Booking.com

You might consider using Booking.com as a way to find a hotel but then book directly with the property. You can often get a better rate by booking direct and especially for smaller properties saving the fee they would have to pay a booking company like booking.com can really add up over the course of a year.

If you do decide to go through Booking.com their reputation is as good as any online agency - while a few may relate a nightmarish experience most transactions are fine.

Christi's advice is what I do as well.

We booked all 8 of our European accommodations on the last trip through booking.com, and I've used them for some other trips as well. It worked very well for us; no issues, and they were very helpful when I had trouble getting responses from a B&B owner who was requesting info from me.

I usually book directly with hotels here in the U.S. but will only do it abroad if they have a good booking site of their own.

I had put off getting hotel reservations for an upcoming trip -- and booked a month's worth of hotels in six hours using booking.com. I like that reviews come only from people who actually stayed in the hotel.

Make sure you understand the cancellation policy on each location -- the same place may offer different prices for non-refundable and cancellable bookings on the same room, or require longer notice to cancel for free. I have used booking.com for several trips and have cancelled and rebooked easily.

Booking.com is a reliable hotel booking website. And as others have said you may get a better price by booking the same property (found on booking.com) directly via their own website.

I love Booking.com! I read the reviews and compare with the TripAdvisor reviews for a property. I won't book below a certain review score.

Occasionally by using a property's own website you may find a little lower rate but I have found that they are generally the same. I have found availability a couple times when none shows on Booking.com.

I love the ability to cancel and keep track of reservations in one convenient place. If you are a frequent user you can sometimes get a discount.
I use them almost exclusively. Booked 14 properties in Ireland and 9 in France in the last 2 years. Also several in the US. Never had a bad experience.

At a property in Istanbul Booking.com had a rate that was $50 cheaper than the hotel website. Owners do pay a fee to list their property but I asked a B&B owner and she said it was worth it because more people find her that way.

I also try to book direct with the hotel or B&B, but I wanted to book at one particular B&B and they requested a wire transfer to hold the room. I found them on booking.com and was able to book it there without having to hassle with the wire transfer. Price was comparable with booking direct, too. We booked three different places for our upcoming trip to Germany. Haven't stayed at any of them yet, but I feel confident based on the experiences shared here that it will be fine.

I book both with booking.com and independently. You are looking in Germany... you need to be careful here, as private bookings cannot be assumed to be refundable if your plans change. If you do not clarify in advance with the innkeeper exactly what the refund policy is, you may be on the hook for the entire period you book.

I'll join the chorus of those who like booking.com. We take longish trips. On our upcoming one, for example, we are staying at 9 different places. Having all my reservations listed together is very helpful for keeping organized. I also like the bona fide reviews and clear cancellation policies. It's very time-efficient to have a multiplicity of choices on a single site, vs surfing around. Never had a problem in years of using b.c.

I never use a booking website, and I save a ton of money that way. Using a booking website has some advantages, like convenience for people who don't know how to find accommodations any other way, but the places that use Booking are the more expensive places, those that have enough profit built into the price to pay for the commission (I'm told at least 15%) charged by booking website.

Most towns in Germany, where I go regularly, have town websites with a list of accommodations, and this list normally includes two to three times as many properties as you will find on a booking website, and the additional properties will be the less expensive places in the town.

For instance, I just booked a place in a small town near Würzburg. The town website lists 16 places (Hotels, Gästehäuser, Pensionen), all with contact information included so you can book directly. Only 6 of these places are listed on Booking.com, and each of the six is more expensive on Booking than the other 10 are booking direct. If you book through Booking.com, you will pay about 60% more to stay at one of the 6 places on Booking than you will pay to stay at one of the places not on Booking. Even finding the places on Booking and booking directly, you will pay 45% more.

So, although there might be some good reasons to use a booking website, saving money is not one of them.

"So, although there might be some good reasons to use a booking website, saving money is not one of them."

What Lee says about the smaller mom-and-pop B&B's and apartments is right on - there can be unusually good value in places that are usually not found on booking.com. I routinely book such places myself on the grounds of both savings and cultural experience (note the refund policy caveat I mentioned above; note also that these bookings can take some time and patience depending on whether mom and pop are email-savvy, on vacation, speak English, etc.)

My bookings in Germany often include small city hotels with both private sites and a booking.com page... and it has been my experience that the booking.com page frequently offers better prices than if I'd booked via the hotel's homepage. So I will differ with Lee on the merits of using booking sites with this type of accommodation. It never hurts to compare prices, and it takes very little time.

Although I know some hotels show a "rack" rate on their website that is higher than any booking website's rate, I don't go to those places. For all of the places I've looked at, rarely was the directly booked rate more than the booking website rate, and then it was by a negligible amount.

I'm sure that booking sites try to assure that the hotel will not offer a lower rate on their website, but there are a lot of ways for hotels to get around this. Often, the hotel will only offer on the booking website their most expensive rooms (say larger or with a balcony), but if you don't care about these things, you can find less expensive rooms by booking directly.

I once booked a five-night package deal in a lodge in the Harz that included halb pension (both dinner and breakfast) for the same rate as booking offered for a room with only breakfast. I estimate a saved 30% for those 5 days by not having to pay extra for dinner.

