TravelGayAsia.com

[Guest thaiworthy]

This appears to be a very informative web site about travel to Gay Asia. I especially like the maps. Nearly every conceivable gay destination seems to have a map. This is an excellent resource. Includes information about special parties, events and discount offers. Very well laid out and easily organized. Has an intuitive interface and strikes me as very professional in its overall design and development. Very impressive and definitely worth a look.

 

Travel Gay Asia has been created by a small group of guys who want to help gay visitors from all around the world enjoy Asia as much as we as do ourselves. Our business has been incorporated in the UK but technical development is undertaken in Bangkok.

We initially launched our site as Travel Gay Thailand in February 2011. In July 2011 we expanded to become Travel Gay Asia with coverage of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei. We commenced coverage of Indonesia in August , Cambodia in September, Malaysia in October, Shanghai in November and the Philippines in December! We plan to add other countries during 2012.

 

http://www.travelgayasia.com/

 

Just out of curiosity, I randomly checked some of the links to Agoda's rates for the accommodations they had listed. I could not believe how cheaply one can stay at some of these hotels in Manila, for example. Looks interesting. Really made me want to pack and go!

[Guest fountainhall]

Just out of curiosity, I randomly checked some of the links to Agoda's rates for the accommodations they had listed.

As I am about to book my hotel for the Taipei Gay Pride Parade in late October, I also checked the site's rates. Sorry to say its prices are a bit higher than others I can obtain!

 

For example, for the Landis Hotel (which I have stayed at many times over the last 25 years and would frankly not classify as particularly gay friendly), travelgayasia has a link over to agoda with a rate of Bt. 4,864 per night. Yet, if you go direct to the agoda site, it quotes Bt. 4,566.

 

I also looked at the W Hotel which is not listed on agoda, so it links you to the hotels.com site. That gives the lowest available price at Bt. 10,376 per night. Yet the hotel's own website has a rate of Bt. 9,979! (All rates are for the lowest available room rate inclusive of tax and service but no breakfast).

 

As has been discussed many times, the answer is for anyone considering hotel bookings on the internet to make sure they check several sites before coming to a decision!

[Guest]

Thank you for posting the link.

 

This site looks like a potentially useful option for those locations that don't really have other good gay guides at present.

 

However, a quick look at the Tokyo & Pattaya maps, shows the mapping is neither comprehensive nor accurate. In Sunee, the map only shows 4 venues and the location of 2 of them is incorrect.

As a positive, whilst other Thai gay guides are more comprehensive & accurate, at least the use of google maps on this travelgayasia gives the first time visitor a good idea of where the respective gay areas are located within each city.

 

Then there's the question of what hotels qualify for inclusion in the guide. The majority of the Pattaya ones seem to be known gay friendly places. Would be nice to know if the hotels in locations such as Laos are known gay friendly destinations, or just hotels that have a paid listing.

Some other websites have many paid listings, I don't know what the policy is on this one.

[Guest thaiworthy]

Ooops . . . well, sorry guys. I just gave it a cursory look-thru. Seemed to have quite a few maps for a lot of different places you wouldn't normally find much info for. I didn't look at every map, so I guess even that needs improvement. I think you are right Z, probably just paid listings. I did notice the Hong Kong map wouldnt show at all. Oh, well . . .

 

FH, I put in the dates of Oct. 24 thru Nov. 8 for 15 nights at the Taipei Landis Hotel. Here is a clipping of the rate it gave me through the TGA link. This reflect a 47% discount, so it says. I don't know the dates you entered, but this quote does seem lower than what your post indicated.

[Bob]

For the heck of it, found the Landis Hotel's own website, put in the same dates as Khun Thaiworthy, and it says the price for a Superior Room (w/2 adults) is TWD3,586.64 (or 3,785 Thai baht) per night. I don't know about "add-ons", if any, as I didn't check that.

 

While I agree that one should check around, sometimes the cheapest option is directly with the hotel itself (which cuts out the middleman.....as surely these other sites are charging something for the service).

[Guest fountainhall]

surely these other sites are charging something for the service

Of course! But you forget that they are also negotiating volume discounts directly with the hotels. In 90%+ cases, I have found a booking engine offering lower rates than the hotel.

 


FH, I put in the dates of Oct. 24 thru Nov. 8 for 15 nights at the Taipei Landis Hotel. Here is a clipping of the rate it gave me through the TGA link. This reflect a 47% discount

Sorry gentlemen, but looks can be deceiving! As I have said before on more than just this site, the problem here is one that is typical with hotel and airline booking sites. They happily display for you the basic rate – but this rarely includes service charge, tax and any booking engine fee. Agoda is typical in this respect. You only find out the true cost once you go on to the next page to start the booking process.

 

Here is a scan of what agoda’s next page looks like. I have compared the period I was checking (October 25 – 29) and thaiworthy’s 15 days (October 24 – November 9) –

 

 

As you can see, for thaiworthy’s 15 nights, there is an extra charge of Bt. 216.78 per night. For my 4 nights, the extra charge is Bt. 225.10 per night. (I assume the difference between last night and this morning is due to exchange rate movements, but I have no idea why the charges for one booking are different to another).

 

As for the hotel’s own website, comparing like with like, I checked the rate for my planned stay of 4 nights. The cheapest rate on the booking page is TWD3,945. Start the booking process and you suddenly find this –

 

Tax Recovery Charges and Service Fees

NT$2,367 TWD

 

That’s for 4 nights. So the total nightly rate is actually hiked to NT$ 4,517. Using Bob’s exchange rate, that will total Bt. 4,765.44. Ergo - agoda is cheaper! Yet, as I mentioned above, book the W Hotel and the hotel's own site IS cheaper.

 

I've often said I'll be a travel agent in my next life. Any more questions?

 

Caveat emptor!

[Bob]

I've often said I'll be a travel agent in my next life. Any more questions?

 

Egads.....Next time I'll let my travel agent (www.fountainhill.com) handle it....and hope that his taxes and surcharges include a slim Thai man who will personally walk me through the process....

[Guest fountainhall]

hope that his taxes and surcharges include a slim Thai man who will personally walk me through the process....

That's why they're there! My service is exemplary!

[pong]

there are more sites like that:

gayscout, nickysgay/xyz (mainly TH-rest of Asia is very sparse)

I noted this site some time ago-out of curiosity as it came up with google searches for this forum. Seems like a tr-agent who is aiming the pink €€€($?)- and has access to some other listing sites. but as such that does not mean it is allbad-just be aware of the alternatives.

Have not seen it, so no idea about how actual it is (my check is always Jogya in Indo and some very new BKK-venues out of the Silom clonezone).\

Also note that on some of those HTLbookingssites they quote you the price pp=half the roomprice!

[Guest CambodiaOut]

Another GLBT site to check out is CambodiaOut, Southeast Asia GLBT Community. http://www.cambodiaout.com Hope you enjoy it

[Guest]

I've used CambodiaOut several times & recommend it. Not just for Cambodia, but also Vietnam, Laos & possibly other countries.