on the "hotels give guests same or better conditions if you book directly"

My experience with budget-level hotels is that there is no common pattern. Occasionally there is a better deal on the hotel's own website (perhaps breakfast being included at no extra charge). Occasionally booking.com is cheaper. Often they are the same price. It's difficult with smaller hotels--where every room may be different--to be sure you are comparing apples to apples.

It doesn't get clearer if you are already in the hotel and just trying to extend for additional night(s). The at-the-desk rate can be much higher in that situation, or it can be a good bit lower. Or it can be exactly the same. I have been burned twice when I neglected to check the booking.com rate before stopping at the desk.

When we visit Europe we never book big or even middle size hotels , alsmost exclusdively small family run hotels , and while I do use and like booking.com , I do find better deals on websites of the smaller hotels , ie : rate was same on booking.com for our hotel in Naxos for this May - BUT - breakfast was included if you booked direct , ( and we’ve been to that hotel and loved the breakfast there , all homemade !) so we booked direct of course .

Larger hotels have the inventory of rooms to offer same rates through a booking site , smaller hotels don’t . Plus we stay in 2-3 stars at the most - I think 4 -5 star hotels have way more wiggle room on their rates as they sell hundreds of rooms , not 20 .

This is one of the very few topics where I do not adhere to the suggestions of RS.
It has been my experience, very limited though it is, that I can obtain a "better booking" from some other provider than a direct hotel contact in about 70% of my attempts.
This was true for hotel bookings I required in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Budapest, Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm and Bucharest, but not true in Amsterdam or Reykjavik, where the selected hotels were not affiliated with external booking sites. I was surprised by the experience in Barcelona and Madrid, where my booking requirements were for pre and post RS "Best of Barcelona and Madrid" tour. When making direct telephone contacts (6 weeks prior to the requested date and identifying myself as a RS tour member), I found Trivago's redirect to Booking.com 15 Euros & 12 Euros/night lower. That's not a great savings, but it paid for dinner in a Madrid Flamenco club.

I typically begin the search with Trivago.

Moral of the story is: check both the hotel's website and a couple of booking websites and compare. Then book where you get the best rate/deal and be sure to include rate, cancellation conditions, and perks (breakfast, upgrades, etc) when comparing. I almost always use a combination of booking.com and the hotel's own website and have found that the differences between them can go either way.

One of the B&Bs I stay at in Kings Cross/London offers a 5% reduction in the room rate when you call up to make the reservation along with telling them you've stayed there before.

There are a few things I'd like to point out.

Not all hotel booking services are the same. Sites like Booking.com act like the old time travel agent. They are just a portal for you to book a room at the hotel. They get a small commission for the sale.

Other sites like Expedia and Hotels.com work differently. They book a room at the hotel and you book the room from Expedia. You are not technically booking a room at the hotel. That's why if there is a problem the hotel in most cases will tell you to call Expedia. If you want to change your reservation even after you arrive, you have to deal with Expedia. Expedia then negoitates the price of the room with the hotel.

Many hotels will offer extra perks if you book direct--free breakfast, late check outs and early check ins, possible upgrades, etc. Some will also let you know of a discount code if you call because they can't put it on their website.

Sometimes booking.com is cheaper. And sometimes it's easier for a small hotel to tell guests to use booking.com rather than build in a reservations system on their hotel website. I had a small hotel tell me to book via Booking rather than using their website. And, yes I've occassionally found better deals on Booking over the hotel directly.

FYI.....Expedia now owns Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Trivago, CheapTickets and eBookers, among others. Priceline's stable of online travel agencies (OTAs) now includes Booking.com, Kayak and Agoda.com

Obviously, personal experiences vary. I frequently get lower rates through booking.com, hotels.com and others than are offered by the hotel directly. I wonder if these big operations have block-booking deals with the hotels. For example, sometimes one agency says the hotel is sold out; another still offers rooms. That could mean the agency's allotment for the date is gone, not that there is no vacancy.

One other point: Many of the agencies charge their own fees so it is different than relying strictly on hotel commissions as formerly.

Most hotels provide the ability to book directly on their website, and always prefer to deal directly with the hotel and eliminate the middleman. If there are any problems with the booking, changes desired or whatever, it's much simpler to deal directly with the hotel.

