Hidden Dangers of Booking Hotels and Lodges Online
In most cases, tourists book for Hotels or Safari Lodges on the day of visiting the destination which sometimes can be disappointing. However, the trend has changed because tourists are now opting for Online Hotel bookings for accommodation facilities in Uganda which is faster but also challenging in some other ways. In this country, booking for Hotel or Lodge Rooms is done directly at the front desk or use of online services of platforms such as Jumia House, Trip Advisor, Travelocity and Expedia among others and what we all look for is the best deal with better prices.
However, the challenges of these online booking services is that sometimes the pictures online do not match with what you might find on-ground. Not only that, the websites of these Online Booking services mentioned do not give details on the Hotel that you might want to know such as details on services, general cleanliness and ambience, quality, food offered, offer wrong hotel location in-line with the activities you wish to participate in hence lack the right location depending on your needs.
There are some hidden dangers or pitfalls to expect when booking for hotels or safari Lodges online and these include;
What you may see online will not be the exact detail on ground. This is a common incident for tourists who visit East African countries especially Uganda and Rwanda. Most of the pictures put online are either photo-shopped. Worst of all, even the reviews online about the Hotel are written by the employees of the Hotel themselves, friends or some people paid to write good reviews about the establishment. This is very common in Trip Advisor which has not been able to weed-out the problem.
Not only that, these Hotels can be in wrong location with the tourist activities you intend to participate in. For instance, you might do a mistake of booking a Lodge within Buhoma sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park yet you intend to track the mountain gorillas from Rushaga or Nkuringo sectors or vice versa. Imagine booking a Lodge in Ishasha sector (Southern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park) yet you intend to participate in a launch cruise within the Kazinga Channel (Northern sector). Trip Advisor or Expedia will not tell you that you have booked for the wrong location of a Hotel or safari Lodge.
It is also common for good Hotels or safari Lodges not to appear Online. The numbers of Hotels or Lodges you see online are not the only ones in Uganda because there are those that don’t appear online or don’t even have Facebook accounts especially the smaller ones yet they provide quality services at affordable rates.
The rates that appear online are always not the actual prices. In most instances, you will see discounted prices yet in actual sense it is just bed and breakfast. When you then add lunch and dinner, you will end up with a higher price that it appeared on the websites. Therefore, don’t allow to be deceived unless if it is half board or full board rate.
Conclusively, Online booking for lodge or Hotel rooms is faster yet has a lot of hidden dangers such as the difference in the actual appearance of the Hotel and how it appears on the websites and possibility of booking the Hotel or Lodge at a wrong location with the tourist activities.
