Loading ...
We decided early on which hotel we wanted in Kolkata based on lots of research and the recommendation of a friend: The Oberoi Grand. Of course the hotel gets great reviews for both the rooms and the service, but the location is perfect for exploring Kolkata.
Prices on the Oberoi website were well over $600 a night, far more than I was willing to pay. And, it was concerning that many hotels in Kolkata were sold out months in advance for our early December dates. A friend said he’d never paid more than US$200 a night there, and encouraged me to wait until the prices came down.
For months, I monitored the Oberoi website almost daily (and never saw any change in rates) and I monitored other websites. I checked the “usual suspects” agoda, hotels.com, expedia, Travelocity, and many others. I googled for best rates several times a week. The, just a couple of weeks ago, suddenly all of the websites showed our dates sold out. Had I waited too long? Was my price point unrealistic?
I redoubled my efforts and finally found two websites that showed availability for our three nights in early December, and at the best prices I’d seen. After looking carefully at both websites, I chose the one that was based in New York City. The other website did not give a physical address, which I found concerning. The prices were within US$10 of each other for the full three nights.
The website I used was gtahotels.com The rate was $707 for three nights, including breakfast, tax and service. The rate required pre-payment, but is cancellable for a full refund up to two weeks before arrival date.
While I didn’t quite meet my friend’s guideline of US$200 a night, I was quite satisfied.
In my long research, I stumbled across a page showing the average rate per night at my hotel for various dates. I found that dates in November did sell for just under US$200 (but did not include tax and service – unclear if they included breakfast), but dates in December jumped by more than US$100 a night.
|
