I am not confident that every single hotel knows how to do it/ does it.

You can always request a confirmation, if you are in doubt.

Well, the other day a place in SZX said they could not print the confirmation, and they said - here is the system, you play with it, and try to print the form. It was a PSB system for both - citizens and foreigners and I did not see any option to print the document. I still don't know if being in that system equates to being registred with the PSB or not.

I don't know how many people got to take advantage of the Fall Mega Sale Trip.com had last week, but I was lucky enough to get the 65% off discount for a flight from LAX to the Philippines! I wasn't planning on traveling again this year, but Trip.com made it possible to travel on what is possible the best flight deal to Asia I will ever get.

So, the 2 websites operate independently with different user and inventory databases? Should one sign up and check both for each trip?

Thanks.

For high speed rail reservations within China, what is the markup for CTrip/Trip? Should one use the official 12306?

Thanks.

Yes, it pays to sign up and compare. My hotel in Rome near Termini station was about half price on Trip.com compared to Agoda, Booking.com and Hotels.com. It was an extreme example though. Some were slightly cheaper on Trip.com in the case of Rome and a few European cities. In some cities, it isn't competitive at all and have very few hotels available which limits the choice.

It varies by route or cost of the ticket. Around USD1 to 5. Perhaps around 10% of ticket value or more. I used it quite a lot to request tickets before it opens at 2 weeks before the travel date, and at that time it is booked for me. Very handy as I was travelling with friends. Don't need to be afraid of missing out.

The official site seemed painful to set up but I eventually did it. Will be using it for the first time in two days.

Trip.com posts the commission separately, but yes, around that value. Ctrip does not charge a commission and sometimes gets a few RMB cheaper if you book together with a hotel.

Crazy how much I use and rely on trip.com nowadays over other booking sites. I always compare, but trip.com is usually cheaper, at least in Asia.

Customer service seems to be pretty decent too. Unfortunately I had to cancel a trip because an immediate family member passed away, and I contacted Trip's customer service to see if it was possible to cancel a non-refundable hotel booking and get a refund considering the circumstances. They didn't ask for any proof (unlike American Airlines), and they granted my request and refund. They definitely gained a loyal customer that day.

I would say the only OTA coming close (or even beating) Trip.com at this point is Agoda. However, I would say that the good customer service from Trip makes it worth the small price increase over Agoda in those cases where things don't go as planned. As someone who loves traveling while being on a budget, Trip definitely saved me a lot of money this year and I have yet to experience anything bad with them.

Agoda is great for hotels in SE Asia, and their customer service is arguably even better than ctrip's, but they definitely don't have as much muscle when it comes to negotiating with hotels.

If prices are comparable, I'll sometimes go with Agoda because most of the time Rakuten has better cash back rate with them (e.g 6x) vs Trip which is usually only 3x the last few times I looked (I choose to get Amex Membership Reward points instead of cash).

Most OTAs, including Agoda and Trip.com, quote different (and higher) prices when you use a cashback referral site such as Rakuten, so you may be paying more than you'd get back from a cashback referral site. This doesn't apply to some referral sites (e.g. TripAdvisor) that apparently don't get a meaningful cut from their referrals

How are you able to tell if the pricing is different?
Normally I just go to website. Compare prices before activating Rakuten. Then I activate Rakuten when I'm ready to check out. The prices don't normally change when I do this.


I do occasionally see different prices if I use their respective mobile apps to search and book though.