Review: Budget hotel booking via Stayzilla.com

I’d seen Stayzilla’s ads last year but didn’t have a need to book through them so far. Recently I did book couple of rooms via Stayzilla.com and this is my experience of booking budget hotels via this new Chennai based startup website.

There’re couple of key reason why I considered stayzilla.com  and NOT any other site.

• -      Conventional sites like Makemytrip, Cleartrip etc hardly list budget accommodations. The premium hotels listed there are often beyond my budget. Stayzilla lists properties with rent as low as 250-300 Rs a day in some cities.
• -      Even for remote, less popular cities, StayZilla.com's collection of hotels is pretty good. Few other sites said 'No hotels found' for same city.
• -      All hotel booking sites seem to assume that people are happy with fixed check in check out timings (12 noon to 12 noon etc) and will be even more happy to pay for another day if they’re arriving early or checking out late. I always look for hotels that facilitate 24 hour check in/Check out (count a day from the time I check in till next 24 hours). Stayzilla.com chat guys helped me identify hotels that allow 24 hour format. This helped me avoid booking unnecessary additional days and save some money. I could check in at 6AM, check out at 6AM next day, still pay for just 1 day, where as other hotels need me to book for 2 days
• -       GoIbibo and Yatra did have some budget hotels, but didn’t have an online chat or a way to find out if it is fixed timing or flexible
• -       You can block a room on stayzilla by paying just 10% of the rental amount. (Rest has to be paid before check-in, not at hotel during check in, but that is fine)
• -       I spoke to Yaatra call centre, they said they don't have any hotel which gives 24 hour check-in, check out.

Also noticed that rent listed on stayzilla.com is cheaper than or at par with the rent quoted on hotel’s website in most of the cases. I called up a hotel owner in Amritsar and checked if I could get a better deal. He refused to lower his quote and had a complicated process- I have to email him my request, he would then give me his bank account number, then I should transfer money, then he will confirm the booking. This process would take 2-3 days, whereas Stay zilla offered a fairly simplified process of credit card payments and at lower rates.

I usually prefer to avoid middlemen and deal with property owners directly. But in this case, I felt it is better to go via stayzilla than booking directly with the hotel, because of following reasons:

• -       Not all hotel operators are reliable- some take money and then give us shabby rooms, others do not confirm rooms or site some problems upon check in putting us to inconvenience. So, when you don’t know the hotel owner well or if you don’t have a guarantee that hotel is reliable, it helps to have a 3^rd party at your support. Booking via stayzilla enables you for free check in assistance service and if anything goes wrong during our stay, we’ll have some sort of support system.
• -       Websites like Stayzila are expected to have some due diligence on the properties they list and have a well-defined process to confirm bookings. These things are likely to make booking confirmation head ache free, compared to bank transfers to owners and relying on email confirmation.
• -       Most budget hotels have some makeshift website and their online booking is directed to some 3^rd party booking sites, which take a cut. I would rather book via a trusted site like stayzilla which has better support system.

Some more comments

1.     Looks like stayzilla website is not yet bug free. Screen hanged couple of times while I was trying to view photos of the property. Similarly filters and few other functions gave problems. Site didn't work well on chrome, I used firefox.

2.     Need to select all rooms together and proceed to next section. While entering check in timings and other details, there is no provision to go back and add one more room or make some changes. Have to retry from beginning for that

3.    Stayzilla is yet to build proper review/rating mechanism for the listed properties. I had to refer to tripadvisor to check if there’re any negative comments on the hotel. One of the hotel, recommended by stayzilla online chat representative, I had to turn it down after trip advisor review indicated that lots of steep walking is required to get in and out of that hotel to city. One of the hotel I booked had bad reviews on trip advisor- but all the reviewers had only 1 review in their profile, so wasn't sure how reliable it is. Have asked Stayzilla for a second opinion. Let us see.
4.     After making 100% payment, stayzilla came back and told me that hotel is not accepting early morning check in because of peak season. Had to ask them to cancel my booking. Later in the evening made another booking in a separate hotel that allowed 24 hour check in
5.     Stayzilla retains our chat even after log out and previous chats show up when we login afresh. This is very useful.
6.    Getting a chat executive online is little tricky, as it involves prolonged waiting. While the counter gives an estimated time of waiting, as the count reaches single digit it often resets..
7.    There're some negative reviews about Stayzilla.(Check this), but everyone in service industry will have few negative reviews. I am hoping my experience won't be bad.

So far its only about booking experience. Actual stay experience I will share next month

Update: I’d raised a concern about a hotel I booked having negative reviews in tripadvisor. Stayzilla staff spoke to hotel management and confirmed that the staff who were responsible for poor service earlier have been replaced and I will get decent accommodation without any problems. This assurance has boosted my confidence in the website and hotel.

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