Gday...

Hadda read the initial site provided and then find the video (almost by accident)  

It goes for 8mins so not for this liddle black ducky - on the road, limited broadband ... just how much is it worth it if it is not about vanning/travelling/camping etc

Sorry ... thanks for the link, praps will benefit others.

Cheers - John

Gday...

Go git em Dick ... however, ACCC has already begun legal action against Trivago -

Read about it here

cheers - John

rockylizard wrote:

---

Gday...

Go git em Dick ... however, ACCC has already begun legal action against Trivago -

Read about it here

cheers - John

---

 Hi rockylizard,

you should probably spend a few megabytes to watch the presentation.

The ACCC enquiry you supplied was interesting reading but only really goes to confirm two things.

One that the ACCC has known about this for quite a few years.

Two that the ACCC is just a paper tiger when it comes to these situations.

rockylizard wrote:

---

Gday...

I understand Angie, ACCC seems to be a frustrating organisation on almost all topics and we rarely hear of any successes - if any.

The first mob doing this were WOTIF which I used 15 years ago when w#@*king (hate that word ) and surprisingly it saved me money back then.

I understand Trivago has taken it to another level and are taking the profits.

Interestingly, when my daughter was dying of cancer last year, I used Trivago to book motels in Melbourne a few times, and because I am a cynical bugger, I rang the motel in each instance before taking the booking on/through Trivago and they were dearer than the price shown on Trivago - so I booked through Trivago.

However, I do understand that this is not the case in many, many other instances.

One could suggest that if a "small family owned business motel" is feeling ripped off, why do they continue to remain part of the "Trivago scene" ... if they don't give Trivago permission to include them in their searches surely they won't get "ripped off and the money go to billionaires in multi-nationals in USA".

Jest sayin' 

Cheers - John

---

 rockylizard 

Dick Smith covers all you very valid points in his video.

From what he was indicating if you had contacted the accomodation required before contacting Travago or the like you may have been able to negotiate for yourself.

As Dick explains anyone signed up with these middle men has to sign that they will not under cut them in their agreement.

Dick also explains why the family business can not drop out of the agreement for the very real fear of loosing business.

Again as he explains, it is our collective foolish actions that are encouraging the success of these leeches.

I do most of the Park bookings when we travel and I have noted that a lot of the larger chains use these middle men for bookings. I personally will only deal directly with the Park either on their own website or more commonly, I just phone them and talk to real people.

 

Gday...

.......... and going almost completely off topic 

I recently visited Paronella Park. I decided to book a van site online on their website (van site is included in their entry fee) - simple and quick to do and got an email confirmation of the booking and a receipt.

However, I realised I had not counted my days correctly and had booked for a day later than what I wanted - so I rang them.

They were very good and changed my booking to the day I wanted. However, on neither the day I had originally booked, or the day I wanted to change it to, were there sites available with power/water.

They wanted me to go to their 'new paddock' with no power or amenities ... which I did not want. So they parked me in a bus parking bay behind the cafe for the night which I could only access after 4.30pm when the buses were finished trotting tourists around - they parked me out on the grass verge in front of the park for the day.

It was the first time I have booked online like that ... caught so to speak with an accepted booking when no suitable site available. I won't book online again. I usually phone for bookings.

As always, it ain't wot ya think.

Cheers - John

While overseas last year I booked a lot of my travel accomodation through booking.com I was happy to use the service because at the time it was convenient and the prices seemed to be pretty much in line with what the hotels were advertising. What I did find was that sometimes when they said nothing was available on the dates requested I would ring the hotel direct and find that there were rooms available. A couple of weeks ago I booked a room in Surfers through booking.com and found when I arrived that I had paid $50 more than the special price being offered and as I had gone through a middle man they weren't able to change it. Today I decided to check out Trivago looking for accomodation for a trip that we are planning for Tassie when I found the hotel that I was interested in I clicked on it and ended up being put back on the Booking.com site.  After hearing about the amount of money that is being redirected overseas from these booking services I will be dealing with the hotel or CP operators directly either online or over the phone.

Cheers

BB

-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 13th of September 2018 12:53:22 PM

Old Dick gets quite animated. It's almost like he has been watching John Cadogan videos All that was missing was the word bulls&*t!

Personally I book direct with all the places I intend to stay at.

