Has anybody heard of an increasing count of problems by Ctrip users this year, particularly with hotel bookings but also with airline tickets? There just seems to be a lot of chatter on various forums and the grapevine about issues such as:
--Hotel bookings not made, even though confirmations were received
--Website prices not being honored, though customer service offers to make bookings at a higher price
--Stated Cancellation policies not being honored
--Duplicate charges to credit cards
--Surly customer service representatives
To be sure, there are still plenty of users that have had no issues with them. But I tend to believe where there's smoke, there's fire and these reports surely can't all be dismissed as from overly sensitive or rookie travelers making mistakes.
Ctrip has obviously undergone quite a bit of expansion over the last few years and along with that, some amendment is business practices as well as its user interfaces (BTW I find their latest English website inferior to what they had before, even though it looks more modern and crisp). For one thing, the company seems to have subcontracted out their hotel bookings to another entity and thus created a friction point where information is getting lost in the shuffle.
I'm not sure any more about recommending them as a first-line provider, especially to those outside China. What say you all?
--Hotel bookings not made, even though confirmations were received
--Website prices not being honored, though customer service offers to make bookings at a higher price
--Stated Cancellation policies not being honored
--Duplicate charges to credit cards
--Surly customer service representatives
To be sure, there are still plenty of users that have had no issues with them. But I tend to believe where there's smoke, there's fire and these reports surely can't all be dismissed as from overly sensitive or rookie travelers making mistakes.
Ctrip has obviously undergone quite a bit of expansion over the last few years and along with that, some amendment is business practices as well as its user interfaces (BTW I find their latest English website inferior to what they had before, even though it looks more modern and crisp). For one thing, the company seems to have subcontracted out their hotel bookings to another entity and thus created a friction point where information is getting lost in the shuffle.
I'm not sure any more about recommending them as a first-line provider, especially to those outside China. What say you all?