Hotel Tax? Or Kano Tax?

[Dave Hounddriver]

3 hours ago, hk blues said:

Just out of interest, I took a look at the Agoda website (i've used it before with no nasty surprises on checking-in) - there is an option to show basic price or total price by clicking on the currency icon at the top - there then appears the option to choose basic price of total price.  

Just for clarification, I followed your advice to a "T" and continued on as if I was going to book and got exactly the same screen for the Marco Polo in Davao as I got on my previous post where I posted a screenshot.

Would you attempt to book the Marco Polo in Davao for a couple of nights somewhere down the road ( I arbitrarily chose mid-September) and see if your final screen before confirming payment does not come up with the same result as I got?

My screenshot was on this post.  I'd be interested to see yours or someone else's screenshot to see if it is the same for everyone.  I tried anonymously and I tried by signing into the site and I tried by choosing base price and again by choosing total price and got the same result each time  (just for this one hotel I mean - no need to check other hotels that they offer as this is the only one I have seen where the website collects the room charge and the hotel collects the tax). 

[hk blues]

42 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Just for clarification, I followed your advice to a "T" and continued on as if I was going to book and got exactly the same screen for the Marco Polo in Davao as I got on my previous post where I posted a screenshot.

Would you attempt to book the Marco Polo in Davao for a couple of nights somewhere down the road ( I arbitrarily chose mid-September) and see if your final screen before confirming payment does not come up with the same result as I got?

My screenshot was on this post.  I'd be interested to see yours or someone else's screenshot to see if it is the same for everyone.  I tried anonymously and I tried by signing into the site and I tried by choosing base price and again by choosing total price and got the same result each time  (just for this one hotel I mean - no need to check other hotels that they offer as this is the only one I have seen where the website collects the room charge and the hotel collects the tax). 

Just did a quick search Dave -

I used the Basic Price option and got 3,378 pesos for 1 night - I changed to Total price and got 4,147 per night.  So, it seems the pricing does change according to which option is chosen.

I didn't go as far as getting to the booking stage - I'd be surprised if it makes any difference but then again...

[GeoffH]

Interesting... but confusing :)

[Kuya John]

We all have different budgets as to what we can afford.

Here in UK that price would get you bed n breakfast for two in a moderate 2-3 star place depending where it was situated.

So my question is what would the members consider a reasonable price for a typical standard hotel in Philippines as a comparison.

( without any tax hike )

My reason for asking when I asked my wife should we book in advance for a trip to Oslob her reply was there are loads of places to choose from we will just pick one on arrival, ( usually done on taxi drivers advice)

 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Kuya John

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

So, it seems the pricing does change according to which option is chosen.

As Geoff said: 

53 minutes ago, GeoffH said:

Interesting... but confusing :)

Perhaps if i had cleared my cache or my cookies I would have got the same result as it was, I got a different result.  It goes to show what people have been saying on here all along:  Just because one member is right does not mean the other member isn't also correct.  Thanks for trying that and reporting the result.