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With booking.com I have customer support I can talk to, would not even touch some hotel's own half broken booking system (much less give them my payment info...

With booking.com I have customer support I can talk to, would not even touch some hotel's own half broken booking system (much less give them my payment info... nope) Unlike hotels large airline booking systems are generally decent so I am okay with them, many are just white labelled Amadeus I think. But still, with expedia for flights I can (at least pre covid) get cancellations free of charge even if airline tariff doesn't have that, useful when applying for visa etc. But let's not talk about AirAsia, once booked with them direct and now get spammed for eternity, they don't unsub you no matter how hard you try. Had to set up a filter...

scarface_74 3y ago
Real world scenario: Last year I booked 7 days at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District for a hybrid work/pleasure trip. We arrived late and really didn’t like the hotel. We checked out the next day and went to the Hilton Parc 55. The first Hilton charged us for one night when we checked out. That simple change would have been next to impossible through a third party where I prepaid the third party and they paid the hotel. It definitely wouldn’t have been seamless
- throwaway290 3y ago
  Did similar a few times in the past year. There is no difference, as soon as I check in it's hotel's discretion. Some hotels are accommodating in this way, some will want to squeeze the full amount and stick to the rules. Edited: I see that you changed length of booking, at first I misread. That's possible, especially if booking listing doesn't take a pre-payment. But generally if I am uncertain I find and book two options with easy cancellation and then cancel the other one if I like the first one (or not cancel and move the next day). Easy enough when you have one panel for all your bookings. But I travel not in home country, in home country sure you know how stuff works you can just call your hotels or sweet talk reception staff and negotiate everything.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    > But I travel not in home country, in home country sure you know how stuff works you can just call your hotels or sweet talk reception staff and negotiate everything. I guess the other part is that I would still use a chain hotel in my case hotels affiliated with Hilton and Hyatt. I’ve also never had to deal with a hotel that didn’t cater to Americans even outside the country - mostly Mexico. I’m sure it would be more complicated once we start doing more overseas traveling.

scarface_74 3y ago

Real world scenario: Last year I booked 7 days at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District for a hybrid work/pleasure trip. We arrived late and really didn’t like the hotel. We checked out the next day and went to the Hilton Parc 55. The first Hilton charged us for one night when we checked out. That simple change would have been next to impossible through a third party where I prepaid the third party and they paid the hotel. It definitely wouldn’t have been seamless

throwaway290 3y ago
Did similar a few times in the past year. There is no difference, as soon as I check in it's hotel's discretion. Some hotels are accommodating in this way, some will want to squeeze the full amount and stick to the rules. Edited: I see that you changed length of booking, at first I misread. That's possible, especially if booking listing doesn't take a pre-payment. But generally if I am uncertain I find and book two options with easy cancellation and then cancel the other one if I like the first one (or not cancel and move the next day). Easy enough when you have one panel for all your bookings. But I travel not in home country, in home country sure you know how stuff works you can just call your hotels or sweet talk reception staff and negotiate everything.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  > But I travel not in home country, in home country sure you know how stuff works you can just call your hotels or sweet talk reception staff and negotiate everything. I guess the other part is that I would still use a chain hotel in my case hotels affiliated with Hilton and Hyatt. I’ve also never had to deal with a hotel that didn’t cater to Americans even outside the country - mostly Mexico. I’m sure it would be more complicated once we start doing more overseas traveling.