Better To Book Hotels Directly or A Booking Site?

[SecondAttempt]

I don't really have anything against the booking sites but both airlines and hotels reward loyalty in often unseen and unadvertised ways. I recently made lifetime platinum in Marriott brands and nearly always get a significant upgrade, often to a suite. On a recent overnight at an airport hotel they gave us a suite bigger than most apartments I have lived in, free breakfast, free drinks, and a few other perks. Did we need it, no, but that kind of treatment is typical. Now, most people will not make lifetime platinum. I did so because of business travel for several years and some targeted stays and offers including benefiting immensely from the Starwood merger. I now have millions of Marriott points. That's enough to fund our hotel stays for several years of retirement. (Yes, I realize those points will likely get devalued but it's still a lot.)

On United I reached 1K during my peak years of business travel but have mostly just been silver for many years. Still I got upgraded to first class for free about half the time on flights to and from the mainland and Hawaii recently (precovid).

I sometimes check the booking sites just to keep everyone honest but often you get quoted the crappy rooms near the elevator or ice machine with a view of the roof a/c unit for a savings of $13 that largely goes away after paying a booking fee or something.

If you don't travel much and won't reach any loyaly status then maybe saving a little is worth it. But I've noticed that even being a member of the loyalty program and having booked directly often gets a small benefit. I always join and book directly with the hotel.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Yeah I go back and forth between hotels and vacation apartments, both on booking.com and Airbnb or VRBO.

I used to run a vacation rental that I sold in 2017. The industry consolidation really screwed over individual owner and guests. I used to give a 20-30% discount to monthly guests and had no booking fee. Expedia bought VRBO and suddenly my ability to discount was limited AND Expedia took a HUGE fee. I will never rent a vacation rental through a booking site because I think they are highly unethical. I'm fine with capitalism and all. But those sites are bad news.

I've lately run into a similar issue with Turo which is a car rental version of AirBNB. It is against the law in Hawaii to use airport parking lots for commercial operations. Turo uses the Kona airport lot for their rentals and it results in completely full lots at all times. Everyone is ticked including employees who cannot park for work. Turo was forced to stop this practice in Honolulu and Kauai by a state law. But in Kona they have no commercial lot to rent so they flaunt the law. Some of these corporate "peer-to-peer" companies are real slime and downright criminal. I avoid them.

 

[audreyh1]

My experience with traditional vacation rentals is that AirBnB and VRBO charge the same fees although VRBO includes the taxes upfront in their quotes as part of the fees, whereas AirBnB does not and you have to hunt for it. I try to find a local property management company and deal with them directly if I can. The booking sites can be very aggressive about demanding reviews as well with some hosts begging for 5* and promising they will give you 5* and that leaves a bad taste as well as less trust in reviews.

Didn’t know about Expedia owning VRBO. That explains some changes I had noticed.

 

[athena53]

I don't really have anything against the booking sites but both airlines and hotels reward loyalty in often unseen and unadvertised ways. I recently made lifetime platinum in Marriott brands and nearly always get a significant upgrade, often to a suite. On a recent overnight at an airport hotel they gave us a suite bigger than most apartments I have lived in, free breakfast, free drinks, and a few other perks.

Ah, one of my Murphy's Laws of Travel. You always get an upgrade to a huge, splendid room only when you're there for a quick overnight.

I agree on the loyalty- I have Lifetime Gold on American and I get (sort of) priority boarding, a free checked bag and a few extra miles per trip. I used to get the occasional upgrade but typically it was on the one-hour jaunt between Kansas City and Chicago.

 

[explanade]

I used to run a vacation rental that I sold in 2017. The industry consolidation really screwed over individual owner and guests. I used to give a 20-30% discount to monthly guests and had no booking fee. Expedia bought VRBO and suddenly my ability to discount was limited AND Expedia took a HUGE fee. I will never rent a vacation rental through a booking site because I think they are highly unethical. I'm fine with capitalism and all. But those sites are bad news.

I've lately run into a similar issue with Turo which is a car rental version of AirBNB. It is against the law in Hawaii to use airport parking lots for commercial operations. Turo uses the Kona airport lot for their rentals and it results in completely full lots at all times. Everyone is ticked including employees who cannot park for work. Turo was forced to stop this practice in Honolulu and Kauai by a state law. But in Kona they have no commercial lot to rent so they flaunt the law. Some of these corporate "peer-to-peer" companies are real slime and downright criminal. I avoid them.

I remember back in the days, you'd find some vacation rentals owners putting up their own simple web sites and you book with them through email and you'd have to wire them deposit.

I don't know that Airbnb and the like necessarily made rentals more expensive than the old ways.

It is still highly market-driven. For instance, Airbnbs in central London are going to be way more expensive than in say Rome, basically mirroring the hotel rate differentials.

Also Italy has a pretty well-organized system of B&Bs so there are a lot of very affordable lodgings, which may help keep a lid on hotel rates.