G'day J&D,

I read that comment as being that John Cadogan must use "Bullsh*t" a lot and Dick didn't but if was watching said videos he should have used the word. I didn't read it as you said 'that' word if that's what you thought he said.

Mmmm, I'm confused!

Hope you are both well.

Dick said Trivago charges up to 30% commission . and the business is not allowed to sell cheaper than the Trivago Website. <<< This must be if person mentions the Trivago website???

In addition the many 100s of millions earned by Trivago all set up so that no ( or very small amount ) of Tax paid in Australia


Dicks suggestion is to book directly with the business, avoid leach company like Trivago getting commission and you probably get cheaper than Trivago anyhow.

And if you spend some of money saved , its a win for Australia, as more money spent locally , instead of up to 30% going overseas with minimal tax.

Uber, google, Adobe, Microsoft, food delivery companies all do this ...

PeterX wrote:

---

Dick said Trivago charges up to 30% commission . and the business is not allowed to sell cheaper than the Trivago Website. <<< This must be if person mentions the Trivago website???

In addition the many 100s of millions earned by Trivago all set up so that no ( or very small amount ) of Tax paid in Australia

---

 All the dealings are done online. The only record of anything happening is money transfers from the accommodation provider is expenses for overseas service. The overseas companies have no earnings in Oz to pay tax.

Technology giants paying just 1 per cent tax - The Australian
www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/treasury/technology-giants-paying-just-1-per-cent-tax/news-story/7c0b49efea4c44e90978aab6d216a30e

.....
Analysis by The Weekend Australian of the 2016 profit-and-loss statements of
Google, Facebook, Apple, eBay and PayPal, which ­together employ fewer than 6500 people in Australia,
show their tax expenses as a share of revenue varied between 0.8 per cent (PayPal) and 1.5 per cent (Google).
.......
By contrast, the big four Australian banks which employ more than 165,000
people and face a new $1.5 billion-a-year tax from July paid between 10 per cent and 15 per cent,
or about $12bn, of their net revenues in tax last year, based on data extracted from Bloomberg.

Tax as a share of revenue is revealing­ because companies can manipulate their profits
(on which corporate tax is levied) by artificially inflating costs.

Antony Ting, a multinational tax expert at the University of Sydney,
said it looked suspiciously like the tech giants profits were still
being shifted to lower-tax ­jurisdictions, such as Singapore and The Netherlands

......

This article has how Uber pays .... just about no tax ...
fortune.com/2015/10/22/uber-tax-shell/


Can not see why UberEats would not be the same.

These companies have teams of accountants and Legal people setting it up.

This article below explains how UberEats takes a very big margin - Similar to Dicks explanation for Accommodation providers
www.news.com.au/finance/small-business/cafe-bans-ubereats-calling-food-delivery-platform-incredibly-exploitative/news-story/ca8d8335914829d0add5cde1a0d43461

Add to that some of the International Online food delivery companies depend on international students desperate for work to do the deliveries. I have personal experience with this, as I rent to some of them ...

I assume I have to get into VigLink & download the attachment(??)

rockylizard wrote:

---

Gday...

.......... and going almost completely off topic 

I recently visited Paronella Park. I decided to book a van site online on their website (van site is included in their entry fee) - simple and quick to do and got an email confirmation of the booking and a receipt.

However, I realised I had not counted my days correctly and had booked for a day later than what I wanted - so I rang them.

They were very good and changed my booking to the day I wanted. However, on neither the day I had originally booked, or the day I wanted to change it to, were there sites available with power/water.

They wanted me to go to their 'new paddock' with no power or amenities ... which I did not want. So they parked me in a bus parking bay behind the cafe for the night which I could only access after 4.30pm when the buses were finished trotting tourists around - they parked me out on the grass verge in front of the park for the day.

It was the first time I have booked online like that ... caught so to speak with an accepted booking when no suitable site available. I won't book online again. I usually phone for bookings.

As always, it ain't wot ya think.

Cheers - John

---

Cannnot see what people rave about. nothing  but old hasbeen ruins at paranella park. beautiful waterfall though. When we got on the bus to leave  they asked us to vote for them though , some tourism thing I guess. Wonder does places like australia zoo ask people when leaving to vote  for them too? Thought it a bit weird.