Agoda: your answer to booking hotel rooms online

Today we will be bringing to you not an online shop but an online portal through which you can book your hotel room! It's nearing the end of the year and we are certain many of you must be plagued by wanderlust by now. Who wouldn't enjoy a getaway from our hectic city life and explore the wonders of a foreign city? However, you should remember that a big part of how your trip turns out depends on the hotel you are living in.

Many people harbour the thought that they would be spending a major part of their day outside and it does not matter which hotel they live in during their trip. Wrong. A good hotel can make your trip so much better from the start with a swift check in and a good, clean and comfortable room to rest in each night when you return. Location is important too and if your hotel is near the metro or train station, you will save a lot on travelling expenses. Things would be even rosier if there is a convenience store nearby for you to grab any essentials like bottled water or some snacks when you are hungry.

Agoda is your answer to book the suitable hotel room quickly and conveniently. The website is easy to navigate and you can search for a specific hotel or browse through a range of hotels in a particular city. You can key in the dates you intend to travel to check the rates and availability of the hotel. The search results will list the different available rooms types with a short description of the room as well as the applicable rates. The rates are usually quite good and there is usually a significant discount extended as compared to booking through the hotel site itself.

Scroll down and you will see a list of the facilities available at the hotel you are browsing. We find this feature very useful as it is important to know whether there is air-conditioning, heating and of course, complimentary wifi.

The middle of the web page usually shows you a short description of the hotel and useful information like the check-in and check-out timing.

And of course, you would definitely want to read some reviews from others who have stayed in the hotel you are browsing before jumping in and making your choice. It is always good to make an informed choice. The reviews at the bottom save you the trouble having to toggle between Agoda and Tripadvisor so that you can read about everything that has been said about the hotel all in one page.

Another useful feature is that Agoda actually lists the hotels that you have browsed earlier so that any time you decide that the previous one you saw was better and you are ready to book, all you have to do is click on the link on the left. Saves you the trouble having to memorize all the hotels you have browsed and searching for it later!

Very useful website to book your hotel rooms! :) And now you know you have a good hotel to return to after a long day out exploring....

www.agoda.com 

Asos online shopping

The white and black background of the ASOS website is simple and chic, drawing your attention to the main  pictures of the clothes and other products. It is easy to navigate around the website and the products are neatly arranged in tabs at the top left hand corner. Products are first arranged according to "female" and "male" and further divided into sub-categories of various other items. 

The clothes themselves are not cheap, but with their sale, you might actually find something at a great discount. Coupled with free international shipping, ASOS is indeed very attractive. However free shipping only applies to flat rate shipping, and you have to pay more for express delivery. You can click the tab that says free delivery worldwide to have an idea how much express delivery cost for your region.

The good thing about the ASOS website is that it not only offers a shopping experience, it is a full-fledged portal that allows you to buy and sell vintage clothes as well as share your looks and outfits. The "Marketplace" tab is a platform on which you can buy and sell new, pre-owned or vintage clothes while the "Outfits and Looks" tab is like a Lookbook whereby people can share their looks and outfits. Pretty interactive if you ask us! Not only can you shop here, you can also post pictures of your outfits for everybody else to see!

We placed our order about a week and a half ago and it arrived yesterday. The packaging was a simple grey sealed plastic bag delivered into our mailbox. Our pair of Voi chinos was packaged in another plastic wrapping inside the grey bag with our order chit within.

We like the idea of free international shipping and it is really fun to shop online with ASOS when they are having a sale. Also, the fact that their website is like an entire package is really interesting too! A place to shop, buy, sell and share your outfits with everybody else. The best all rolled into one!

www.asos.com

Sg bestbuy world for cosmetics part 2

So as we were saying in our previous post, we placed our order with sg bestbuy world on Saturday. They dropped us an sms in the afternoon on Saturday to inform us that our cosmetics would be delivered on Monday during our stipulated time frame. And true enough, our goodies reached us today!