There's a lot of backlash to Airbnbs, from supposed community groups protesting that Airbnbs reduce supply of long-term housing in areas. Cities pass laws limiting full apt short-term rentals to 90 days a year or even less.

Meanwhile, hotels in those cities have very high rates and also very high taxes.

 

[braumeister]

That's a ringing endorsement..not a total dump!

I can still remember the days when that would have been good enough for me.

 

[mystang52]

I always book direct with hotels and airlines: it's well worth the few extra bucks - and most of the time, it's the same or better price as using a middleman.

If something goes wrong, I want a direct relationship with the end provider of my service - cuts red tape, finger pointing, etc. Plus, hotels tend to be more receptive to pleasing more profitable customers. Booking sites take a big cut off the top and pay hotels a cheaper rate for your room.

I used to use them, but that was many years ago.

+1. I'm not sure if those websites get better rates; in any event if I have a problem I'm more comfortable dealing with the hotel having booked with them directly. I almost always book with Marriott, and they have a few rates discounted off of the stated rate (Senior, AAA for example). I don't know if it's still in effect, but Marriott used to give a credit to the room bill if there's a published rate that is less than on their own site (i.e., above and beyond that lower rate).

 

[DuluthGA]

For one night stays while traveling I’ll check rates on the sites and hotel site then go in and ask them to match the best rate. When staying a few nights I use bank card site for first booking to get their travel credit then hotel directly after. I may call to get a rate matched if different than travel site.

 

[brett]

We do all sorts. We find that in some areas, such as SE Asia, Agoda is a much better than Booking.com and the rates same for same, are often 10-20 percent less.

Our goal is always to book direct, preferably with the owner. On Zakynthos in Greece we were able to cut our condo price in half by dealing with booking.com. We were able to locate the owner via google and did a deal for cash at half the booking.com rate.

We belong to several hotel clubs. We have had some excellent last minute offers and some very attractive three day prepaid rate stays.

 

[Zona]

We are midway through a three month trip and have been moving hotels every few days. I booked 90% of these hotels through booking.com. They have a slight discount the more hotel stays you have with them (I think it’s called something like “Genius Level” discount). The reason I like booking.com is that there is usually a refundable price, only slightly higher per night than the non-refundable one. And then booking.com sends me an email just before the refundable cut off date to remind me to cancel if necessary. We’ve had some unexpected flight changes (thanks, Jetstar) and this feature has come in handy on this trip a couple times already.

For the other 10% of stays on this trip we booked with points at Hyatt or similar branded hotels.

 

[brett]

We check prices in other countries. Direct on their respective web sites and on in country booking sites.

Our last three AI stays in Mexico were booked through a UK company. We arranged our own air. One in Playa, another in PVR just prior to covid. A third booked through a UK firm for a 10 day AI stay in Nuevo Vallarta this past Novemer.

We do the same for in country regional air when we are travelling. We sometimes find the fares more attractive than booking on the international air and travel sites.

 

[DrRoy]

We have our preferred chains in the US and generally book direct. For international trips though, we use Booking. It is very handy to have all the reservations together in one place, and one time there was a problem with a hotel closing on us, and Booking was very good about notifying us, and finding an alternative, which was more expensive, but we did not have to pay the difference.

 

[Montecfo]

I'll buck the norm here and say I use Booking.com around 90% of the time. I find the customer ratings truthful and prices competitive. I've only had one problem and it was my fault. I made a one night reservation to break up a long road trip. I failed to notice that it was non-refundable. Due to a bad traffic accident, we re-routed to a different interstate road that took us a state away from the hotel. I personally called the hotel and canceled, then cancelled at Booking.com. Even though it was non-refundable, Booking asked the hotel to waive the charge and they did.

I do use booking.com a lot. Just not for booking. They have the best info for comparing rooms particularly room sizes in square feet and bed types. This is especially good for non-chain type places where rooms may be less standard in size.

I also find Trip Advisor has great reviews. But they have gone a little crazy trying to sell you add-on activities.

Hotels.com has the best mapping to show where hotels you are considering are located relative to each other and areas of interest.

But I just use those for research. Book direct 95% of the time.

 

[athena53]

I also find Trip Advisor has great reviews. But they have gone a little crazy trying to sell you add-on activities.

I know- but I've actually booked some of the activities and have never been disappointed. I'm sure they're likely cheaper if you track them down through research, though. The add-on suggestions are also good info for "what to see and do" when I'm traveling solo.

 

[Chuckanut]

I do use booking.com a lot. Just not for booking. They have the best info for comparing rooms particularly room sizes in square feet and bed types. This is especially good for non-chain type places where rooms may be less standard in size.

I also find Trip Advisor has great reviews. But they have gone a little crazy trying to sell you add-on activities.

Hotels.com has the best mapping to show where hotels you are considering are located relative to each other and areas of interest.

But I just use those for research. Book direct 95% of the time.

