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I used to work a part time job doing hotel reservations for a small hotel a few years ago. Back then about 35-40% of their bookings were made through booking.co

I used to work a part time job doing hotel reservations for a small hotel a few years ago. Back then about 35-40% of their bookings were made through booking.com, and although I didn't know the actual cut booking.com took, I know it wasn't small. The hotel was always keen on trying to convert their booking.com or other third party customers into direct customers. We were always instructed, depending upon predicted or actual demand of course (we had someone dedicated to trying to predict demand by populating a spreadsheet with prices), to be willing to haggle with someone that is dealing directly with the hotel if we felt it necessary to sell. I would always recommend that you deal directly with the hotel, especially if you think demand is low. Also, showing up just before the hotel reception closes and swaps to the night shift porters is a great time (10-11pm) as hotel staff are particularly vulnerable to haggling. At that time of night we just want to sell for covering staff wages/fixed costs. Downside of showing up at the last minute is you can easily be ignorant of local market conditions and show up at 10pm when every bed in the area is occupied due to some local event that you were ignorant of.

Sacho 9y ago
> I would always recommend that you deal directly with the hotel, especially if you think demand is low. Also, showing up just before the hotel reception closes and swaps to the night shift porters is a great time (10-11pm) as hotel staff are particularly vulnerable to haggling. At that time of night we just want to sell for covering staff wages/fixed costs. This sounds great for someone interested in haggling, but if I don't want to bother with it(actually, if I'm specifically averse to it as I want to plan my vacation costs in advance), why should I go to the hotel directly instead of using booking.com?
- a_humean 9y ago
  Even on the phone and sometimes months in advance you can easily haggle a 10-35% discount if demand is low. Especially if you agree to pay in advance on a non-refundable basis. We had price lists updated daily looking ahead 1-2 years.
tallanvor 9y ago
Honestly, that's great if you're in the US and trying to book within the country, but once you start thinking internationally, calling becomes a headache, especially if you're traveling to countries where not everyone speaks English very well. And when I'm on a trip, the last thing I want to do is hope for the best at finding a hotel the day I arrive!
- csydas 9y ago
  I definitely appreciate your sentiment and agree, that I don't want to be fighting for a room when I'm on vacation - but with regards to the language barrier, where there's a will, there's a sale. In all my experience abroad, as long as there is some effort made to communicate, language has never been an issue when it came to prices and sales. Sometimes this means we pass a calculator back and forth with different prices until we agree, but as long as there's an effort and money to be made, people are fairly open to alternative means of communication, even in remote nowhere locations.

Sacho 9y ago

> I would always recommend that you deal directly with the hotel, especially if you think demand is low. Also, showing up just before the hotel reception closes and swaps to the night shift porters is a great time (10-11pm) as hotel staff are particularly vulnerable to haggling. At that time of night we just want to sell for covering staff wages/fixed costs. This sounds great for someone interested in haggling, but if I don't want to bother with it(actually, if I'm specifically averse to it as I want to plan my vacation costs in advance), why should I go to the hotel directly instead of using booking.com?

a_humean 9y ago
Even on the phone and sometimes months in advance you can easily haggle a 10-35% discount if demand is low. Especially if you agree to pay in advance on a non-refundable basis. We had price lists updated daily looking ahead 1-2 years.

tallanvor 9y ago

Honestly, that's great if you're in the US and trying to book within the country, but once you start thinking internationally, calling becomes a headache, especially if you're traveling to countries where not everyone speaks English very well. And when I'm on a trip, the last thing I want to do is hope for the best at finding a hotel the day I arrive!

csydas 9y ago
I definitely appreciate your sentiment and agree, that I don't want to be fighting for a room when I'm on vacation - but with regards to the language barrier, where there's a will, there's a sale. In all my experience abroad, as long as there is some effort made to communicate, language has never been an issue when it came to prices and sales. Sometimes this means we pass a calculator back and forth with different prices until we agree, but as long as there's an effort and money to be made, people are fairly open to alternative means of communication, even in remote nowhere locations.