If booking well in advance, then booking sites are more likely to offer a discount, contacting the hotel will likely result in the "rack" rate. Booking closer to the date, the Hotel might have some flexibility on the rate if things are slow, the booking sites will stick to the negotiated rate unless they have been authorized to discount "last minute rates". Checking the Hotel website for "deals" never hurts.

Contacting the hotel directly (not just booking on their website) can be valuable in some cases:

• If you have an extended stay and want to negotiate a better rate.
• Have a room preference or need, example: you have a small child and want a cot in a double rather than a Triple.
• Want to negotiate breakfast/no breakfast

I always use booking.com now. Agree with everything that's been said above about ease of cancelling for one thing. MUCH easier on booking.com than (in many cases) the hotels own website. (Also easier than on Hotels.com). A couple of times over the years I've had my credit card compromised and needed to get a new number between the time I booked my trip and the time I took it. On booking.com it takes seconds to 'update your credit card details' whereas if you book with individual hotels you have to contact each one individually.

Also agree that the hotels benefit from using booking.com Not only do they get much more business, but they benefit from services as well. For example, this summer I've a trip to Croatia and many accommodations are small family run places that don't want the hassle of accepting credit cards. Booking.com is taking payment on their behalf (the day of the cancellation date). I don't have to deal with a bank transfer ahead of time, the lodging doesn't have to worry about guests not paying if they don't insist of payment ahead of time, etc. Works for everyone. A number of small lodgings I've stayed at in recent years says booking.com saved their business because now they are fully booked more of the time. I certainly don't feel like I'm depriving the hotel of anything. Booking.com is providing a service and both the hotel and guest (through maybe slightly higher prices in general) is simply paying for that service. You pay higher prices for food you eat at a table than take out, it's the same idea.

I have only gotten a better deal when i wan an "alumni" at that hotel. i did get a much better deal BUT it was nonrefundable--which i hate. i use Expedia mostly domestically--they have gotten me out of nonrefundable rates a few times and I can get discounts since I use them a lot. i use Booking more in Europe and rates seem to be the same as using hotel's website. But all hotels will tell me if i go again to call them directly and get a better rate.

Note the comment by Frank II above about the ownership of these websites. As noted in other recent discussions, none of these third-party booking agents are neutral or operating solely in your best interest. They make money steering you to hotels that have coughed up "sponsoring" money to be featured with special preference - to show up at the top of searches, e.g. Nothing illegal or immoral about that, but something to consider. I use them to look at hotels and reviews (and especially the maps), but take the info with a grain of salt. I'll book directly with hotel if I can.

Sometimes I've found rooms available on hotel site or by email that were not available on one of the websites. So its always worth checking. Like others, I'm never looking at "4-star" hotels, so can't identify with that experience.

As one of the few here on this forum to have owned their own hotel and dealt with the booking aggregators from that side let me correct some misconceptions.

CONTACTING THE HOTEL DIRECTLY does not mean going to their website. You need to email/call the reservations/reception desk.

Hotel Websites are really just Booking Engines that are programmed with pre-set prices for different level rooms. This cannot be changed by the booking engine. It must be over-ridden by a human at the desk.

Booking dot Com is really no different than Expedia or any others. They all operate, with some small differences, like the rest.

They exist to do one thing. Fill excess rooms. The rooms you see on the sites in the vast majority of hotels are only a few of the available rooms the hotel has. With varying degrees of commissions and rules for the hotels they all do one thing and that is help market rooms the hotel "Gives" them that the hotel feels they may not fill. Hotels can pull rooms or add rooms at will on most sites. The prices the hotels give the aggregators for these rooms are generally already discounted somewhat. But that is not always the case. The commission the aggregators get on the room sale is usually pre-loaded into the price the hotel gives to the aggregator. This is what creates the "room" for negotiation. If you CONTACT THE HOTEL DIRECTLY.

Again this does not mean going to the hotels website. It means sending an email to Reception/Reservations with a specific request for a discount over the Aggregators/Hotel website price.

This is where I think the OP went wrong. Checking the website wont do it. That is almost Rack Rate. Or Walk-In rate.

Contacting the hotel Directly, and I think that is really what most people who write about this on this forum are actually advising, has almost always resulted in a discount or some other upgrade for me.

