Hotel booking through 3rd party

I like more to book directly for two reasons:

1. No intermediary means more handling options in case of problems. If there is no fee to be paid to a broker the hotel is more generous in handling claims by a fair price reduction.
2. Using the loyalty programs of hotel chains often bring better prices than just booking via brokers. It is their backdoor to offer better prices than on tha large platforms. Plus collecting loyalty points on long journeys can be a benefit for a free diner or even a free night.

One more thing is that some very good and well booked hotels do not appear on platforms or with very limited capacities because for profit optimization they try to minimze the broker ratio of bookings.

If you want to use booking platforms I recommend to try local ones, e. g. HRS for hotels in Germany. In their "home marke" they might have a better sortiment of hotels and maybe better prices or conditions.

I, too, have found similar savings on booking.com versus a hotel's website. And I always email the lodging directly after finding them on booking.com so I can "save them money" by booking directly.

Lately, however, the lodging has replied back with a higher price than booking.com.

I have booked with booking.com for years and have never had any issues. When I arrive, my room is there and my booking.com rate is there.

So I do both based on the pricing I am given - direct and 3rd party. I just like to save the B&B or hotel a bit of money by going direct with them.

I have used both Booking.com and Hotels.com ( now Expedia) and I have never had a problem. When I have gone to the hotel website, I have also found a higher rate even if I am a loyalty member or tried to use the AAA or AARP discount.
My son, however, had a problem with Booking. com where they sent him a rebate form in the regular mail and then refused to honor it after he booked through their site and completed his stay. Based on that principle, I have not made any reservations with them since . Also Hotels.com has a loyalty program that you can get One Key Cash that if you complete your reservation you can apply the credit to a future booking or accrue credits for free stays.

Budget?

IMHO always book directly.

Premiere Inns are nice and a good price for London.

Just spent a 5 week stay at the Club Quarters at Holborn. Easy block and 1/2 walk to the Holborn Underground Station.

Hotel is across the street from the lovely Lincoln Inn Fields park. Good staff ( especially Yousef and Emily)
Bed was comfortable, good water pressure. Only downside was their cable. IMHO most Yanks would like seeing British shows, Midsomer Murders, Heart Beat, etc. on the iTV3 channel. Its listed but inaccessible. Told management to reconsider what their cable offered viewers.

Sir John Soanes Museum is 1/2 block away.

Enjoyed food and made friends with the pub cat at the Seven Stars pub. 15 minute walk. Really good food. Pleasant atmosphere. Also ate at and enjoyed the Pho at Viet Eat, pub grub at The Ship Tavern, breakfast at the Little Venice Cafe.

I have been using booking.com for many years with good results. I feel safe and comfortable with booking.

A few times, I have booked directly with the lodging. Often it is because they are not on booking or because I did get a better price booking directly with the lodging.

My preference is to book directly. Very occasionally, I will book thru booking.com. A couple times when I reserved thru booking.com it appeared that we were given an undesirable room.

I do only book thru booking.com, if the pricing is lower and accommodation won't match, or I found a number of places in New Zealand that only booked thru booking.com. Once or twice I did find the cancellation policy to be better on booking.com.

The only 3rd party I'd book thru is booking.com, except perhaps if I found something thru Costco. I would never book thru Expedia for accommodation, flights or cars.

I always go through booking.com and have never had any problems.
I like them as they have good cancellation policies...which I've taken advantage of more than once...and honest reviews.
This time last year in London, I booked directly with my hotel, as I had stayed there a couple of years previously and was very happy with it then.
I had a problem with my room last year on one night and was given a full refund for the one night out of four.
It was offered and activated immediately without my asking for anything at all.
I'm not sure if booking.com would have been so prompt.

I prefer to book directly with the property, but this year I'm headed to some smaller towns and I've booked on Booking.com because I've been unable to find websites for the apartments in which I'd like to stay. I'm guessing these smaller properties prefer not to handle the bookings themselves. In one case, the property's website said "no availability" but Booking had it available. Strange.

We, too, prefer booking.com as our go-to search engine. Have always found their filters to be extremely helpful in narrowing down the various options in a hurry.
I have also learned, however, that some properties don't necessarily offer up all of their available rooms on the booking website and that it's worth checking to see if a better deal can be had by booking directly ... better room, better amenities, better cancellation policy, etc. Sometimes it works out - sometimes not - but I've learned that it is worth checking.

