Cochin - accommodation

alley330

two weeks to go and i havent book anywhere to stay. havent been back to india in 12 years - when i travelled then I never booked anywhere. but everyone tells me you need to book because of high season. Need a comfortable guesthouse/homestay in cochin.
have tried several from the indiamike listing all fully booked.

please help - happy to pay up to rps1500 a night for double.

Member john.sw mentioned a women in cochin called jenny for help with good accommodation - anybody know her or of her details.

would be glad to hear from someone.

vandy

Hi Alley,

I know Jenny very well,her contact details are

www.cochinkerala.com make sure you let her know
Paul has reccomended her to help you.
She's Terrific !!!!!!

There's a good chance I'll be staying at Jenny's
next year.

Rgds - vandy

Rollins

I stayed in the Spencer Guest Home, it was pretty good and only 500 a night but that was 6 years ago.

Phil.

__________________
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

Booradley

Have just stayed at Le Royale with Jenny and Jose. You can't do better in/around Cochin. I have another E Mail address
fourens@eth.net
Le royale is a mansion house with luxury rooms.Jenny and her staff are great cooks. Best food we had in Kerala

Ken

Sama

I know they are booked solid all thru January. I tried to get a reservation and that is the email that was sent to me.

__________________
My India, 2005-2008
BE THE REVOLUTION

alley330

Hi thanks for info , Jenny has booked me into Spencer Home. do you know this place. Im sure it must be okay if she has done the booking.

vandy

Hi Alley, So glad to see Jenny found somewhere for you.

She's Wonderfull, I reccomend her not just for her Le Royale
Property, Jenny is so helpful and kind and will do her best to try and help someone whether its accom,or short tours,general advice.

That should be a load of your mind.

All the Best

vandy

dhans

Second that one (hé, I didn't even start it this time )

Hans

__________________

Tips for trips to India with (young) children: India with kids
Stories about our travels in India: Journal

Nick-H

.

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

vandy

Happy to Reccomend ANYONE who can Help a member of IM.

Afterall, isn't this one of the Functions of this
Site, to assist travellers IF we can.

No worries Hans, waiting to hear from Loser who had a crack at you some time back,Bring It On !!!

I quite often direct travellers from other travel sites to IM when they are unable to get answers to their Queries.

Rgds - vandy

pundabee

So, the discussion resurfaced, and it is an interesting one where the poster loser, even though Vandy's comment is disparaging, made a good point in another thread. There are three rules on IndiaMike concerning advertising (shortened below for the purpose of this post):

1) No Advertising: Posting of advertisements for products or services, affiliate links, links to promote websites, and so forth is not allowed except in areas that are stated for this purpose. Links to commercial websites are allowed, if it is a legitimate reply to a question. Any violation of this rule will result in a permanent ban with no warnings.

2) No commercial activity: Commercial activity of any kind, without the written consent of IndiaMike.com, is strictly forbidden.

3) No solicitation: Any solicitation of commercial activity, through user controlled content including, but not limited to user names, signatures, posts, and member profiles, is strictly forbidden without the written content of IndiaMike.com.

The point is that Jenny (whom I don't know, by the way) is running a business, and apparently does this to great satisfaction for her customers. But she is not the only person who offers great satisfaction to her customers. She just happens to be the one getting recommendations on IndiaMike because some of her customers post on this site. However, the service she provided in this case was a very simple one since all she had to do was to phone up Spencer Home to arrange a booking. Any half decent tour operator (TO) knows Spencer Home and could have done the same. And considering that Spencer Home features in respected guide books most tourists could have done it themselves. In short, it is not exactly rocket science to make a booking with Spencer Home.