Now the size of the hotel and the ability of the person at the desk/reservations to discount also has a bearing on the final price. And it must be said that Cultural differences also play into this somewhat. Bargaining is much easier in some countries than others.

But Contacting the hotel directly still remains the BEST way to secure the cheapest price.

As for refunds and problems...I only seem to have problems or need such when I have used Booking dot com or others. As on my 4 month trip to Europe this last Spring and Summer.

We will be staying at an H10 hotel in Barcelona that includes free breakfast with a direct booking. That beat anything offered by booking.com

Also, note that one does not get AAA discounts nor loyalty program points when booking through booking.com ( at least I have not seen a way to do it). Some international chains ( IHG for one) offer AAA and other discounts at many hotels abroad as well as in North America. And we have found that the Best Western properties in Europe can be great. As they are individually owned, they have nice "local feel", not like cookie-cutter chain hotels. ( Check out the Red Lion in Salisbury). Perks from their loyalty program vary by property, but generally include a welcome gift or drink. And their points add up to a free night pretty quickly.

You pay higher prices for food you eat at a table than take out, it's the same idea.

Not sure where you eat, but everywhere I have gone and taken food to go I paid more than if I were to have eaten it there (excluding tip). Everywhere I eat they charge around $1 extra to package each meal for take away.

But back to the pricing of hotels. I always book directly through the hotel's web page if it is a large chain. The $5 or $10 I save using other sites just adds a level of complexity that makes everyone point the finger at someone else when there are any issues. The fewer links in the chain, the easier it is to get someone to fix any problems that occur.

Similarly with pay in advance rates vs pay after you arrive rates. I could save a few dollars, but paying in advance results in non refundable rates with no cancellation capabilities. I don't often cancel hotel stays, but it does give certain degree of flexibility to have the option.

So I guess it is just depending on the hotel, who you book through, what degree of flexibility you need, and the alignment of the planets that determine which gives you the best price for your needs.

As per aarthurperry above, our experience has been that not all of the rooms in small and/or boutique hotels are shown on booking.com. Case in point: for our upcoming trip to Tuscany this Spring I found great looking properties in both Siena and Montepulciano, and was about to finalize bookings when I decided to check the individual property websites. I'm glad I did - there were better rooms available that weren't showing up on my booking.com searches, and by contacting the places directly (per the advice above) we were able to secure larger, and nicer, rooms at nearly the same price quoted for relatively inferior rooms shown on the booking.com website.
We love booking.com, but as has been stated before it's always a good idea to check directly with a particular property to see if better deals (and better accommodations) can be had. It's worked for us more times than I can count.
Haven't been in the market for a 4* hotel since I retired from business travel years ago, but back then I could always beat the quotes on booking.com and the other search engines thanks to my membership in AAA and the individual loyalty programs. Don't think I ever booked a business hotel thru a search engine.

I think it varies substantially by the type of accommodation desired. We tend to prefer smaller, quaint locally owned properties. In all of our travels, I've researched on a few different sites to narrow areas and properties down as well as check reviews from various sources. It has happened to me only once that a small property wanted me to use booking.com (bnb in Eguisheim) and only once could I find a cheaper rate on booking.com. It was a small, moderately priced hotel in Luzern. I asked them to match booking rate and they said they couldn't, so I then went through booking.com. I don't like chain hotels because I feel like I lose part of a more local experience. Even when I've resorted to a chain (Ibis isn't bad) I've booked on their website. I believe on every trip I've been on, I've received a free breakfast at a property by mentioning RS guide or by booking directly. In talking to other guests at our inn in Barcelona, I found that I was the only one that got breakfast for the three of us, included in the rate and actually my rate was the same as the other guests, and I had a bigger, three bed room. In Granada, we met a couple at a tapas bar that was staying at our inn. She was telling me about a travel credit card she uses and how happy she was with it, but she needed to book their travel with the card company. I booked my own and got a room with a huge balcony and free breakfast. Their rate was 5 euro more with no balcony or included breakfast. Now, I'm not saying that her credit card doesn't have great perks, it likely could.
I think the great thing about this forum is that people can seek advice and make their own decisions and hopefully contributors don't get personally vested in their own choices of how to travel. Peoples preferences and choices do vary.