We cannot describe how good it feels to have your purchase delivered right to your doorstep just after the weekend. So swift and efficient indeed. Don't you absolutely hate waiting around for your goodies to reach you, all the while wondering if it is somewhere lost in translation? Sg bestbuy world worked well around that and gets your purchase to you quick enough. They messaged us once more before delivery which was what we requested when we placed our order. Very personalized customer service.

Our goodies came in a colourful bestbuy world plastic bag with an order chit tagged neatly on the top.

Our goodies came exactly as featured and described on the website. No surprises there which is good! Our lipsticks and gloss came in the shades that we chose and the packaging looks exactly like it should. The shades displayed on the website are accurate as far as we could tell so it is probably a safe bet to use that as a gauge.

Sg bestbuy world has a point system so that you can accumulate points as you spend and exchange these points for discount when you next purchase something. A very tempting system to keep you hooked! Well, we are happy customers of sg bestbuy world so far and will definitely return.

sg.bestbuy-world 

Sg bestbuy world for cosmetics part 1

We discovered this online shop a long while back and finally got around to placing an order with them. They have a wide range of cosmetics and skincare from the popular brands like Clinique, Christian Dior and Estee Lauder to the cult brands like Bremenn Research, Benefit and Sulwahsoo. At sg.bestbuy world, you can order the regular sizes of the products you want to purchase, or you can buy small testers to travel. 

The website is easy to navigate and allows you to shop by the different types of products or by the brands. The scroll bar at the left of the web page lists all the different types of products they have as well as the brands on sale. The scroll bar on the right of the web page shows you the best sellers for the particular type of product you are shopping for. For example, when I was shopping at the eye cream section, the scroll bar will display the best selling eye cream for my purview. There is also a small portion at the right that shows you the items which you have viewed recently so that you can easily switch back to the products which you were looking at earlier on. It also helps you to keep track of the items you are interested 

The best part about sg.bestbuy world is that the cosmetics and skin care products are sold at a discounted price as compared to those in the stores. The discount can be substantial like a Bremenn Research eye cream is sold at $72 when the original price is $98. We are such suckers for discount!!! :D

To place an order, you have to sign up for an account which is relatively quick if you are familiar with the online shopping procedure. Then simply add the products you wish to purchase to your shopping cart and then check out. There is free delivery if you purchase more than $60 worth of products which in our opinion is a reasonable prerequisite. There is a $10 delivery charge if you purchase less than $60 worth of products. So just stock up on more items like your cleanser, toner, moisturizer and cosmetics and you should be able to hit the $60 mark easily.

You can choose for cash on delivery or payment by credit card. We chose the credit card option and was promptly directed to another webpage to key in our credit card details. You can also specify the time you wish for your items to be delivered. You can have it during office hours if you are getting your purchase delivered to your office or maybe in the afternoon if you are staying home in the day. They have a delivery schedule as shown below:

The personal touch in this is that they actually provide a small box in which you can have some special request with respect to your order. We would say that they do have very personalized customer service as our request was promptly met within an hour of placing the order.

Will update further when our products are delivered. Meanwhile do explore sg.bestbuy-world and let us know what you think.

All about the best places to shop

Goodies Mag aims to bring to you the best places to shop online and offline. With the explosion of online shopping and the ease of purchasing things with just a click, we are roaring to share with you the best we have come across and the good deals around Singapore. Of course, nothing beats seeing and trying on a dress or a shoe in real life and even though online shopping is so attractive, it is undeniable that there are perks in shopping in real life. But you would agree with us that brick and mortar shops are so much more expensive!! So we are on a quest to dig for the best brick and mortar shops too to bring to you the good deals around our sunny little island.

This is just the beginning and we hope to extend our reach soon, to online shops based overseas and good shopping areas in other countries. We are so excited to kick start this journey and to share with you our favourite hobby.

We are certain this is going to be so much fun!