[petedoyle]

I've spent ~150 nights in hotels in the past year, and it's super rare that booking directly is cheaper. I almost always save like 30% on Hotels.com/HotelTonight/etc.

I recently wanted to extend a stay and the front desk quoted me $120/nt while Hotels.com was $107 (plus 10% back as a reward, so ~$96).

I wish that weren't the case because this is 100% true:

> never know what's going on and when anything goes wrong they just tell you they can't help you. Then the place tells you that they can't help you because you didn't book through them and they just point fingers at each other.

I've come to rely greatly on in-app ratings/reviews before booking.

[rebuilder]

Here, hotels have deals with booking.com etc that forbid them to post lower rates on their own websites. However, if you call to reserve, you get a discount code. I don’t know if that’s a more global practice or not.

[splonk]

This is the "most favored nation" pricing clause that major OTAs like Booking and Expedia try to put in their contracts with hotels. Usually the phrasing says something along the lines of how the clause doesn't apply if the hotel has a previous relationship with the guest - this is part of why hotel chains push so hard to get customers to join their loyalty programs. If the OTA is taking 20% off the top, the hotel can get you to sign up for their program and then sell you the room for 10% off, and everyone but the OTA wins. Another way hotels try to get around this is offering free breakfast, wifi, better rooms, etc. for directly booked customers, while showing the same price as the OTA.

~5 years ago the EU was starting to push back on the legality of the MFN clauses and I was under the impression that Booking.com had scaled back their usage of them in some ways, but I don't know the current state of things.

While I'm at it, my usual rant about Booking.com's review system - the scale is actually from 2.5-10, and the median score is 8.1. Don't be fooled by those "above average" 7 scores.

[switch007]

With Booking.com, filtering to 9+ is the way. Had good experiences with that

[dogecoinbase]

This is exactly correct. You have to call them.

[RedShift1]

I'd rather pay the premium than calling :-/

[jterrys]

Ah, the extra tax for the socially introverted

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Same here... I'm one of those archetypical millennials that hate phone calls.

Over the year I have learned to overcome my aversion to calls when making one is beneficial, but a call to someone totally unknown, and not in my native language, is one of the cases where... yeah, I'd pay the premium too.

[foogazi]

Can’t imagine the latency of playing phone tag with X hotels trying to find the lowest price at a particular date/# of nights/# of people

[ghostDancer]

You can use email. Depending on what are you planning it doesn't need to get an answer immediately.

[rebuilder]

You search on a booking website, then call the hotel you find.

[foogazi]

But how do you know you got the lowest price ?

What if another hotel was willing to go lower ?

[petedoyle]

Oh, that's great to know. Thank you both, I'll definitely try this!! :)

[nunez]

also at least in the case of hilton and marriott, they have friends and family codes that unlock those rates sometimes

[Hnrobert42]

Not only that, hotels.com often has rooms when the hotel is “fully booked.” Twice last month in London, I wanted to extend my stay. The staff said the hotel was full. I went online and booked. Then asked them to keep me in the same room. I think it’s because they reserve a block for online sales.

[deaddodo]

> I think it’s because they reserve a block for online sales.

This is it, but generally only during high occupancy/peak periods.

[lotsofpulp]

The staff/management must have been incompetent, or there was a discrepancy in the inventory and they overbooked. There’s no reason a hotel owner would want a person in the hotel to buy on hotels.com and end up with 15% less money due to having to paying commission to Expedia.

[xivzgrev]

I found that to be the case a lot more during covid. Hilton and other chains had these amazing deals where if you found something cheaper they’d match plus knock 30% off or whatever. It was almost a certainty that was the case so I was getting good deals on rooms.

That guarantee still exists but I find the prices are now usually the same for those mega chains.

[lotsofpulp]

All the hotel chains offer a Best Price Guarantee discount or maybe even a free night if you report that you found a cheaper hotel room than the official website (at the same time/date of shopping):

https://www.marriott.com/look/claimForm.mi

https://www.hilton.com/en/p/price-match-guarantee/

https://www.hyatt.com/info/best-rate-guarantee

https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/best-price-g...

https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/best-rate

https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/hotel-deals/best-rate-guarante...

[brewdad]

I've found that booking direct will get me the same rate as something like hotels.com, at least for the hotels I'm booking. I do have a much higher confidence that I will get the room type I booked and any additional add-ons like parking if I book direct than with the 3rd party.

I'll also check back closer to arrival to see if there's a better rate. It's been about 50/50 this year.

[wodenokoto]

> I've come to rely greatly on in-app ratings/reviews before booking.

Really? My last vacation we booked the first few nights and then decided where to go and booked the next night on booking.com and my take-away was that they must mostly keep the good reviews online and remove most of the bad ones.

[astura]

Many chains will price match

https://thepointsguy.com/news/hotel-price-match/

[lotsofpulp]

This price discrepancy almost never happens due to advances in integration of the reservations systems. When a chain hotel changes its prices, it almost immediately is reflected on Expedia/booking and other websites.

Usually, the price discrepancy is because someone is comparing prices on different dates/times after the prices have changed, or the price is not actually advertised (auctioned rooms at random hotels like on Priceline), or some type of car rental/flight package pricing by the travel agent.

[tluyben2]

I had issues with the accommodation after booking, but hotels.com always fixed it and so far to my benefit (getting better rooms or hotels than I paid for to compensate me).