@aarthurperry, YES, you are absolutely right, and I missed a very important step. I do use the hotel email. I typically do some low key, negotiating. A couple times I've said, I'd really like to stay at your property, but do you have any budget friendly rooms you can offer me? In older hotels, it does seem that there can be an odd sized room here and there. (I absolutely LOVE Hotel Austria in Vienna. It is very elegant with an amazing buffet breakfast. They do have a few smaller rooms they sell at a budget rate) Usually by the time, I arrive we've developed a little personal relationship. Mrs. XXX, I've put you in a room with 3 beds, or quiet, or the balcony you requested, etc. I typically get options for arrival, tourist sites that will be busy, links to attractions like the alhambra, and their tips for making visits to popular places. I typically will also email requesting to reconfirm a few weeks before the stay and a reminder of the type of room I desired.

"When I book with some random hotel website, my information is in dozens of small company's cheap cut-rate web sites, often these sites are security nightmares."

Possibly, but it can happen anywhere and does. Booking.Com has been subject to phishing scams in the past, something less likely to happen if using the services of the small boys. Orbitz and Marriot have also experienced major security breaches in the last couple of years, so size does not matter. Everyone's favourite friends, Facebook and Google, can't be trusted with your personal information.

The last two trips including that London I make the reservation by calling up on the phone the B&B, Pension directly. Except for the Pension in Berlin, the option of using in each case the hotel website or booking.com to reserve is also available.

The Pension in Berlin has an e-mail address which can be used to make reservations but no Pension website advertising the rates, homepage, and other details. I don't use that but call them up, talk to the proprietor making the reservation that way giving the details on my stay, etc. As follow up I send an e-mail confirmation or write them long hand with a confirmation letter.

There is more flexibility when talking to the boss or staff member when reserving.

It'd have to be a pretty good savings or very close to the arrival date for me to book a nonrefundable room

Wow, Kaeleku. Just wow. What does it really matter to you? Just, maybe it depends on the hotel, the size of the hotel, the budget, the time of year, occupancy in the city or at the property, the country, if the trip is in process or still being planned, the person, how polite/friendly the person is, etc. I think people can make their own informed decisions. I just think it is impolite to label people's freely given advice to be "crappy". As I've expressed before, my process does not take much time, but I'm pretty computer and internet savvy and can type fast. Further, I travel for the personal connections and I try to make my choices based on my own set of ethics about the impact I'd like to have on this world. Your experience is your experience, not a complete history of all hotel reservations in Europe. There certainly is not a one size fits all choice to be made here, but as I tell my children, that in all things you do, kindness counts.

Kaeleku - You are one of my favorite posters on this forum. Your life is so much more interesting than mine.

With that said, I always book directly with the hotel. The one and only time I used a third party site, the hotel had no record of my reservation - and we ended up with a better room at a lower price than the one we thought we had booked.

@Kaeleku
You have answered a somewhat different question than the OP asked. In my opinion, the hotel proprietor answered your question, namely, can you bargain over rates, when he said he didn’t do it. That should have been that.
Now back to the original question, the answer is, obviously, sometimes yes and sometimes no. It behooves the careful traveler to check every time when making a reservation.
The same is true, I guess, about bargaining over hotel rates. I would never expect that I could argue a proprietor down to a lower rate. I think it would be quite unusual, unless the owner offered, e.g., a discount for cash. Personally, I am much more comfortable with straightforward prices.

True, there are small hotels, Pensionen, etc which are not part of booking.com, although I would suspect, guess that these are becoming fewer and fewer in number.

My Pension in Berlin is one of these non-booking.com places. The proprietor herself told me this. My answer to that was for her to keep it that way.

@ kealeuku wrote:

I know some people like the idea of some frau fussing over each reservation individually but that is not the way it works in the real world, nor would a hotelier want it to work that way

Sorry K. but many hotels actually prefer the personal contact as it means that the chances that the guest will ACTUALLY SHOW UP go up exponentially. And if more did this the need for those terrible "non refundable room rates" would be far less prevalent.

If you have a genius discount - 10% - you most likely are paying either the lowest rate the hotel has, or close enough to the lowest.

