Direct booking with hotel is MORE expensive?

[stingk]

What?!

Had always been told to book direct and get discounts. Looking to book a room at a pretty large hotel (100+ rooms) and all the quotes I’ve got are more expensive than a third party website?

Hotel A: Booking dot com is £880, direct £1,300
Hotel B: Expedia £1,500, direct £2,000

I usually compare direct booking v booking.com, making sure I am comparing like for like terms but never thought to ask them to match - good idea, thanks!
(Outcome of my comparison is that it is usually cheaper if there is a genius discount offered, not if there isn't).

funny tht sometimes it does work out direct-i check everywhere when i went to book my hotel found direct was cheaper and had a perk rather than a booking site

Just be aware if booking for the US that prices may look cheaper booking direct, but then taxes can be added at check out, and you might also be hit with currency fees if paying in $ on a UK credit card.

I like to book a fully refundable stay where possible which booking direct doesn't always offer. We often tour and have had to rearrange on several occasions so that's a perk we look for when booking and would rather pay a few pounds extra for the privilege.

I always compare but 99% of the time I find a package cheaper.
I think this might be partly because I want daytime flights from East Midlands or Leeds. I am sure if you can travel to London or Manchester and don't mind flying at unsocial hours you can get cheaper.

I’ve just got a substantial discount for booking direct with a hotel in Scotland. Another one was way more than Expedia. You have to check!!! Every time. Plus if it’s abroad think if you need Abta protection.

MN Hq are bizarrely checking my reply about me booking hotels!

This happened to us with Expedia (Expedia had actually cancelled the booking with the hotel, in error, but hadn’t told us - the hotel showed us the email chain. It was pay on arrival so no way for us to know, the booking was still active on their website and we were still getting confirmation emails from Expedia).

Expedia couldn’t have been less helpful, and basically told us to fuck off. The hotel (Hotel Josef in Prague) bent over backwards to ring around and found us a room somewhere else overnight (they were fully booked), and then put us in an upgraded room the following night, even though it wasn’t their fault at all.

I haven’t used Expedia since, not because of the cancellation because obviously mistakes happen, but because they were so completely unhelpful afterwards.

Mine too! This is so weird.

Yes. Because booking has bulked bought the rooms

I wonder what is triggering it. I just said that a well-known booking site starting with E did indeed cancel my booking without telling me, leaving me stranded.

I’m going to repeat what I tried to post earlier which is not remotely controversial. We are booking some hotels in Scotland next summer. One is much cheaper booking direct - 20% cheaper. Another is more expensive booking direct. I just think some don’t monitor their own booking systems but quite a few places do state that booking direct is cheaper and we find that is the case. It’s very important to check direct booking prices in my experience.

The issue seems to be us using the name of the booking site beginning with E. I wonder why that is an issue, but booking.com is fine?

I booked one this week where their website said they were cheaper but they still weren't with the genius discount included.
I decided I couldn't be bothered to message them and ask to match it, not worth it for the amount of ££ involved.
If they want me to book direct, I will, as long as it genuinely is cheaper!

@LemondrizzleShark Not always. We’ve got a better deal for the Cotswolds this autumn by going direct. Around 10% cheaper. You just have to compare every time.