[Staple_Diet]

Amen, glad to have never used AirBnB. I also often use booking.com, but you should know they regularly f over smaller businesses that use them to host their rooms. I generally stick to big chains when using their platform, or use it as 'hotel google' before following up and negotiating a price directly with a smaller hotel. Much like Uber squeezes small business (menu items often 20-30% higher on Uber menu vs real menu) booking.com exploits the smaller accommodation providers so they appreciate direct bookings.

[carlosjobim]

How does booking exploit smaller businesses? That wasn't my experience at all.

[Staple_Diet]

Last year they had 3-6 month delays on passing on booking fees to their partners due to 'technical difficulties'. While big chains were made whole as priority, many smaller operators risked bankruptcy or were put out of business.

As I said I like using them for most of my travel, I just choose to book directly when using a smaller provider vs Hilton etc to lower the small operators overheads, much like I go and pickup my takeaway order to avoid using UberEats.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/nov/10/booking-com-t...

[carlosjobim]

That's insane! With the low margins and seasonality in the hospitality business, delayed booking income can threaten bankruptcy to a small business.

I also try to always give preference to small hotels by booking them directly, but most of them are foolish and give better rates and terms through booking, and hard headed about it. Doing the opposite of what they should do from a business sense.