My husband and I are planning to visit India next year, probably around March. However, my sister told me that in India they have this policy of charging foreigners special rates. This increased pricing could be five to ten times higher, and well that’s a lot of money. Since my sister has many friends in Delhi that could help me, I was thinking in booking tickets and hotel reservations in rupees instead of dollars, but I don’t want to have any trouble during check-in. Do you think is possible they don’t respect bookings? Anyone knows something about this increased rates or something about this? Hope you can help because I want to book with time and was thinking in doing it this month. Thanks!
I have never heard of such a thing as special rates for foreigners. Yes you would pay a little extra money at places like the Taj Mahal and may be some other monuments but never heard hotels charging a different price. Have a look at Booking.com or some other hotel booking websites and you would get the same price as any one else would. If a hotel has such a policy they could be sued for whatever they are worth.
A booking is a booking and it does not matter who is going to stay as long as you are paying for it. Be assured that if you have made a booking at whatever price the hotel quotes at a booking website they cannot refuse you at the time of checkin.
My sister lived in India for a year and she told me this, but when she told me I couldn't believe it either. It's weird, ha? But I'll try looking at the page you gave me and see the process there. Anyways, are you from India?
In our recent travels, we got the booking from an online office called booking.com. From our experience, we got a good bargain for the money. Like the Red Wall hotel in Beijing that is a 5-star hotel and also Majestic hotel in Kuala Lumpur which is also a 5-star hotel. The prices is per night of stay is around $100 that includes breakfast for 2. Not bad eh? And to think that those hotels have very friendly staff, the cost is worth it.
I'm guessing that there must be some places that do have a sneaky system like that! Obviously your sister has experienced something along these lines. I'm sure that is the case in many countries though - just the occasional person who is out to make extra money. Some of their thought process may also be related to the extra work they tend to do for foreign visitors. Everyone might not agree, but I imagine local tourists would require less assistance generally than those from other countries. Advice regarding sightseeing, transport and hotel amenities is probably more likely to be sought from the hotel staff by international visitors who are not as familiar with India. Wherever you end up booking I would recommend having a look at the reviews of it online. The occasional bad review isn't anything to be concerned about but if there is a running theme of bad reviews for similar things it is worth reconsidering.
well first of all you have to visit a money exchange shop in india so that you got rupees instead of dollars,second there's nothing like foreigners costing 4or5 times the real price.its good to have some contacts here for any information if not well no worries you can book online there are many legit websites or mobile apps for hotel booking.
Chain hotels book on foreign currency if the booking is done online from your place of origin. But if you are in India, doesn't matter who you are. You pay only Rupees. Yes, it is right that while visiting monuments and historical places, the charges for foreigners and more. For example in Jaipur if you visit the Amer Fort, for Indians it is around Rs.50 and for foreigners the entry fee is around Rs.500/- . This policy is throughout India.
I hadn't heard of this sort of thing - usually for accommodation bookings I go via booking.com or hotels.com, but I do cross check from a few different sources to make sure I'm getting the best deal I possibly can. I'd be hoping that places wouldn't be marking things up for foreigners - it would be a bit of a deterrent to me if I was planning to travel somewhere but I knew things were heavily marked up just because I wasn't from there.
Does the site do the conversion for you or do you have to get it converted before even purchasing your tickets. I wish the site would already convert the funds beforehand. It seems like it would be so much easier and I would be willing to pay a conversion fee.
I have to admit that I also thought that India was like most other countries in the world and when you book an hotel they have to honour the price that was on the site. As far as tourist resorts go I think most people will expect to pay more than they should as throughout the world foreign visitors usually get charged a higher rate than the locals.
Any time I've booked online through one of the bigger companies, it's always been in my local currency (USD) so that I haven't had to pay a currency conversion through my bank or anything.
I think if it's possible then that's always the best way, as if your booking in another currency then you have to factor in the exchange rate and that can fluctuate a lot from day to day. The rate when you book, might not be the same as when you actually come to pay and that could be an issue.