Maybe I am an exception, but I use Booking.com for search, and booking, almost exclusively, doing some looking around, maybe booking directly or finding rooms through other platforms, or through a loyalty program.

Many properties actually rely on Booking.com for billing and payment services, as well as traffic. I see nothing wrong with using booking, if they do a good job listing hotels, directing traffic to a property, why not get a cut? They are providing a valuable service.

I also get additional discounts (I have stayed in 22 properties this year, so have the highest level discount), sometimes a free breakfast, or upgrades.

I like that many places offer a room at a discount without breakfast (I know, I'm not of the group that adores hotel breakfasts), saving me anywhere from $20 to $50 per Night.

I've never (in the past ~5 years) found any of the alternative booking sites to offer me better pricing on my four primary chain hotels (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG) than the hotels' own websites. Not sure why others have different experiences. Certainly smaller chains and independent lodgings are a different matter.

Thanks to all who endorsed Booking. Decision coming in the new year- hopefully prices won't jump! Loyalty member of Hilton, Marriot, Accor and Radisson brands and level 2 genius on Booking.
Our group is interested in location, common area and bar/lounge. Breakfast might be needed if we choose a hotel on Albert Embankment as my research shows nada nearby.
Last year we were five couples and Continental Park in Lucerne was wonderful to work with in terms of discount and welcome drink. Rick recommends that hotel as do I- there was a rooftop gathering area that was perfect for socializing with our own beverages since no bar there.
Currently the only non-chain hotel on my list is the Strand Palace, so I will contact them about booking for us all. Only four couples for London though....

I look at Booking.com to do research on hotels and then once I narrow my choices down, I check Google for reviews, check Google maps for the street view, and then look on the hotel’s website. I would say it is probably a 50-50 chance that the hotel has a better price and booking conditions (I always get refundable, pay at the property reservations). I prefer booking directly with the property but if their website seems weird to me or offers more expensive reservations, I’ll use Booking.com. I’ve been using them for years and so far haven’t had any issues.

I book direct when I can, even if the price is a little more. It let's the proprietor bypass the fee they would otherwise pay to Booking.com.
I tend to stay in smaller properties, and with that, I prefer to give my money to the merchant rather than to a middleman.

Maybe I am an exception, but I use Booking.com for search, and
booking, almost exclusively, doing some looking around, maybe booking
directly or finding rooms through other platforms, or through a
loyalty program.

No you are not I have been using booking.com for as long as I can remember.... what people forget is that that the ones you here most from are the ones that had a issue. And if sites like booking.com were not providing a good service we have heard all about it a long time a go.

I've never (in the past ~5 years) found any of the alternative booking sites to offer me better pricing on my four primary chain hotels (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG) than the hotels' own websites.

Honestly, I do not think many use Booking.com for the large chains, and Yes, if I look at an IHG hotel, I go to my app for IHG. But then usually I am not staying in the large chains when I go to Europe, they tend to be located out from the center of town, or their 5 star (expensive) properties are in the city center.

I have gotten some good prices for Ibis hotels once in a while through Booking though.

I agree with the observations about booking direct with Marriott, Hilton, etc. as they usually have the same or better pricing, plus you may have point programs with them, so book direct. Plus, as a continual customer of those companies, you do get much better resolution.

I usually never book with very small boutique hotels directly because I prefer a site such as Booking.com to resolve any issue. I don't want to argue or get into an email war about billing after returning to the US. So far, Booking.com has always delivered when needed. I also find that small hotels do not have better pricing because they generally are trying to keep up revenues because they are in fact paying discount expenses to sites such as Booking.com. that they need to use to compete.

I guess my feeling is that if a small hotel treats guests on a level based on what reservation system the guest uses, I don't want to stay with them. Just my opinion. I feel no loyalty to any business, unless I am being a guest for free. If I pay my bill, I expect their advertised service no more, no less. If it is great service, then they will get repeat business and extremely favorable reviews on a Booking.com platform. Even when I see a lower price difference on a small hotel website, the price it is usually so small, I figure its not worth the gamble, but to each his own.

