Travel

So I was looking at airline prices on AirAsia today, which happens to be the same day that cheap airplane tickets started to go on sale.. When I saw the price of RM200 per person to Taiwan, just a few days before Christmas, I kinda had the urge to buy the tickets then and there. Unfortunately the return ticket cost around 500-600.. For 2 people it would set me back like 1.5k..

Although it is still affordable, since working I kinda don't like parting with my money.. As a manager once said, when you OT think about all the hours you pour in not getting paid and stuff.. Considering the effort you have to put in for the paycheck at the end of the month, it's a lot of hard work that I would be wasting..

The alternative of Returning when cheap tickets are available would be waiting until the 17th, the ticket would cost 800 bucks for 2 people.. Damn was it tempting to disappear right after ACCAs and returning a whole month later..

Then putting in hotel expenses into the equation my plans were completely shattered.. On the other hand, i found that buying plane tickets with hotels together didn't vary far from buying tickets from AirAsia during promotions then adding hotel expenses.. So technically travelling at any time of the year should be feasible..

Then i started looking at Europe and USA and practically everywhere on t globe that i could remember.. thinking of a trip during Christmas made me think of travelling to the North Pole.. hours flew by as i search for useless information and half my dar was wasted without studying..

Really can't find my focus this sitting, I hope somehow I can pull through.. Anyways I found out Santa's PI box in Canada is actually H0 H0 H0, and the post office actually has a team to respond to all the Santa mail..

Bookings

I was wondering why travel agent websites like expedia.com, booking.com or hotel.com are able to offer lower prices for hotel rooms and still get paid a commission for any sales they make..

I actually called up a hotel that i was planning to book a room from and asked them, apparently they negotiate contracts for this arrangements, which made me wonder why any hotel would want to enter such an agreement in the first place..

Then I realize, hotel rooms are just like any commodity, the agents buy the rooms in bulk for lower prices and the hotel removes the uncertainty of not knowing exactly what future bookings will be like..

In order words: economies of scale~

But then this leads me to another thought, for service industry such as hotel, wouldn't removing this risk also remove any incentive to actually provide good service? I mean hotels are even giving out commissions to encourage agents to sell rooms..

I guess the the challenge would be on maintaining the motivation to keep quality up..

I think I'm going to post shorter posts more frequently.. annual blog post kinda defeats the purpose of having a blog.. Anyways there's an app to blog stuff so i guess i can type up a post more conveniently..