Booking rooms directly with hotels or going through 3rd party site

Andrea.. I do both.. depends. I compare rates and of course choose cheapest option.. but I am careful to compare cancellation policies and payment policies( I do not like to pay full amount up front to obtain a lower price, which some websites offer as an option).

I prefer booking.com and venere.. but have also used Expedia with no issues.

I've always checked the third-party websites for pricing...and then compare the price that is advertised with a direct booking. It's almost always to your advantage booking directly with the property because if there is problem you have a direct contact, email correspondence and you know what the change or cancellation policy is right from the start. If you a see a lower price elsewhere, let the property know and they likely will match it.

Booking directly with a hotel is best in my opinion, however there remain pricing anomalies. For example, I recently secured a room for two nights through a major booking website and saved $60USD over a reservation directly with the hotel. Go figure.

I agree with Pat. If the lower price means paying up front, that could be risky depending on the cancellation policy.

I compare both as well and choose the best offer with free cancellation as plans can and do change. I have come across a hotel showing no availability but booking.com or other 3rd party still show rooms. In our travels I have found that when booking directly with the hotel, several include breakfast at no cost & the 3rd party sites don't.

Personally, I much prefer dealing directly with real people at the property itself instead of a voiceless non entity in the nether world. We've done all kinds of price comparisons and have yet to pay more by booking directly the hotel.

Thank you for all your feedback. I'll compare pricing but normally stick dealing directly with the property. Breakfast included is a great thing to watch for sinced that is a significant difference. Thanks!

We prefer staying in smaller hotels and B&Bs when we travel and generally prefer to book directly with the establishment. As another poster mentioned, we prefer not paying up front for our accommodations. Notwithstanding the above the small hotel or B&B must be competitive if we are to book there.

As third party booking firms charge hotels a fee to bring them bookings, we would rather see all our money go to these smaller establishments rather than a third party.

I would have posted the same things that Kevin and Steve posted. I have gone to Europe for 13 of the last 14 years and book directly with the B&B or small hotel directly. Most of the B&Bs I have stayed in do not list themselves on booking sites. Several of the places I have stayed over the years have offered a discount if booked directly with them, paid cash, or mentioned a RS guide book when making reservations and then showing it at check in.

I start with booking.com because I make lots of reservation for each trip (usually about 20). If I return to the same hotel, I book directly, but if it's a small place I'll ask if they want the review on booking.com or the direct booking. Some places prefer the review, since it's free advertising.

I am in Zoe's court. I hate the process of trying to contact 14 different places in one town to see who has what available, so I use Booking.com a lot. I also like that I can reserve and later cancel with no penalty should I change my plans or find a better place to stay. It's more efficient and safer. But when I return to a place I have stayed before, I do try to go direct.

The same with VRBO.com. I have been able to get a lower rate when I told an owner his rate on VRBO was lower than he was offering me on a return visit.

The trouble I have with booking websites is that they they don't show all the places in the town, mostly only the few that have agreed to pay their commission. If they do show a place that is not bookable by them, they don't give you the URL so you can find the place's website.

I've done a lot of comparative analyses on town website vs booking websites, and outside of large cities I usually find that town websites have 2 to 3 times as many listings as booking websites, particularly on the more economical end of the spectrum.

Of the 8 places I stayed in on my last trip, only one was shown on a certain booking website, and I paid less (19%) at that place by taking advantage of a package deal offered on their website but not on booking sites. For the 14 nights I spent in small guest houses and a private home (I won't count the 7 night in a Ferienwohnung, because apartments are inexpensive), I averaged under 73€/night, double occupancy, including 4 nights in Munich.

Using town websites doesn't seem to work in a large town like Munich. Munich's "town website" is a captive of a booking website (HRS), so it's hard to avoid the commission. However, I've made my own list of places in Munich recommended by people on this forum, and saved by booking one of those places vs going to HRS.

"I have come across a hotel showing no availability but booking.com or other 3rd party still show rooms."

My experience has been exactly the opposite. Hotels often don't turn over all their rooms to the booking website, so although there are rooms available from the hotel, they don't show up on the booking sites. Another phenomenon I've observed is when the booking website does not show any vacancies, no matter what date you put in - sometimes well in advance. I suspect the property no longer offers room through the booking website, but the website continues to show the property so people doing a Google search for that property will be led to the booking site. Kind of bait and switch.

My only issue with booking.com is that I have checked availability and they show none. However, when I contacted the place directly, they had plenty of rooms.

I use booking.com a lot. We usually traveI for a month, and to several places. I like that I wind up with all my accommodation information in one place. I also like the instant confirmation. I don't think that one generally saves any money by using them. Neither do I think you pay a lot more, contrary to what one poster suggested above. When I have compared booking's prices with hotel website prices they are usually very similar, within 10 euros/ night. I think the reason you sometimes see no availability when the hotel has rooms is that the hotels control how many rooms they release to the booking sites and for which dates.

I have just finished booking seven hotels for our upcoming trip to Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic. The first three I used booking sites. The last four I booked with the hotel directly, after checking the booking site. In three cases I got the same or better rate. In one instance I emailed the hotel and got a better rate with the staff of the hotel!

I have a suspicion that when you use a booking site the hotel is less willing to upgrade or be flexible. No evidence, but ....

I would try and deal directly with the hotel.

I use both booking.com and with the hotel directly. I feel perfectly comfortable using booking.com and I do like the instant confirmation and having the cancellation terms spelled out in writing. In my experience I have sometimes found lowest rates on booking.com and sometimes on the hotel's website, it can go both ways. I do agree that hotels sometimes only offer some perks like free breakfast, etc when booked directly with them. However when I travel I rarely use the hotel breakfast even when offered because I tend to get out and about early and prefer to wait an hour or so before eating anything, so that doesn't affect me much. I also know that hotels routinely only offer a limited number of rooms to 3rd party booking sites so they often show no rooms available. In that case, just contact the hotel directly, no biggie. I almost always start with booking.com because I like that you can refine the search by $amount, neighborhood, type of lodging, etc. I then always check the hotel website for availability, prices, cancellation terms and special offers so I can then compare with booking.com and go from there. I also have used town websites when I haven't found anything I like elsewhere but not often and I don't really care that all possible accommodations aren't listed on booking.com. It gives me enough of a selection and if not, then I look elsewhere. There is no one right way to do it.

I use booking.com almost exclusively and have never had a problem with them. I also like that every hotel I have booked through them I have paid at checkout. The only time I had difficulty was when they were showing no available rooms for the hotel I definitely wanted to stay at last year in Paris. As others suggested, I contacted the hotel directly, was told rooms were available and booked directly with the hotel.