with ctrip?

Buying air tickets, Travelzen was a good alternative to ctrip because they didn't charge a foreign credit card fee and didn't pester you to fax a copy of your credit card.

But for the last few days at least, their website has been "Under Maintenance." Obviously if you're an online travel agent, you can't let your site go down for days.

Does anyone know? Has Travelzen bit the dust?

(As an aside, ctrip says they now waive the 3 percent charge on foreign credit cards IFand only if you book with their mobile app.)

This is true, but their mobile app seriously blows (e.g. only displays a small fraction of available flights).

Not bit the dust, but they are undergoing some sort of business morph, and possibly changing office HQ location in Shanghai. The website has been disrupted for much of 2015 (not just the English site). I'm assuming they are doing some sort of major changes, not just regular maintenance. Going forward, I'm not sure how retail-oriented (B2C) they are going to remain. They are losing a lot of business by not having a functional website, Chinese New Year period or not. I'd say if they aren't up again by the end of March, it's not a good sign from a retail customer perspective.

"ctrip finally emailed me ~ 84 hours after making the online prepaid reservation saying the reservation will be canceled as the rooms were sold out."

Elong has just pulled precisely this trick on me. (Actually, my reservation had been confirmed.) Are elong and ctrip outsourcing to the same unreliable outfit?

It's becoming pretty clear that booking through these third-party sites is worthless; the "confirmation" means nothing. Except that if YOU don't show, expect a charge to your credit card.