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> It never pays to use a travel aggregator. > Book through the hotel website Actually, it does pay. Literally. Because the same hotel is often cheaper if you

> It never pays to use a travel aggregator. > Book through the hotel website Actually, it does pay. Literally. Because the same hotel is often cheaper if you book it through the booking website, while mainly business travelers book the hotel directly.

rhino369 4y ago
It used to be so much cheaper to book an aggregator back in the early days. Hotwire is still pretty good since the deals aren't advertised. But you are rolling the dice on whether your hotel * rating is actually accurate.
725686 4y ago
In my experience, absolutely not. Unless sites like hotwire in which you don't know the name of the hotel until you pay.
mleo 4y ago
The hotel cannot offer a cheaper public rate than Booking.com or Expedia, even though they take 15% or more. The hotel has to include other perks not available or limit the availability of the offer to members. The aggregators can run promotions that discount the rates, which the hotel still covers the difference.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  The hotel can offer a cheaper rate, if you are a member of the hotels’ free rewards program. All the chain hotels offer a discounted “members” discount price for reserving directly and saving them commissions.
atourgates 4y ago
This is not really true any longer. Every major hotel chain and many independent properties have "Best Price Guarantees" that, well, guarantee you'll get the best price with them. Often if you CAN find a lower rate at an OTA, they'll give you some kind of incentive (aka an extra credit etc.) Examples: * Marriott - https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-22050 https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-22050 * Hilton - https://www.hilton.com/en/p/price-match-guarantee/ https://www.hilton.com/en/p/price-match-guarantee/ * IHG - https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/bwc-lp https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/bwc-lp * Hyatt - https://www.hyatt.com/info/best-rate-guarantee https://www.hyatt.com/info/best-rate-guarantee There are a few exceptions, such as Hotwire-style hidden rates, or rates negotiated for conferences and events, but displayed rates from places like Booking.com, Expedia and the like nearly always qualify.
- mrcodedude 4y ago
  These best price guarantees are all garbage, though. They'll say that the room type offered on the OTA is different than the room type booked direct - even if it's the same room. I stayed at the Kimpton Epic Miami. Paid almost $150/nt less through Priceline. Tried to use IHG's Best Price Guarantee and they said it's a different class of room. $465/nt through IHG - https://i.imgur.com/nTdZTnM.png https://i.imgur.com/nTdZTnM.png $342/nt through Priceline - https://i.imgur.com/3jabBss.png https://i.imgur.com/3jabBss.png There's a lot of misinformation in this thread.
  - atourgates 4y ago
    Certainly not all garbage, though IHG (and Hilton) are two of the worst. Marriott[1] and Hyatt[2] seem to be much more dependable, per literally thousands of posts on their Flyertalk threads. BUT, the practical consequence is that seeing drastically cheaper rates on OTAs than direct booking is much rarer than it used to be. [1] https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/2063962-marriott-bonvoy-brg-best-rate-guarantee-success-failure-discussion-2022-a-11.html?ispreloading=1 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/206... [2] https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt-world-hyatt/970090-hyatt-best-rate-guarantee-experiences-master-thread-wiki-218.html?ispreloading=1 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt-world-hyatt/970090-hya...
    - mrcodedude 4y ago
      Marriott did the same thing for me with the New Orleans Ritz. In their case, they said the OTA room isn't guaranteed, direct is, therefore, different class of room. Do you actually have any experience with these best price guarantees? Because I've only tried a handful of times and every time I end up booking through the OTA. Look how fast you walked back your initial claim: > Every major hotel chain and many independent properties have "Best Price Guarantees" that, well, guarantee you'll get the best price with them. > Certainly not all garbage, though IHG (and Hilton) are two of the worst. That's no guarantee.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  I just checked, our Holiday Inn here is 0.10€ per night cheaper on Expedia. That wouldn’t even trigger their best price guarantee (1% saving needed). But yeah, that is not worth it, I haven’t actually booked a hotel in a few years, so I guess things changed for the better. edit: Of course, Expedia doesn’t even have Motel One which is a nice 50€ cheaper than the Holiday Inn, and that’s for their 2nd cheapest room. edit2: Okay, actually this is pretty confusing. Apparently, Motel One website and Expedia have 2 completely separate contingents of available rooms. Some days I can get the cheapest room at Expedia with no rooms free at the M1 website, some days they don’t have any rooms while the medium room is available directly.
jacurtis 4y ago
This used to be the case, and most people think this without ever actually confirming this while traveling. The hotels have been working hard to incentivize away from this mentality with very tangible perks for directly booking with them which makes them, as you put it “literally cheaper”. All the major hotel chains IHG, Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham, which collectively account for over 98% of hotel properties across their various brands, now offer best price guarantees. In order to do this, hotels are strictly enforcing that travel aggregators can not advertise below certain prices. Now admittedly, there are still deals out there cheaper than the direct hotels such as Hotwire and Priceline’s “name your price” programs. But the trick here is that they aren’t advertising specific prices for hotels. They are hiding the exact location or price unless you go through an extended process, which usually means committing with your credit card number before revealing the location or hotel chain. However, even these have caveats as they often lack perks that hotels offer direct customers. Often they don’t even guarantee a room type. Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers. Also, with only a few exceptions, most hotels now only offer points and loyalty programs to direct purchase customers. You miss out on these by using aggregators, which usually equates to a roughly 5-10% value. This trickles down to other perks like the likelihood of getting a room upgrade, which is generally nil when booking through a travel aggregator. Some travelers like me that have even modest loyalty can get guaranteed room upgrades when available if booking directly. Even with status you miss out on these by booking through aggregators. So no, it doesn’t pay to use a travel aggregator. It’s great for discovery or maybe a quick last minute purchase, but generally it’s better to book directly with the hotel. None of this mentions non-tangible benefits like the fact that if you have a problem with your room and you booked directly you are going to find the problem getting corrected much quicker, easier, and better because the hotel can resolve the problem themselves. Disputes when you book through the travel aggregators requires you to call the aggregator. Which then, like the woman in this story, requires them to make you wait while they call the hotel and play phone tag back and forth, rarely yielding positive results.
- thatguy0900 4y ago
  "Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers." I'll be honest, this is a perk I've seen advertised alot but never really understood. Maybe I just don't stay at good hotels or something but the breakfast I've always seen is a open bar with like coffee, milk, orange juice, cereals, toast/bagel, breakfast sausage, some fruit and a waffle iron. Is that really worth more than like 5$? Is it even worth factoring into the price of a 100$+ a night stay? Almost feels petty on the part of hotels to say no you can't have this bowl of offbrand cheerios and milk
jen20 4y ago
> business travelers book the hotel directly Business travellers almost exclusively book through travel agents, not directly.

