Accommodation confirmation for EVOA

[Candy77]

I’ve applied for eVisa on Arrival from India for my trip next month, for a ten days stay. I’m staying at VT6, booked through Honey’s. I’ve paid the deposit and got a confirmation email from Honey’s. Now the Immigration is asking for a proper confirmation. I’m guessing something like a PDF confirmation you’ll get from Agoda. I’m not sure Honeys can provide that, have requested them though. What are my other options? Any thoughts or suggestions?

[ricktoronto]

Book a hotel somewhere on the hotel's own website with no prepayment (since prepaying is truly one of the dumbest things one can do when traveling) and print out the confirmation to PDF and use that (Sheraton or Hilton for examples). Just cancel 24-48 hours/6 p.m. same day whatever the terms are for cancellation.

Leave the VT6 reservation alone, and just tell immigration you've chosen a hotel with better documentation to meet their requirements. 

I thought this Honey's was a fairly proper operation so it is surprising they can't/won't/haven't done this as they must get this request a lot.

[Candy77]

1 hour ago, ricktoronto said:

Book a hotel somewhere on the hotel's own website with no prepayment (since prepaying is truly one of the dumbest things one can do when traveling) and print out the confirmation to PDF and use that (Sheraton or Hilton for examples). Just cancel 24-48 hours/6 p.m. same day whatever the terms are for cancellation.

Leave the VT6 reservation alone, and just tell immigration you've chosen a hotel with better documentation to meet their requirements. 

I thought this Honey's was a fairly proper operation so it is surprising they can't/won't/haven't done this as they must get this request a lot.

Thanks mate. I got my Visa. Found a workaround, kind of similar to what you suggested. Found VT6 by Honey listed on Agoda too. Pay at hotel and free cancellation. Plus a confirmation as required from Agoda. Most importantly no change in stated and actual accommodation. So all good. Now I’m gonna cancel the Agoda booking and retain my original booking with Honeys.

[darpra]

booking.com has tons of properties that can be freely cancelled just in case if you run into the same issue.

Also just a tip: eVOA has a single dedicated immigration queue. This time on my visit it was very unlike any other time. There were hoards of Chinese and Indians in all the counters, maybe due to free VOA. The eVOA counter got flooded by regular VOA people. So if you have eVOA you can actually skip the queue and maybe talk to the officer and get yours stamped quickly.

[ricktoronto]

1 hour ago, Candy77 said:

Thanks mate. I got my Visa. Found a workaround, kind of similar to what you suggested. Found VT6 by Honey listed on Agoda too. Pay at hotel and free cancellation. Plus a confirmation as required from Agoda. Most importantly no change in stated and actual accommodation. So all good. Now I’m gonna cancel the Agoda booking and retain my original booking with Honeys.

Frankly if Agoda was the same price and conditions and Honey could not send a simple confirmation you should have given the commission to Agoda. And told Honey why.

[Candy77]

27 minutes ago, ricktoronto said:

Frankly if Agoda was the same price and conditions and Honey could not send a simple confirmation you should have given the commission to Agoda. And told Honey why.

No, Agoda was more expensive. Otherwise I would have done that.

1 hour ago, darpra said:

booking.com has tons of properties that can be freely cancelled just in case if you run into the same issue.

Also just a tip: eVOA has a single dedicated immigration queue. This time on my visit it was very unlike any other time. There were hoards of Chinese and Indians in all the counters, maybe due to free VOA. The eVOA counter got flooded by regular VOA people. So if you have eVOA you can actually skip the queue and maybe talk to the officer and get yours stamped quickly.

Thanks a ton mate. Particularly for the counter tip. I’m sure I’ll save some precious time that way.