My go-to 3rd party is Expedia and I've always had good experiences with it. Like the OP I'll compare them to the hotel website and choose from there which platform to book through. Several times I've gotten a better deal through Expedia, and often it's simply less hassle. There was a Trip Report recently about Paris where the OP booked a hotel where booking had to be done via email. I can't be bothered with that. I'll choose quick and convenient or I'll move on.

Personally I have a hard objection to third parties that insert themselves into transactions, siphon off money, avoid liability, and obfuscate without adding actual value. I won't use them and I won't book through them. As far as a personal rule it has worked extremely well for me.

Personally I have a hard objection to third parties that insert themselves into transactions, siphon off money, avoid liability, and obfuscate without adding actual value.

Like say Amazon.com, Facebook Costco Travel or Rick Steves selling Eurail Passes for Eurail. Sometimes convenience is more important to some folks and sometimes third parties do add value. Everyone has their own preferences.

Personally I have a hard objection to third parties that insert
themselves into transactions, siphon off money, avoid liability, and
obfuscate without adding actual value.

A hotel owner/host may find value in not to having to keep up a website (with rolling reviews and customer photos of the property) that's their only source of advertising, and/or pay someone to be on call 24/7 to handle all reservations (in how many languages?) Add having to keep up with technical advances as well, pay for additional advertising, etc.

Especially if they're a smaller, locally-owned property and/or not a recognized name (Marriott, Hilton, Weston, Best Western, etc.) they'll get much more exposure on an OTA site versus just their own due to the sheer volume of users. The more eyes to see you, the better?

I am a booking.com user, although not exclusively. We're not loyal to any single chain/umbrella, and wouldn't stay at any of them enough to make their rewards worthwhile. The plus with booking.com is that I can realize some nice rates or extras - via Genius Level - by using the site to browse and reserve a wide range of properties, from larger brands to the little guys, at all hours of the day without ever being on hold or being sent to voicemail, and in my native language. Oh, and no app needed...although they probably have one. Having all (or almost all) of my reservations in one place is a plus as well.

No right or wrong to it; it's a "You do you" thing but the site has worked very well for us.

When making price comparisons, it's essential to compare equivalent rooms, which isn't necessarily straightforward even when dealing with large chain properties. The terminology (economy/standard, etc.) Isn't always the same on the various platforms.

I usually book where I find the cheapest rate for the hotel I've decided on--which seems to be less often on booking.com these days, but I don't return often to the same cities, so it may just be a matter of where I've traveled recently.

What I really appreciate about booking.com is that I get a quick response when I communicate with the hotel via the platform. I find that's not as likely to happen when I use the Contact Us form on a hotel website. And don't get me started about having to submit a request and then wait who knows how long to find out whether there's a room available and what the rate will be. I'm not looking at individualistic, boutique properties; I'm just looking for an acceptable room at a good price, and rates can increase while I'm waiting to hear from an unresponsive hotel.

It's also extremely easy easy to cancel a reservation on booking.com; there's no uncertainty as to whether the hotel has received your notification of cancellation.

I agree that for chain-hotel bookings, you will probably save money by going straight to the hotel website. In addition, a few US chains have useful discounts (AARP, AAA, etc.) on European properties that you're unlikely to match on booking.com, though you might occasionally get a good genius discount in a city where bookings are slow.

I use 3rd party websites to determine which hotels to investigate further based on reviews. Many smaller European hotels allow one to choose a specific room with features one wants (view, balcony, etc.}. There can also be discounts for booking direct or booking 3 nights or more. Never had a problem when I have had to cancel or modify a reservation.

In Europe if the hotel is part of a chain, ie, Ibis, Motel one, Mercure, etc then I would use a third party, ie booking.com. I've changed my booking habits from what it used to be, now it depends on the establishment.

If the hotel is a small family run place, 2 or 3 star, then I contact them directly either by regular mail, ie slow mail, or by phone.

Bottom line: no problems at all when using booking. com. regarding reservations, cancellations, etc.

We ended up booking direct with Premier Inns- Waterloo (Westminster Bridge). Did pay upfront for a savings of @100GBP but it is refundable up to 28 days out.
Not charming lodging, but will do just fine and the location is close to the Thames.