rhino369 4y ago

It used to be so much cheaper to book an aggregator back in the early days. Hotwire is still pretty good since the deals aren't advertised. But you are rolling the dice on whether your hotel * rating is actually accurate.

725686 4y ago

In my experience, absolutely not. Unless sites like hotwire in which you don't know the name of the hotel until you pay.

mleo 4y ago

The hotel cannot offer a cheaper public rate than Booking.com or Expedia, even though they take 15% or more. The hotel has to include other perks not available or limit the availability of the offer to members. The aggregators can run promotions that discount the rates, which the hotel still covers the difference.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
The hotel can offer a cheaper rate, if you are a member of the hotels’ free rewards program. All the chain hotels offer a discounted “members” discount price for reserving directly and saving them commissions.

atourgates 4y ago

This is not really true any longer. Every major hotel chain and many independent properties have "Best Price Guarantees" that, well, guarantee you'll get the best price with them. Often if you CAN find a lower rate at an OTA, they'll give you some kind of incentive (aka an extra credit etc.) Examples: * Marriott - https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-22050 https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-22050 * Hilton - https://www.hilton.com/en/p/price-match-guarantee/ https://www.hilton.com/en/p/price-match-guarantee/ * IHG - https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/bwc-lp https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/bwc-lp * Hyatt - https://www.hyatt.com/info/best-rate-guarantee https://www.hyatt.com/info/best-rate-guarantee There are a few exceptions, such as Hotwire-style hidden rates, or rates negotiated for conferences and events, but displayed rates from places like Booking.com, Expedia and the like nearly always qualify.

