Hotel booking sites vs. direct

[71chevellejohn]

I've got a trip coming up in a couple weeks and am in the process of looking for a hotel to stay in.

For those that travel often, is it better to book through a booking site(expedia, trip advisor, trivago, etc) or directly with the hotel itself?

Also, are there any of these sites to avoid? I don't want to show up and have a huge hassle getting checked in when I'm trying to chill out.

[mstng86]

My wife works at hiltons diamond desk and they don really price match the websites but being can get you benefits and points. If you don't travel much, just go through the sites.

[aggie97]

Too many times I have booked through a "discount" site and then arrive at the hotel and they don't have the info for my reservation. Discount sites also have crappy "rewards" programs and have TONS of blackout periods for your free rooms. The direct sites also have black outs but aren't as bad.

Also, if you book on an outside site, when you arrive at the hotel, you are just another idiot and Customer Service is usually terrible. If you stay with the same chain, you end up getting higher membership status and they start to kiss your ass and give you perks and free upgrades.

<----Travels constantly.

[GrayStangGT]

I almost always book direct, if something goes wrong and you booked through a third party the hotel is not very inclined to help you out. Maybe its just the places I go, but I will check hotels.com and it is almost always with in a few dollars or the same as booking direct.

[Jon/xpm]

The 3rd party websites do not always have the lowest price. It actually could be higher then the hotel website. Ive had several guest find this out the hard way and get very upset. Also, you do not get your free perks. For Hilton, sign up to be an hhonors member, you get the free internet and points. Example here... Lets say you book at a doubletree using a 3rd party website to save a few bucks. Then you want to use the internet at the hotel, you have to pay an extra fee for the internet (anywhere between 10 to 20ish area per day).

If your looking for Hilton brand hotels, use hhonors.com so you can see all the brands. They also do discounts for AAA, AARP, Govt, Military, Corporations, Military Family Rate (vets and active), etc. Hilton is also doing a flash sale for 15% off depending on when you book and where you go.

[Jon/xpm]

I almost always book direct, if something goes wrong and you booked through a third party the hotel is not very inclined to help you out. Maybe its just the places I go, but I will check hotels.com and it is almost always with in a few dollars or the same as booking direct.

This is very true, lets say you need to change or cancel your reservation, etc before you go. You have to go back to the 3rd party website for support as the hotel brands can not help you because the reservation belongs to them(3rd party website).

[BP]

The booking sites will usually only show the cheapest available rate, which will be for the smallest and cheapest room they have. Which depending on the hotel might be a queen sized bed with a fold out couch. Then some hotels charge a resort fee, for parking or don't offer free breakfast or something else to make it more expensive.

I stopped using Priceline for example when I booked a "beach front" hotel in Galveston which ended up being the Days Inn at the end of the beach and was $5 more than their web rate. It wasn't a bad hotel but I expected to be closer to civilization.

Now that I'm married and travel with my wife I usually book through the Hilton website and shoot for an Embassy Suites if possible. We can book the military rate which puts them close to the mid grade hotels. However you get the manager's happy hour and a pretty good breakfast. Sure it's always $100+ a night and in some areas more like $200 but the open bar and breakfast is worth $40 by itself and they are usually in good areas. That and they almost always have an indoor pool that isn't full of screaming kids.

[GeorgeG.]

My wife has been using 3rd party sites recently...I'm sure she's also checked direct prices too just to make sure we're getting the lowest rate.

Now, if you use a 3rd party site, just call the hotel before arriving to make sure everything is good. We had a hassle of an ordeal when we used Bookit for our trip to Puerto Vallarta. They obviously weren't familiar with the hotel cause we requested to be on the adult side and on the beach front. Well, at this particular hotel, the adult side was on the far inland side. Seems easy enough to fix right? No...Bookit also had not paid for the room by the time we freaking show up! And we couldn't call them because they were closed by that time. We had to pay for another room out of our own pocket until we straightened it out with Bookit. But then, the following day we had to burn most of the day trying to fix it with Bookit. This was time we had scheduled for tours and stuff with tickets paid and everything.

Our saving grace was the front desk lady that was willing to stay near the phone (on hold) with Bookit and try to get them to release the payment they had already taken from our account.

The wife has used Bookit one time after that and I don't recall any major issues but, for me...I'm all about an enjoyable vacation. I don't mind paying a little extra to make sure my room is there when I get there.

[CWO]

I'll price with third party and book direct.

[Z06killinsbf]

I travel a ton and always book directly on the site or call Hilton Honors. You can tell them where you're going, which hotel (Hampton, Homewood, Garden Inn etc) and they'll find one for you. No searching on booking sites. Plus being a Diamond member gets you free shit and people normally straighten up their posture when you check in. Plus up front parking.

[Chili]

I'll price with third party and book direct.

This is what I usually do, more often for airfare.

[jimithing]

3rd party sites have never worked out well for me. Last time I went to San Francisco I booked through a 3rd party website because it was cheaper than booking direct. When I went to check in I found that our room was a queen bed instead of king like the 3rd party website said and it was also much smaller than the normal rooms. The woman at the desk told me that they give the smaller rooms to the people who use the 3rd party websites like that. The larger rooms with king sized beds were for guests who booked directly.

[AdamLX]

Book direct.

Also www.virtuoso.com