Three years ago I booked two nights in a hotel in a spa town in the Black Forest. I just now checked several dates for that property on Booking and got a price of €216 for a double room for two nights. Booking says some rooms have balconies. A double room with a balcony to two nights next month would cost €208 on the hotel's own website. I actually booked a package deal only available through the hotel for two nights with a variety of additional benefits around town for €198, today. I only used one benefit, free spa entrance for two, worth €39, so effectively my rooms was €159.

For that small town near Würzburg, the average price of a room booked through Booking would be €109,50. The average price booked directly with the same properties would be €99,67. Two were the same booked directly; four were less.

Bear with me for being repetitive, but this is very important: You must carefully check the cancellation policy before finalizing any reservation on booking.com, as elsewhere. Despite their prominent promotion of cancelable reservations, policies vary from hotel to hotel, and they are nearly always more restrictive than the common 3PM or 6PM day-of-arrival rule in the US.

That said, I screwed up the very first reservation (of perhaps 40) I made on booking.com and had no problem correcting it shortly before the deadline.

While I rarely use booking.com, I do rely on their reviews, because the reviews must actually have stayed at the property to post the review. On TripAdvisor, anyone in the world can post a review about a hotel or B&B, and there are a lot of fake ones out there.

I have used booking.com for a few hundred reservations over the years, only once needed customer service intervention and they helped me immediately when I called, and called me back later to make sure everything worked out.

If I am returning to the same hotel, I usually book directly with the property, but several want wire transfers, which are expensive from outside Europe, so back to booking.com for those.

For the summer of 2017, I booked all 20 hotels using booking.com. A few of the hotels were offering really sweet deals if I pre-paid, so I took advantage of those, but only for the first two weeks of travel, in case our itinerary needs to be amended. For the rest of the bookings, the cancellation policy is quite liberal. I did compare some booking.com rates with hotel website rates, and found either no difference or booking was cheaper. The average room price, 3 stars and up, was $92, centrally located. Where? Copenhagen, Germany, eastern France, Lux, Belgium and London. Oh yeah, it's really easy to use, and with the app all info is on my phone and tablet.

I also use booking.com and love it! We have traveled 5 times to Europe and each time booking.com has been great. The only suggestion I have is to double check the price on the hotel website. Once in a while you will find booking.com to be higher in price vs booking direct with the hotel. Most of the time it has been the same price. Good luck!

I use Booking a lot in the US and outside the US and had a problem only once with a hotel in San Diego where we apparently did not have a reservation. I had my confirmation email and had the hotel call Booking. We got our room but I was ready to ask Booking for a comparable hotel in SD if we didn't. I go to hotel websites and email requests for rooms in Europe through the hotel websites or via email to be sure I am getting a deal, Booking always beat the price the hotels wanted to charge me.

I stayed at the RS hotel used for the Turkey tour we took. When we moved to the RS booked room, it was not at all as nice as the one I booked through Booking. This particular hotel wanted 150 more Euro per night than Booking.

I never book a room where I have to pay in advance. I am sure one day we may have a problem but so far so good.

I use booking.com all the time, both in the U.S. and (especially) in Europe. The reviews are great, and I especially like being able to manage things from one website, instant confirmations, and the explicit cancellation policies. Too often hoteliers are slow getting back to you over email, and/or don't answer when asked about cancellation policies. I understand that their first language often is not English but I really don't have time for a week worth of back and forth to get my hotels set. Last October-November I went to Italy on very short notice due to personal circumstances. I was able to book four hotels in a short time (Rome-Orvieto-Sienna-Florence), and booking.com helped to make this possible.

I use booking,com from time to time, depends on the offer. For a single in a small hotel or Pension in Germany, I've seen "variations on a theme." A good number of times the price offered at booking.com is the same price on the hotel website or told to me on the phone when I call up the establishment...no difference. There have been times when the price offered is cheaper than the hotel website price...an on-line promo rate. In that case I book the reservation obviously.

There are also times when I call up the hotel/ Pension, am asked if I've stayed at there before, then I get price cheaper than what is listed on booking.com. Also, there are times when the dates I want are all booked up according to booking .com...yeah, sure..five to.six months out? In those case, I definitely call up the place, am told the single I want is indeed available for those dates, quite the contrary to what booking.com states. Staying in apartments or Airbnb is not an option.

In some of those places in Germany where I've stayed before, making the reservation at the small hotel/Pensionen by talking to them in the local language is more effective and quicker. I don't use e-mail to communicate, the phone is more direct.

I agree with Fred and others; however, one reason I like emailing is having a record of correspondence, which has occasionally come in handy.

I use kayak.com (which searches for hotels, restaurants, rental cars, flights) to find the cheapest price, then go directly to the source and book. Sometimes booking.com is the lowest, but most of the time, you can get that low price booking direct with not advance payment.

Airbnb is great for finding apartments for a large group. We like to stay in B&Bs and I can usually find a B&B with the same price as Airbnb, and we get a free breakfast with a B&B.

Oddly, I have often (and I mean very frequently) found lower rates on booking.com, hotels.com, Expedia and Priceline than the hotel's own site offers. Hotel rates go up and down like the stock market so what's true one day won't necessarily hold a week later. My guess is that the big on-line agencies have a certain number of rooms set aside. Merely a guess, but it might help to explain why one site says a hotel is sold out for a certain date while others still have room.

My understanding is that the property can release more rooms to booking.com as the need arises, or they can remove rooms from the availability list.