Booking.com or book with hotel directly?

I often use Booking.com versus direct with an unknown-to-me hotel because A) I can use my credit card and B) for the cancellation policy clarity/ease of managing the res.

I would not do any bank transfer, especailly when there are other options that don't require a pre-payment - once that money is gone, it's gone. Before booking any property and using any booking channel, you need to be clear on the terms of the booking. If that is not transparent, then don't book it unless you are prepared to lose money. Credit cards offer more protection and flexibility vs. bank transfers. I personally don't have any ethical issues over using booking.com. If a hotel didn't want to use it to onload excess inventory or have greater visibility on the internet, then they wouldn't have signed a contract with booking.com.

I agree with Laurel's comment - I look at both the hotel's website and booking.com and compare the pricing and cancellation policies. If they are comparable (or close), I book directly with the hotel - I have found that if you run into issues, it can result in the hotel being more accommodating. Having said that, there have been instances where there was better availability on booking.com than on the hotel's website or the cancellation policy was more lenient on booking.com. Do your research and I would personally stick with paying by credit card for the protection it provides.

If the hotel is on Booking.com, you should use them. Straight forward, easy to understand policies and simple CC payments. Booking direct with a hotel might save you a few dollars, but you may run into a hassle with cancellations and refunds. I also would consider a different hotel with a better cancellation policy. Two months out is a rather large window in the conditions we live in now with Covid.

Whenever possible, we use direct to hotel booking with places we know, and Booking.com as the backup with “new to us” businesses. We recently had our first glitch with Booking.com when we used them to reserve a room in Sylt. Their (Booking.com) policy was “pay on arrival and cancel up to 48 hours before.”

Once we made the reservation, I began to receive emails asking for immediate payment via bank transfer from the owner (?), and this was six months from the proposed stay dates. We thought it was a fluke, but after two more increasingly virulent emails asking for immediate payment of all monies, we did cancel via the Booking.com website, which confirmed the cancellation.

Had we gone directly to that owner, who knows what might have happened. It was such a strange occurrence, and we will be sure to avoid all properties managed by that company or staff, although we think it may be that they just needed the cash given the lack of business in the past years.

We book directly with the hotel. Many feel they have no choice but to align themselves with booking sites but for independent hotels that can be quite costly. For the most part we have found direct hotel bookings will be slightly lower in price and may offer something extra such as a lower priced breakfast. Have only found 1 hotel with a limited cancellation/refundable policy and opted to not book with them.

I would only use Booking.com (or others) as a last resort. After travelling for over 50 years, things surely have changed, but I feel that the larger booking sites tend to do more harm to smaller hotels/B&Bs/etc. It's true having a thought that if a business puts themselves on one of these sites, then that is their choice. However, some have no choice in order to get their name out there. After talking with owners of places I stayed, most have to pay 15-25% commission to be on the sites and receive no support from the site with no shows and late cancellations. When a business only has a small handful of rooms, it's very difficult for them to recover. I ask why they use them to the owners and most say what choice do they have. When you search for a place to stay, almost always Booking.com/Expedia/others are the very first results. There is no competing with that. I also know that larger hotel chains (Hilton for example) have had recent advertising campaigns to get people to reserve direct and not through Booking.com.

When I travel, I tend to look at the TripAdvisor reviews of a place and then contact the Hotel/B&B directly. In one most recent instance, the Booking.com rate I saw online for a place I wanted to stay in Italy was €420/night and when I went directly to the website, the direct rate was €300/night for the same room. I asked the owner about it and they said that Booking.com takes an enormous commission and they can't absorb it, so they pass it on to the customer. Obviously I booked direct.

I still do advise caution about business wanting money transfers, etc. If the places I stay don't take credit cards directly, then I tend to look elsewhere. I can always dispute the charges with my credit card company if there is an issue, however, in all my years of travelling, I think I maybe had to do this once. -Norman

Booking sites (Booking.com, but even several others) have a high surcharge and often some policies for hotel like that is forbidden for the hotel sell to a lower rate that the one on the booking site. For example: you find on a booking site the room at 100€ and they kept the 10% (the hotel gain 90€), but for the hotel is forbidden sell directly the same room at 95€ (lower than the booking site, higher gain that selling through a reseller).
This means in general: booking through a booking site less fair and less ethic than book directly the hotel.
Another problem is that the hotel should keep rooms blocked for the reseller... even if the reseller give you a cancellation policy until few days before the travel!
On the other side is easier and often you find better rates.

To book, I need to send 30% of the total by bank transfer, with the balance to follow. Their email didn't say anything about a cancellation policy.

What I suggest is to ask to clarify with the hotel the booking conditions and the cancellation policy. In general remember that the deposit usually is not refundable, but the balance yes until some days before the travel.

Normally, I always book directly with the hotel. However, if a hotel wanted a money transfer as a deposit and I could get the same rate by using a credit card on Booking.com, I would go with Booking.com.

Of course, it also depends on the cancellation policy. Two months in advance? During Covid?