The news report in NST today caught my attention. No frill hotel service! There’s a new craze in town brought by the same man who founded AirAsia, Dato’ Tony Fernandes (I really admire this man! He’s the Asian version of Sir Richard Branson) Read the full story on TuneHotels.com launching here. I’m going to try a day stay at this no frill hotel when it’s launched on 15th April 2007. For the launching, rooms will be offered for as low as RM0.99. Too good to be true, so I’ll check it out. I tested the online booking tonight.

Here’s my report:Web browser compatibility:

• There’s still some bugs in the website. For a start, the website isn’t fully compatible with Firefox and I.E. 7.0.
• As you see below, the captions next to the “Go” buttons are missing if viewed using Firefox.

• I performed further testing by (i) logging in first then make online booking and compared it to (ii) book the rooms then login. The verdict in comparison:
  • Firefox 2.0.x: Test (i) failed, Test (ii) passed
  • I.E. 7.0: Test (i) failed, Test (ii) passed

  
  

• Test (i) on both browsers were failed. Once you’re logged-in, you’ll be redirected to your personal area (see below). Unfortunately, there’s no link to click to start making room reservation. Clicking on “Online Booking” on the top menu or “My Bookings” will return null. You basically have to click on “Home” then only you’re able to make a reservation.
• There’s an option to store your bank card information under “My Cards” column but for now, I decided to leave it empty for security reasons as this site is not fully matured.

Registration process:

Registration is a breeze and free of charge. It took less than 3 minutes to fill up the form as it asks for basic information.

Booking process:

• At the moment, only one such hotel is available i.e. Tune Hotel Downtown KL, located at No. 316 Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (ChowKit). There’s a choice of Single or Double room. Both rates start at RM29.82. I guess this is standard starting price if there’s no offer.

• At the second stage, I was asked if I’d like to pay additional for air-conditioning usage. The AC is charged per 12 hours (RM10.49) and 5 hours (RM5.24) credit usage. This is amazing! I’ve seen pay-per-view TV in hotels but not a pay-per-usage air-conditioning

• You will then be asked if you’d like to pay by credit card or cash. If you choose cash, the current payment mode is only manual bank-in via CIMB. I mean manual because after payment is made, you’ll have to fax the “Transaction Acknowledgement Sheet” to TuneHotels.com.

• I did not test the final step which is the payment checkout as I don’t plan to book it yet. Hopefully I will be able to grab the RM0.99 promotion when it’s launch on April 15th.

Looking forward for the website to be fully compatible with the major browsers when it’s launched on April 15th. Judging from my experience with AirAsia online booking, I guess in a year or two, this site will be fully comprehensive, easy and safe to use for online hotel reservation. I also expect that there’ll soon be other hidden charges like what the sister company has now. Won’t be surprise if a year from now, you’re recommended to purchase insurance to protect from fire accident or stolen luggage/valuables. At the end of the day, TuneHotel is a business and they reserve the rights to charge the customers for the extra services or perks that are being offered. It is up to us as consumers to make a wise purchasing decision. Comparatively, I expect that the rate will still be cheaper compared to other budget hotels even after adding the hidden costs.

Congratulations TuneHotels.com! Should’ve been launched last year to be in time for Visit Malaysia 2007.