Using hotel booking sites for Lisbon

Your example doesn't sound right - 43% in taxes? Nowhere in Europe has such high lodging tax rates. Is this an issue of currency conversion or something else?

As far as third party sites, I trust and use www.booking.com. Just be sure to read the fine print at the bottom, and be comfortable with the payment and cancellation policy.

Booking.com

Hi
I priced Hotel Baia in Cascais (outside of Lisbon) for the same dates and number of nights.
The official hotel site was 130 euros and the other site was 160 US dollars.
160 dollars was about 143 euros when checked it, so the official hotel site was cheaper but that's not always the case.
Happy travels

I like Trivago.

We always use booking.com if we don’t go through the hotel directly. Is Trivago better last minute?

Cindy,
I like to compare pricing. I first look at pricing & reviews on Booking.com. Then I check the hotel directly. I recently booked 9 accommodations in Sicily using this method. I found a better deal going directly through the hotel sites. For example, one B & B was well over $200 savings booking through the website. Most others were at least 10% or more savings. Of course another factor is time of the year and location. A couple years ago we booked a B & B in Ljubljana that used Booking.com. exclusively. It was a great deal. Like mentioned up thread, it depends.

Edit to add, I book with Free Cancellation.

Thanks for all of your help. I don 't think I was actually on the hotel's website. OOPS! I just wasn't sure about the booking sites for Europe. I thought I read somewhere that you shouldn't use them except in the USA.

I use booking.com for both US and Europe
Never had a problem
Booking.com is headquartered in Amsterdam
I’ve used them so long and booked so often I am now at Genius level 2 or something which gives me additional discounts at some locations

As others have said I check both booking.com and the hotel site and book wherever I get the best deal
I like booking.com for reviews which can only be left by folks who have actually stayed there (unlike other sights)
Set the filters for location, price, free cancellation, amenities like AC, parking, elevator, etc

Make sure all taxes and fees are included on both sights when you price compare. Booking .com states very clearly what is and is not included
Some hotel websites are a bit unclear so you need to drill drown, read the small print

And I find it easier to manage as many of our reservations as possible from one central site. We'll go elsewise if the savings warrant but tend to have almost all with booking.com or airbnb. Actually there are so many apartments listing with booking.com we find we're using airbnb less than we used to.