Booking accommodations from abroad: Generally necessary?

fisher

We are booking air and rail from abroad for the first half of a two-month trip, and will finish up soon after we arrive and understand things better. Internet booking of accommodations, however, presents problems. High-end hotels are easy, but it gets harder for some pretty nice midrange places. And obviously, unless the hotel has a good Web site, you can't see the place from abroad, or know how conveniently it is located. Plus the list of places provided by IM, LP, and RG is quite short. Anyway, dropping into a town and finding a place is way cool.

Yet people write "Book ahead!" We read that if we don't book ahead in Jaisalmer in January that we may well end up sleeping on a roof or under a tree. Frankly, and quite seriously, we would pay the penalty of sleeping under a tree a couple of nights if it would free us from having to plan our trip down to, say, how often we pee. (And we aren't even bringing sleeping bags.)

Continuing with the bodily functions theme, how anal do we have to be, in general, to assure that we don't have a super budget trip (due to rarely getting to sleep in a hotel)?

Nothing is certain, all is probability. Any comments from old hands?

fisher

Okay, having thought about it (think BEFORE you submit, right?), it would likely be the case that New Year's Eve on the island in Udaipur needs reservations, and a Wednesday in late January at Jalgaon probably doesn't.

Also Bhopal, in general, no, and Aurangabad, weekday, no. And I guess Delhi, no.

How about:

The Bird Sanctuary at Bharatpur, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra ~Dec 17-20?
Orcha-Khajurajo Dec 21-26?
Hampi ~12-15 Jan?
Goa last half of Jan? Doesn't have to right on the beach. (Maybe better not, in fact. Old Goa is better.)
Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaimur in first half of February?

Not to overburden the old hands, if you spot something that looks questionable, perhaps you could point it out

dhans

semi old :

Good catch Fischer. You may have to look around a bit, but we've never had to sleep on the streets even over X-mas.

Just book a place for when you arrive on your international flight and for the rest you'll be fine.

Hans

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brownboy66

I would guess some of it might depend on the type of accommodation.

There's another ongoing thread at the moment about how all the 5 star hotels in major cities are booked out - till march 2008(and the prices they charge are astronomical - how can anyone afford it)! So no idea what the occupancy is like re the mid range to budget. The YHA is just down the road from us here in Delhi (literally just around the corner) and even in off season its booked out 10 days in advance (and that was for a bunk in the dorm - let alone an actual room of your own).

I think Dhans suggestion is wise - at least book for when you arrive so your not hunting for a room when you have the least amount patience and just want to sleep. Following that - I guess it depends on your patience and humour - and the quality of your camping gear? (maybe look at some tentative bookings for the really major hi season hotspots).

good luck

Nick-H

I'm not keen on not knowing where my head will be lying. We went to Hyderabad for two days last week. Left all the arrangements until the last minute.

If it hadn't been for a friend there ringing round for us while we were in the air, we could have been out on the street.

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the opoponax

I have no idea whether this is the right assumption to make or not, but for everything after my first few nights in Bombay, I've decided to either call ahead a few days before or arrive early in the day and scout around for a good place. Depending on anything from train times to whether I have my heart set on a particular well-recommended spot.

freenote

As dhans says ,hotel with airport pick up when you first arrive, and after just turn up For low to mid budget range there seems a fair supply ,and have never been let down !! The worst that has happened ,we had to stay in millionaire's row (at a very ,very reduced rate )for one night ,till a cheaper room became available ,and one night in a hotel owners private quarters . Didnt like millionaire's row ,nice apartment but no window!!!!!!!!!!
Happy travelling

wonderwomanusa

Except for that all-important first night after arrival (really only about 1/3 of a night, since flights from the West get in around 2am), I've seldom booked in advance and never lacked a place to sleep.

If you're going to Bangalore, however, and don't want to stay near the train station, you should try to book at least a week in advance for the most popular traveller's hotels. And the same goes if you want to splurge and stay at Fairlawn in Kolkata, as it is often booked up.

Bharatpur should be no problem; the same for Agra.

fisher

Thanks everybody. Seems that winging it is in general OK. (Except there's this guy named Nick who feels pretty strongly about booking, and he has 18,590 posts, making it an opiniion carrying considerable weight.)

Nick-H

Strongly denied!

I've lived in Chennai for three years; in some ways that gives me a depth of knowledge that can rival that of a traveller who has known India far longer than I have (a mere decade).

But I'm no-where against the travellers when it comes to actually getting around the country!

And I chat a lot --- so please ignore the post count!

Mickey S

Winging it is okay... you'll nearly always find somewhere to sleep. But whether you end up enjoying the experience depends upon how much weight you place on having somewhere nice to sleep instead of just somewhere. And that, in turn, depends upon the type of traveller you are.

I spend a huge amount of time researching every trip to India, and most of that time is spent researching accommodation, which is undoubtedly the most important part of the trip to me. After a long, hot journey I don't want to have to start looking for a place to stay, and after a long, hot day sightseeing I want to look forward to a peaceful, cool room and a hot shower.

But then, I've never spent two months in India. Two weeks is my limit, and it's much easier to plan a two-week trip in some detail than it is to plan two months. If I were travelling for two months I'd undoubtedly wing it too, as I have done in the past in other south-east Asian countries.