[TuringNYC]

> I have to ask, why use 3rd party booking sites at all? From what I can tell, the prices are usually the same as the hotel... needlessly adding middlemen into the booking process.

It can be worse. I once called the hotel and didnt realize I was calling Hotels.com (which used a tricky website to make it seem like I was calling the hotel.)

Worse, the [Hotels.com] agent pretended to be a the hotel reservation desk. I gave him several discount codes (my consulting company code, my AAA code) and each time he said it wasnt reducing the price. That got me suspicious...because my consulting company Accenture always had discounts.

So I asked the person outright, "do you work for the hotel, which company do you work for, etc" and learned he was a Hotels.com employee.

Based on this, i'd note that Hotels.com might not be the same price but might actually even be more expensive that booking direct with the hotel.