I've had some bad experiences with third parties (middlemen) when booking hotels online. Anytime there is a problem, the other two parties point the fingers at

I've had some bad experiences with third parties (middlemen) when booking hotels online. Anytime there is a problem, the other two parties point the fingers at each other, and you, the customer, is left to deal with it. I don't find all middlemen parasitic, but in this case, it's less risk for me to deal directly. Sometimes only booking.com has rooms and the hotel site itself doesn't, and in that case, I will still use booking.com.