Booking.com uses to have a crime index rating for each hotel. I found it useful when booking rooms in cities I knew nothing about. Apparently, they no longer show the crime index number. I have seen it for years.

 

[oldie]

Travel a lot for business to different destinations, and I use booking/agoda. Even though I'm a member of some programs, I don't even bother collecting points with them since I book the stays at booking. The perks/benefits of all hotel programs I looked at made it unworthy to bother with them - many of those things you can get by simply asking nicely, or they are cheaper than the premium you'd pay to hotel when booking directly. Typically only at top level you get something which is actually worthy, but it's too much effort to get to the point. This also becomes true with airlines, where I stopped being loyal to Skyteam and basically grabbing whatever is cheaper.

 

[walkinwood]

I haven't read the whole thread, but ..



When comparing prices, go all the way to the checkout page. Many sites don't include taxes and other fees on the first page.


In the US, for large hotel chains like Marriott, Hilton etc., I almost always find the best deal at their site if you register as a member of their loyalty program. Using a password manager makes it easy to remember usernames/passwords.

 

[walkinwood]

...

We belong to several hotel clubs. We have had some excellent last minute offers and some very attractive three day prepaid rate stays.

Are hotel clubs different from loyalty programs? Would you share a name or two if they are different?

 

[brett]

I meant to say reward programs.

We use our reward points sparingly at hotels that have room rates. Last trip to Australia we used our Marriott points for five nights in a Sydney hotel that would otherwise have cost 1400 AUD. Same for Toronto. Just used the last of our points for three nights at a downtown hotel. Best rate in the area we wanted was 300 CAD.

The other thing about Marriott points is that we pay nothing..not taxes or fees added. In some cities, like Toronto, taxes etc can add another 15-18 percent on top of the room rate.

When we are paying, we will only buy a room in a reward hotel that we belong to IF the rate is competitive. I like the Marriott program, do not bother much with the Hilton, Accor, or Melia programs. Our reward program at some hotels like Riu invariably get us a nice upgrade gratis.

 

[FIREarly]

Credit Card (cc) points = FREE Hotel stays!

Get a great travel/points cc and the points will pay for a hotel. It's not technically free because you have to spend the money but if you're spending it already and can manage your cc finances (pay off every months bill on-time or early) than it's so wonderful!

DW and I paid ENIRELY with points for the last 3 or 4 hotel stays. Also, the cc occasionally has deals to transfer points to hotels, airlines, rentals, etc... which makes the points even more valuable. Our cc offered a 40% points bonus to transfer to a specific hotel and transferred all of the cc points to it. CAUTION: the hotel points have to be used within 2 years. The cc points do NOT expire. YMMV

Transferring the cc points to the hotel also allows you to take advantage of the hotel points offers (hotel only offers certain rooms and points bonuses when booked with hotel points).

 

[luckydude]

Nowadays I just use Booking.com. Guest comments, list of local attractions and distance to local attractions, and whether parking is available are all very useful info and easily found on the website.

Nowadays I'm not price sensitive, so I don't bother with price comparison with other websites.

I have noticed, however, that for some of the higher-end hotels, the hotels sometimes only offer lower-priced rooms on Booking.com, even when the nicer rooms (usually more spacious suites or suites with spas, etc.) are available on the dates I'm looking for. So, if I want to book a nicer room at a particular hotel, sometimes I will pop over to the hotel website to see if there are better rooms available for booking.

 

[athena53]

I have noticed, however, that for some of the higher-end hotels, the hotels sometimes only offer lower-priced rooms on Booking.com, even when the nicer rooms (usually more spacious suites or suites with spas, etc.) are available on the dates I'm looking for. So, if I want to book a nicer room at a particular hotel, sometimes I will pop over to the hotel website to see if there are better rooms available for booking.

Thanks for that hint. Maybe they're getting to the point that the room might end up vacant and are willing to mark the price down, especially for a rate that doesn't include loyalty points.

 

[FLJim]

Have always booked direct via PC for the last 40 years or so. Travelled a lot for work, so joined all the hotel programs and collected the points. Used them for a lot of free rooms, and still do (at 75 years old). (Best memory was 5 free nights at Hyatt Maui on the concierge floor many years ago.)
Don't the hotels have to "pay" or somehow compensate the 3rd party booking sites for selling their rooms? So does that not add cost? So direct booking should be better for both guest and hotel?

 

[Boose]

Just a note for longtime Hotels.com users that they are changing their "book 10, get 1 night free" rewards program. "Launching in mid-2023," the One Key loyalty program will give One Key Cash for bookings through Hotels.com, VRBO and Expedia. It will also affect what you haven't yet redeemed through the former free night program. I haven't parsed the corporate-speak to figure out if this is a better deal or not (I never book with VRBO or Expedia), I simply lament that it will be more complicated.
https://www.hotels.com/one-key

 

[brett]

Bottom line for us is....it depends.

We have booked direct with the hotel, direct with the owner, used hotel chain booking sites, used various on line booking engines.

There is no one right answer.