[danpalmer]

I would generally rather book with a bigger company, especially when travelling abroad where I may not be knowledgeable of local language, customs, or consumer protections. If I buy from Booking UK I get UK consumer protections, even if that hotel does not provide those. In some parts that's worth a fair bit. Calling the hotel only works if you speak the language. I've also only ever seen identical pricing when I've checked hotel websites.

Perhaps perspectives are based on whether you're booking domestically or not. Domestically you get the same protections, same language, not much benefit. In the US most of the market is domestic.

[IKantRead]

> Perhaps perspectives are based on whether you're booking domestically or not.

I've had the best success when traveling abroad booking directly. Anyone in the hospitality industry is going to have someone on staff with enough English to assist you, and most of the nicest places are smaller hotels that often don't work well with big booking companies.

> If I buy from Booking UK I get UK consumer protections

I worked in a travel startup (not Booking), there's a lot of fine print to all those "protections" that will leave you high and dry in most cases.

Only use 3rd party apps for search, never book directly through them especially, in my experience, for International travel.

[danpalmer]

I'll take letter-of-the-law fine print consumer protections over "eh, sorry" any day.

You're right that we're lucky as English speakers, there's often someone to help, but that's not true of most other languages. Small places can provide some of the best experiences I agree, but finding them and getting in contact can be difficult.