Hey Steve i tried to e-mail you privatly but with no success, I have the same question about skoosh, looking at 4 nights in april and they want half of what everyone else is askinga about $123 usd per room. Do you know this company and also do you get credit when we click through this site onto kayak? thanks
Re Skoosh, it's a UK company as is Alpharooms. When hotels such as TTR allocate rooms to be sold the price they give the reseller depends to some extent on the market that they are intended to be sold to. Rooms intended to be sold on the UK market are cheaper than those intended for the North America market. Not 100% sure why this is, presumably it's because flights are more expensive and a need to compete on price with the hundreds of vacation destinations closer to the UK in Europe. So, there is nothing hidden in the price. You're just getting a room that was intended to be sold to a Brit at the British price. Now, obviously the hotel doesnt like this - because they would prefer those from North America to pay the more expensive North American price. Also companies selling to North Americans at the North American price don't like it either when their prices are undercut by competitors and complain to the hotel. This is what happened with Alpharooms a year ago. The volume of bookings made by North Americans via Alpharooms (largely through this site) became significant enough that they were noticed at the hotel - this site alone sent $200,000 of sales in 2008. The hotel told Alpharooms they must sell their rooms at a higher price, but Alpharooms principal market is the UK and it seems they didnt want to drop their prices. Eventually the hotel severed ties with Alpharooms and said it would not honour any bookings made after a certain date. Temptation has appeared back in Alpharooms inventory of late, albeit sporadically so they may have worked things out. I will see if I can find anything out when the guy I know there returns from annual leave on Jan 2nd. I guess the same will happen to Skoosh eventually, if the volume becomes significant enough to notice and/or other providers complain. (In the interests of transparency re my financial benefits in booking with Alpharooms or Skoosh. With Alpharooms I made 7% of the sale price. Skoosh dont have a similar scheme in place so I make nothing from them. However, Skoosh are featured by Kayak in their search of 400 providers and I do get paid about 30 cents per search by Kayak but nothing per reservation. So, if you do want to use Skoosh go via the kayak link in my signature and not only will you find skoosh in the results their price will be compared with lots more providers too.) BTW BigDaddy I dont recall seeing any email or Pm from you.
Steve, we just booked through your Skoosh link for our week in March...saved us about $750 over our normal travel agent. Thanks! I am getting ready to book our transfer through USA Transfers, do you get a referral fee (I don't care how much $ it is) if I use your link in your signature? I hope so. If not, let me know how to get you paid for the referral. Thanks again. J4
Glad to hear you saved some money, that's a decent saving for sure. Yes, I do get a referral fee for airport transfers booked through my signature.
Do you know of anyone or have you used skoosh before? Their price is so goodfor the week we are planning our first visit (end of feb). It almost seems too good to be true. I then did a google search on skoosh reviews and the results came back very mixed. But the same thing happens with almost any provider. The worst stories were about duplicate charges, never receiving confirmation codes and not being able to reach anyone on the phone after having check in issues at the hotel. None of these were at Temptation by the way but other hotels. I am hoping you or other members on the site can share positive experiences? This will be our first trip in 3 years from the 4 and 2 year old so I don't want any surprises! (well no bad surprises as there sounds like tons of good surprises at temptations!) thanks!!!
