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> These days their prices are competitive or better than the aggregation sites, and with better terms I travel extensively for work, and this is simply not tru

> These days their prices are competitive or better than the aggregation sites, and with better terms I travel extensively for work, and this is simply not true. Literally last week, I saved $40 by booking through hoteltonight in Chicago. Once you get close to the date of the stay, prices become squirrely and weird. This is definitely true if you're booking more than two weeks in advance, though.

bboygravity 4y ago
Definitely true for Europe. I pretty much live in hotels and so far 100% of my bookings where either cheaper (usually) or the same price (rarely) on the hotel's own webste vs aggregators. Regardless of my "genious discount level 9000" or "save up 10 nights and get 1 free" and all the other "discounts" that you actually paid for indirectly on aggregators. The only place where this didn't hold true for me so far was a hotel in Indonesia, where the price quoted at the hotel desk in person was higher than a certain aggregator. The people at the front desk suggested I'd book online and I did :)
- closewith 4y ago
  Europe is a big place. It's not true in Ireland, anyway.
anakaine 4y ago
I've tried probably a dozen times within the past 6 months to book both domestic and international hotels. Not once when looking at many dozens of places was if cheaper to book directly on the hotels website, even months in advance.
raverbashing 4y ago
I just wouldn't bother with "cheaphotels dot com" or some random aggregator for a small discount Besides not wanting another random website having my data, the chance of misbookings is high. Hotwire/Priceline models might actually give cheaper bookings or when you can have a less flexible booking/prepaying for example. The discount models hotels use are fixed, there's no magic in a random website giving you a discount.
- tomcam 4y ago
  You said it way better than I did!
shapefrog 4y ago
I phone the hotel, quote the best price I have seen and get it 99% of the time.

bboygravity 4y ago

Definitely true for Europe. I pretty much live in hotels and so far 100% of my bookings where either cheaper (usually) or the same price (rarely) on the hotel's own webste vs aggregators. Regardless of my "genious discount level 9000" or "save up 10 nights and get 1 free" and all the other "discounts" that you actually paid for indirectly on aggregators. The only place where this didn't hold true for me so far was a hotel in Indonesia, where the price quoted at the hotel desk in person was higher than a certain aggregator. The people at the front desk suggested I'd book online and I did :)

closewith 4y ago
Europe is a big place. It's not true in Ireland, anyway.

anakaine 4y ago

I've tried probably a dozen times within the past 6 months to book both domestic and international hotels. Not once when looking at many dozens of places was if cheaper to book directly on the hotels website, even months in advance.

raverbashing 4y ago

I just wouldn't bother with "cheaphotels dot com" or some random aggregator for a small discount Besides not wanting another random website having my data, the chance of misbookings is high. Hotwire/Priceline models might actually give cheaper bookings or when you can have a less flexible booking/prepaying for example. The discount models hotels use are fixed, there's no magic in a random website giving you a discount.

tomcam 4y ago
You said it way better than I did!

shapefrog 4y ago

I phone the hotel, quote the best price I have seen and get it 99% of the time.