Always cut out unnecessary middlemen. Agreed. Especially since the hotels I've inquired with freely admit they put middlemen/broker bookings into the bad room

Always cut out unnecessary middlemen. Agreed. Especially since the hotels I've inquired with freely admit they put middlemen/broker bookings into the bad rooms (noisy, bad floors, bad views, bad location, not renovated, next to the exhaust of the restaurant next door, old electronics and furniture, etc.) first, until those fill up.