The ten percent discount is built in to almost ALL hotel rates. You can usually get this by just asking. This is also the headroom for those ubiquitous discounts for AAA AARP and all the others. Even with this rate you are NOWHERE NEAR the lowest price for a given room.

One more thought. With booking, my credit card information is in a single well-funded company's site that is relatively secure. When I book with some random hotel website, my information is in dozens of small company's cheap cut-rate web sites, often these sites are security nightmares.

Unfortunately K. this is a giant misconception. First, the Booking .Com site by it's very nature and holder of millions of travellers data and CC information and as such is a much more highly valued target for hackers than the individual small hotel site. In addition to that the information in the B.C site is transferred to the hotel site anyway.

Based on the way I get treated with a booking.com reservation, I suspect it is more likely you will get a good room, not less. If you book directly and something goes wrong, and the hotel doesn't make it right, who will you complain to?

Unfortunately this is probably the most misinformed thing you wrote. First of all the VAST majority of hotels do not list anywhere near their full inventory of rooms on the aggregators sites. The rooms listed are ones that they feel they will have trouble filling normally. Thus it is impossible for you (or anyone) to actually be likely to get a better room from B.C.

As for complaints, well, Booking.Com has no power over the hotels except to be de-listed (This would only be done in extreme conditions or an avalanche of complaints and then only if the hotel was operating in a way that violated THE HOTELS agreement with Booking.com.) You are right about one thing and that is the reviews on B.C. But this is only self satisfaction in that it generally wont get your money back and the hotel has to actually CARE about those reviews.

I just feel that dealing with hotels is such a big topic here that it is important to make sure that the FACTS are known not just rumor or myth or anecdotal evidence of a personal nature.

@arthur, thanks for summarizing some great points, I will also add a comment in regards to this "frau fussing", which first of all, there would have been a way to state the opinion without being condescending. Secondly, there is a difference between making a simple reservation for two, able bodied people, and people with parties greater than two, older people, younger people, light sleepers, people that spend some time in their room that might enjoy a pretty view, etc. To contact the hotel and state preferences is a good strategy for ensuring a good stay and to also ensure that when you show up you actually have a room. On a few occasions now, a hotel has contacted me just before a stay and asked for my preferences. This does a couple things, it increases the probability that the hotel will not end up with a no show and also tends to provide a favorable impression of the hotel.

Obviously, going through booking.com has its disadvantages too, ie rooms booked for the days desired.

Depending on which country, I am encountering that, my response is different. When booking.com says my desired days in the summer are unavailable, say even 4-6 months out and in Germany, and likewise putting in dummy days, I get the same information, then I know, ...well, that's impossible. In September that's understandable, but this is in the summer, ie, from May to few days in Sept. That's the main difference.

At that point, I call up the particular hotel/Pension. I look at the hotel website in the original German to get its phone number (obviously, not listed by booking.com) to call them up directly in order to make the reservation.

With small hotels or Pensionen in Germany five to six months out, you can bet you'll get your desired days in the summer after the personal touch of a phone call, be it in Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Flensburg, Magdeburg, or Ingolstadt, etc.

After swearing that it’s best to book directly, I just found a room at a large well-known chain hotel in Miami, same category, room size, bed configuration, same date, but cheaper on booking. I think it was one stray room still available on the booking site but not the corporate site or a computer mistake. Won’t get points or miles or a free bottle of water, but it was $35 less even logged in to the corporate site with my member number. A fluke.

@Bets, I do a different kind of travel domestically than I do internationally. In the U.S. I find myself staying at a lot of chains. I always check booking and expedia to narrow things down and then go to the hotel chain's own website. The prices are generally the same, but if they different, I'll typically call the hotel and ask for a match. If they don't, I'll book thru booking or expedia. I'm wondering if you did ask the hotel if they would match the price? I don't really think there is a right or wrong answer, I'm just curious.

I respect the opinions of Andre and others who agree with him. For me, though, travel lodging is about more than getting the best price and/or benefits. I'm generally looking for a decent room in a small hotel or a B&B at a price that is fair for me and for the owner. I use sites like Booking or TA to narrow down the choices and then book through the chosen establishment's website (or by e-mail) because it's pretty much always better for the owner and generally does not make much of a difference for me. I don't recall ever paying more by booking on the establishment's website.