Booked Sanya trip through Ctrip
By stlplace on Aug 19, 2007 in China
I have been a Ctrip user since 2005: in May 2005 I booked the air ticket and hotels to Jiu Zhai Gou from them. I also visited their call center when I picked up the tickets (they did offer to deliver the tickets, but I had some free time and was curious about their operation so I went). In early 2006 I booked motels (Home Inns) through Ctrip, because I know I can get CNY 10.00 discount that way (without Home Inns membership).
More than two years has passed, I am using their service again. This time we are going Sanya (note the we instead of I). A lot has been changed in China travel business in past 5 years. More people are taking the “freedom tour”, vs. the old way of “group tour”, in which people pretty much “sleeping in the bus”, and “shoot pictures at different scenic spots”. In this “freedom tour”, where people drive their own car, or take their own walk, they don’t have to worry about when the tour bus will leave, which place the tour guide will take us to shop, etc (picture courtesy of travelplaces.co.uk)
By the way, Ctrip (CTRP) came to Nasdaq in late 2003, and has been very successful since its IPO. I regards Ctrip as a role model for business: a good business brings value for its customers, grows its employee, and rewards for its shareholders.
Let’s don’t go to the bad business, it’s the opposite.
sophie | Aug 20, 2007 | Reply
i tried ctrip in 2005, but it was a bad experience. i booked a hotel in shanghai, it’s a 3 (or 4?) star, brand new hotel. it’s definetly a ‘brand-new’, i believe i was the first guest of the hotel, since the room has not really been set up yet. there is a phone in the room but can’t be used; there is shower in the bath but it took 2+ hrs to get hot water.
stlplace | Aug 20, 2007 | Reply
Sophie,
Sorry to hear you bad exp with Ctrip. As you may know, 3 star hotels in Shanghai is usually not as good as Home Inns (Rujia) or Jinjiang Inn. I don’t know how much you pay for those hotels, but I think 200 Yuan per night at Home Inns is a decent deal. Home Inns is not perfect but it does have hot shower, etc.
I hope that alone did not ruin your Shanghai trip