So, every time Jenny is recommended on IndiaMike she will get business that could otherwise have benefited, maybe even more so than Jenny, other TOs in Kerala. Some people may wonder how this is business to Jenny considering that all she had to do was to call up Spencer Home to confirm a booking. This is where the commission system comes in. Commission exists all over India, but it seems particular well developed in the Southern part of Kerala. For TOs it works in one of the following ways when it comes to referring customers to a particular accommodation:

1) The TO will take part of the rent from the accommodation owner. For instance, if the rent is advertised as Rs. 1500, the tourist will pay 1500 to the accommodation owner, and the accommodation owner will pay, say, Rs. 200 to the TO. This approach to commission is the most common when the rent is above a certain amount, and it has, as a consequence, little impact on the accommodation owner to pay commission because the rent is relatively high. The consequence for the tourist is that it will be almost impossible to negotiate the rent with the accommodation owner.

2) The TO will take the commission directly from the tourist. This is usually done when more than one accommodation is booked through the TO, and when the payment is made through the TO. The worst example I have heard of is someone who ended up paying Rs. 2000 for an accommodation where, had they booked directly with the accommodation owner, they would have paid only Rs. 500. Obviously, this particular TO was a rogue TO.

Of course, Jenny may be outside the commission system, but how are we to know? So, why not get it out in the open? How much, if any, commission is Jenny taking for these booking services? Does she arrange low cost accommodation (less than Rs. 500) where the scope for commission is lower and the commission is less? This is the kind of information I would need before using a TO.

I know quite a few TOs in Kerala that I could recommend, but I don't do so since, if everyone did so, it would ruin an otherwise brilliant forum.

vandy

Hey pundabee, if your trying to suggest that I should be banned for assisting a fellow traveller.
GO AHEAD, If I knew of anyone else who could help
travellers besides Jenny I WOULD.

Many,many members on this site reccomend places for accomodation,eateries,festival s,places to shop,
Different State Tourism Corporations(which are useless)taxi drivers,money exchangers,airlines, bus company's,particular brands
of Alcohol,charities,nightclubs,d iscos & so on & on

I can assure you one thing my friend, my world WILL NOT collapse if I get banned from IM for helping a fellow Traveller. I answered a
LEGIT question for someone who was finding it hard
getting accomodation.

Have a Good Day

Rgds & Best Wishes

vandy

pundabee

I would never suggest the banning of anyone (this is a minor issue anyway, and I am not that type of person), and the moderators have already, previously, indicated that advertising Jenny's services is acceptable. If anything, it is a criticism of their approach. What provoked me was your attitude to a person with a different view than yours.

I think there is a big difference between allowing the advertisement or recommendation of tour operators for the purpose of finding accommodation, and accommodations. If a person asks for accommodation in Kochi within a certain price range it makes sense to make suggestions, because this is what the poster is asking for. However, it doesn't make sense to allow the recommendation of tour operators who make money on providing this service. It is almost the same as you charging Rs. 200 to provide the poster with information about a particular, available and recommended accommodation.

The consequence is that tourists are paying too much for accommodation and accommodation owners make less money on their business solely because of the addition of a tour operator to the equation whose contribution is of little value.

Of course, if someone was asking for a recommended tour operator, it would be reasonable to suggest tour operators with whom one had had good experiences.

Considering the nature of tourism in India, it may be worth considering adding a "Tour operator review section" similar to the "hotel review section". Such a section would direct people towards the third parties that actually provide value for money.

ronago

We had been in Cochin twice before i read about Jenny in this forum.
We visited Cochin twice time again and stay at Jenny's hotel..What a plesure...you can't compare it even with the Taj group hotels!!!!
So i think that if i got the pleasure to know her through this forum , why i'll avoid this from others!!!!!!!!

Roni

pundabee

So, why did you not add a review to the review section? Additionally, I think you may have misunderstood my points.

The question, of course, still remains:

Which of the following approaches is Jenny using:

1) She arranges the accommodation for free (the saintly approach).

2) She arranges the accommodation for a fee paid by the tourist (the transparent and honest approach).

3) She arranges the accommodation for a fee paid by the accommodation owner without notifying the tourist (the commission approach or dishonest approach).

This is the kind of information I would need before I could recommend someone.