mrcodedude 4y ago
These best price guarantees are all garbage, though. They'll say that the room type offered on the OTA is different than the room type booked direct - even if it's the same room. I stayed at the Kimpton Epic Miami. Paid almost $150/nt less through Priceline. Tried to use IHG's Best Price Guarantee and they said it's a different class of room. $465/nt through IHG - https://i.imgur.com/nTdZTnM.png https://i.imgur.com/nTdZTnM.png $342/nt through Priceline - https://i.imgur.com/3jabBss.png https://i.imgur.com/3jabBss.png There's a lot of misinformation in this thread.
- atourgates 4y ago
  Certainly not all garbage, though IHG (and Hilton) are two of the worst. Marriott[1] and Hyatt[2] seem to be much more dependable, per literally thousands of posts on their Flyertalk threads. BUT, the practical consequence is that seeing drastically cheaper rates on OTAs than direct booking is much rarer than it used to be. [1] https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/2063962-marriott-bonvoy-brg-best-rate-guarantee-success-failure-discussion-2022-a-11.html?ispreloading=1 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-marriott-bonvoy/206... [2] https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt-world-hyatt/970090-hyatt-best-rate-guarantee-experiences-master-thread-wiki-218.html?ispreloading=1 https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt-world-hyatt/970090-hya...
  - mrcodedude 4y ago
    Marriott did the same thing for me with the New Orleans Ritz. In their case, they said the OTA room isn't guaranteed, direct is, therefore, different class of room. Do you actually have any experience with these best price guarantees? Because I've only tried a handful of times and every time I end up booking through the OTA. Look how fast you walked back your initial claim: > Every major hotel chain and many independent properties have "Best Price Guarantees" that, well, guarantee you'll get the best price with them. > Certainly not all garbage, though IHG (and Hilton) are two of the worst. That's no guarantee.
Semaphor 4y ago
I just checked, our Holiday Inn here is 0.10€ per night cheaper on Expedia. That wouldn’t even trigger their best price guarantee (1% saving needed). But yeah, that is not worth it, I haven’t actually booked a hotel in a few years, so I guess things changed for the better. edit: Of course, Expedia doesn’t even have Motel One which is a nice 50€ cheaper than the Holiday Inn, and that’s for their 2nd cheapest room. edit2: Okay, actually this is pretty confusing. Apparently, Motel One website and Expedia have 2 completely separate contingents of available rooms. Some days I can get the cheapest room at Expedia with no rooms free at the M1 website, some days they don’t have any rooms while the medium room is available directly.

jacurtis 4y ago

This used to be the case, and most people think this without ever actually confirming this while traveling. The hotels have been working hard to incentivize away from this mentality with very tangible perks for directly booking with them which makes them, as you put it “literally cheaper”. All the major hotel chains IHG, Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham, which collectively account for over 98% of hotel properties across their various brands, now offer best price guarantees. In order to do this, hotels are strictly enforcing that travel aggregators can not advertise below certain prices. Now admittedly, there are still deals out there cheaper than the direct hotels such as Hotwire and Priceline’s “name your price” programs. But the trick here is that they aren’t advertising specific prices for hotels. They are hiding the exact location or price unless you go through an extended process, which usually means committing with your credit card number before revealing the location or hotel chain. However, even these have caveats as they often lack perks that hotels offer direct customers. Often they don’t even guarantee a room type. Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers. Also, with only a few exceptions, most hotels now only offer points and loyalty programs to direct purchase customers. You miss out on these by using aggregators, which usually equates to a roughly 5-10% value. This trickles down to other perks like the likelihood of getting a room upgrade, which is generally nil when booking through a travel aggregator. Some travelers like me that have even modest loyalty can get guaranteed room upgrades when available if booking directly. Even with status you miss out on these by booking through aggregators. So no, it doesn’t pay to use a travel aggregator. It’s great for discovery or maybe a quick last minute purchase, but generally it’s better to book directly with the hotel. None of this mentions non-tangible benefits like the fact that if you have a problem with your room and you booked directly you are going to find the problem getting corrected much quicker, easier, and better because the hotel can resolve the problem themselves. Disputes when you book through the travel aggregators requires you to call the aggregator. Which then, like the woman in this story, requires them to make you wait while they call the hotel and play phone tag back and forth, rarely yielding positive results.

thatguy0900 4y ago
"Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers." I'll be honest, this is a perk I've seen advertised alot but never really understood. Maybe I just don't stay at good hotels or something but the breakfast I've always seen is a open bar with like coffee, milk, orange juice, cereals, toast/bagel, breakfast sausage, some fruit and a waffle iron. Is that really worth more than like 5$? Is it even worth factoring into the price of a 100$+ a night stay? Almost feels petty on the part of hotels to say no you can't have this bowl of offbrand cheerios and milk

jen20 4y ago

> business travelers book the hotel directly Business travellers almost exclusively book through travel agents, not directly.