CRS Hotels Online: A Pleasant and Efficient Travel/Hotel Booking Service
Written: Sep 27 '04 (Updated Sep 27 '04)
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I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I wanted to book a hotel in New York after my husband, who is up there already on business, checked out the hotel where I had reserved a room over a month ago for the end of this week and into the beginning of next week. He told me in no uncertain terms that I would not be happy at all with that hotel or the room he was shown since he knows what a picky person I can be when it comes to hotel rooms. (At the time of my booking we were limited as to where we could stay due to the fact that he had to be near Penn Station to commute to Long Island to attend the seminars he was taking.. Now, we no longer had these restrictions)...So, after making some calls to a few hotel chains, the method I usually prefer, I found the prices really skyrocketed for anything decent during the time frame I needed...Then I thought, let me try some on line websites and see what I can dig up.
I did a google search for travel, and after trying about 5 different sites, I was getting discouraged when suddenly I found one called CRS Central Reservation Services. I typed in New York at the designated place and a page came up with quite a few options, one caught my eye, since I knew the hotel chain, and was amazed at the rate that was showing...After I glanced over the site and payment methods I booked it immediately in case the availability changed. There was no service charge by CRS and the hotel had a 48-hour cancellation policy, which was fine with me.
I called my husband, since he was in the city already, and he took a walk over to the hotel...When he called me back he said book it, the hotel was so much nicer than the previous one, in a much better location and when he saw the room he said it was really lovely, bright, airy and clean, with what appeared to be new furnishings, one I would be very happy in..Best of all, the price was even lower then the other…And, for a Helmsley hotel no less! I told him I already had, of course knowing me he should have known that already!
CRS Central Reservation Services is a fairly new service and considerably smaller in scope then others like Expedia, Orbitz, and others like that since they only have 5 destinations in which to choose a hotel, Miami, New York, Chicago, Boston and Orlando and only represent about 100 hotels all together in those cities. So, if that city is on your agenda, you are in luck. They keep their inventory of hotels small so they can provide quality and assure that quality by sending e-mails to their clients after they have stayed at the property asking them what they thought about their experiences at that particular hotel...If too many negatives are found they drop that hotel from their service.
I looked up the hotel I was interested in on some other travel sites and the cost per room was considerably higher, even the person my husband saw at the reservation desk said I received an extremely good deal for under $200 a night in Manhattan during this upcoming busy season… I even called the Helmsley 800 number and was given a much higher price at nearly $300 a night...So today I am a happy, soon to be traveler.
The site is extremely easy to navigate: The Homepage is actually the Find a Hotel page;
Under quick search, there is a drop down box to put in your check in date, first the month then the day, then the city, then the number of rooms, adults and children...To the side of that is a calendar so you can double check your dates..Also, on that page are their reservations requirements which states you need a credit card number and expiration date to hold the room and it clearly states your card will not be charged until you check in...You do have to check the hotels cancellation policy. Ours had a 48-hour cancellation policy with no fees incurred for canceling
On the bottom of that page are also statements from satisfied customers; making the reservations, the customer service, the quality of the rooms and the friendliness of the representatives…I guess these were quotes taken from the questionnaires sent out.
On the left side of the page are links to other pages, Find a Hotel, which is the same as the home page, Hotel Deals, Group Travel, Become a Hotel Affiliate and, CRS News. I didn’t find too much other information on those pages except for a brief history of the site and one Hotel Deal.
Find A Hotel
After I put in my dates I was taken to the New York page and found 30 hotels located in different parts of the Manhattan..Each hotel listed the dates I wanted, some with the dates unavailable..I’m not sure if it was because the hotel was occupied or if CRS only had a certain quantity of rooms they can book...Each hotel offered pictures of the rooms, lobbies and other ammenities in the hotels as well as maps of their locations...The hotel I was interested in, The New York Helmsley, truly fit my bill and my price range, especially now that I didn’t have to be near Penn Station anymore since my husband wouldn’t be commuting into the city during that time frame..I loved the fact that now we could stay on the East Side, in a much better neighborhood and that the hotel was closer to many of the places I wanted to visit during our stay.
When you find the hotel you are interested in you click on the Select This Hotel tab and are taken to the hotel page, then after looking around you click Book This Hotel the reservation information comes up along with the total cost of the room for your entire stay including taxes and any additional costs..You are then asked if you are a returning customer, which I wasn’t, so I had to sign up with my name, a password for future bookings, my address, and credit card information. It was that simple!
After booking the room I immediately received a confirmation e-mail from them stating there were no charges for the booking unless we backed out before the hotel requirements for cancellations.
To get a further feel for the types of hotels offered I did a search for hotels in two other cities I was familiar with, Miami and Orlando, where I found extremely good prices and very decent properties some in the higher price range, others in the moderately priced range..All seemingly lower than I would have expected, especially for hotels on Miami Beach, though I must say many of them were not available for the dates I put in which were just a few days away. I imagine that would be different if booking farther in advance.
They also state that your reservations can be revised or canceled at any time, with no penalty fees, as long as there is availability at the hotel...You can also book your room on the phone using one of their 2 phone lines, one an 800 phone number or by Fax, especially beneficial if you have any questions regarding the hotel. I called them today to make sure my reservation had been confirmed before canceling my other hotel reservation...The person I spoke to was friendly and very helpful
Overall, I’m very happy with my experience using CRS Central Reservation Services. It was easy, fast and very efficient offering fair prices, a varied selection of properties, though limited destination cities, along with friendly service and I would recommend them very highly to anyone who seeks a hotel in the 5 cities they represent... Now I just have to wait and see if the hotel lives up to my expectations and honors the requests I made as far as the view I asked for. Those of you who know me know I love a good view!
If you need to call them their hours of operation are:
Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST.
Closed Sundays and major holidays.
Thanks Amy for adding this website to the database so quickly.
Recommended:
Yes
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