Does anyone else find that hotels are cheaper on something like booking.com rather than booking direct?

[rookiemere]

Just a bit of a muse really.

I'm currently booking hotels for a trip and often use something like booking.com to find out what's available and then check the hotels own website. I know that hoteliers have to pay commission to the third party so I'd rather they got the money directly, plus sometimes you get a better room if you book directly.

However pretty often it's more expensive to book directly, which makes no sense to me. Anyone else found this or can throw some light on why it is ?

I've noticed this too - not sure if booking.com have some kind of price exclusivity?

It’s often in the booking.com terms with the hotels.

I find it varies. Always worth checking both booking.com and direct to see which has the best deal (not just price, sometimes the cancellation terms can be better too).

Call up the hotel and they will price match or better.

Some of them can’t do that online due to an agreement with booking.com (who have huge market power) but will do over the phone.

Ah I didn't realise Booking.com negotiated terms with the hotels.
@minipie totally get what you're saying about ringing up, but I hate trying to haggle over the phone, so I find it much easier doing things online.
Ironically I find using a central website much easier as all the bookings are in one place and it's easy to see cancellation terms, but don't want the hotels to lose income.

I find it varies too. I go straight to booking.com to help me find a property, when I have picked what I want I check the prices on the hotel's website before I book. They are usually the same but occasionally I get a better deal direct.

We've found that by speaking directly to independent hotels, they will usually price-match their b.com quoted rate, or add in free breakfasts - sometimes both.

We used b.com in 2021 as we were planning a UK trip with 4 destinations, & it seemed the easiest way to co-ordinate. 2 were chain hotels & the price was the same. One was the worst place I've ever stayed in, & the manager was openly hostile to people who had not booked directly with them A complaint to b.com got nowhere - even though their listing contained many lies.

The online booking sites cause a lot of problems for hotel staff. The information they list is often out of date or incorrect and they often don't make the restrictions clear to customers. There are lots of rants about them here

www.reddit.com/r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk/

After reading a few of these discussions I always book directly with the hotel.

I hate haggling too rookie but I don’t think of asking the actual hotel to price match the booking.com price as haggling. It’s giving them the chance to get the booking directly and save whatever % they would have to pay to booking.com - so win win from their perspective.

Bloody hell mumsnet, what’s with the automatic links for booking. com? Does this happen for other websites..? never noticed this before

I generally find booking. com give the best prices and simplest process for booking. Unless I want a Travelodge, in which case I use their own site.

Booking . Com have contracts with accommodation providers where they're not allowed to advertise cheaper rates than booking . Com. As everyone seems to book through b.c, accommodation providers can't afford to not use the portal. B.c commission rates are minimum 15% and often much more - i.e. Edinburgh during festival. It does pay to give your preferred hotel a quick call - they'll definitely be able to match b.c rates, and can often do better.

Smaller accommodation businesses are held to ransom by the OTAs. Payments can often be made to businesses weeks after guest has stayed.

Please book direct with accommodation if you can.

The hotels’ own websites always seem to be more expensive than booking dot com. Which is insane, because the aggregator sites take a commission. I tend to use the aggregators because you can see every hotel in the area, compare them easily and the booking process is quick and simple. I might check the hotel’s own website but it’s always more expensive and I can’t be bothered calling them to haggle with a grumpy receptionist or, for hotel groups, an uninterested call centre operator in the Philippines or wherever.

There are disadvantages of using the aggregator sites though. The hotels ALWAYS put you in the crappest rooms if you book via booking dot com. If they have started a refurbishment programme you’ll be in the unrefurbished rooms, guaranteed. Even if there are better rooms vacant.

Plus, if the hotel gets a better offer for the room, like someone booking direct, they will cancel the booking with Booking dot com and bump you, on the day you’re meant to be staying, and Booking dot com might or might not call you to tell you. When they do it’s always some call centre person who speaks limited English and basically says, “your room is cancelled, bye!”. Or if pressed they might offer you a crap room over a pub for the same price as the Mercure you thought you’d booked. No thanks. Or you turn up at the hotel to find that there’s no room at the inn.

Sometimes the room or facilities/services are better if you book direct, I.e. bigger rooms, better views, etc., or other benefits such as loyalty points.

Not the hotel I was looking at the other day - booking directly was £38 cheaper (same room, the hotel is small and there is only one room I could have booked for my needs).

@Iamthewombat the wombat- I've never been bumped when not booking directly.

From what I've seen, I think it's possible that accommodation is allowed to advertise at the same price as a third party website, but say include breakfast on their own site. That's more than enough incentive for me to book directly.

Booking is very handy if you wish to change plans/cancel.

Most hotels are in chains, so ability to negotiate is limited, so i found that B&B's seem to be able to offer a better deal direct, esp if returning.

I always use Booking for an initial search as their map is the easiest to navigate. I then check the price directly with the hotel and on Trivago which is a comparison site. Trivago add their own fees on top, but sometimes they show that Expedia, for example, are the cheapest so I book via Expedia.

I book a lot of business travel and like to thoroughly research!

@LiftyLift ah I've never used Trivago so I could start checking that as well.

We booked a hotel in the Lake District recently. On checking out, the owner said that if we went back, to book directly and we'd save 10% on the price. I tried this at another hotel and it was dearer directly. I guess there are various deal and contracts in place and it's always worth ringing the hotel to find out which is the best deal.

Not always. We don't on any of ours. If you want the booking.com proce you have to go through that way.

Another consideration for me - particularly since covid- is to book as flexibly as possible. By booking online I can see and have written evidence of cancellation terms.

I've booked with booking.com many times in lots of different countries and never been bumped!
I always look on booking.com 1st but it's worth always checking the hotels own website too. Often there's better rates if you join their members club.

I've stopped using booking.com. I used to use them all the time but the last three times there been issues and their customer service is useless.

My oh hates the aggregator sites so always goes direct to the hotel. They certainly appreciate it ime. The one we last stayed in threw in the (really excellent) breakfast as complementary. Had been planning a takeaway coffee and pastry instead to save on the £11 or whatever each - so that was lovely!