[two_cents]

Booking.com or frankly any other aggregator are great until the moment you have a problem and need to talk to their customer service. In that moment you realize that Booking.com does nothing that you can't do by yourself with same effort.

[Sohcahtoa82]

100% this

On rare occasions, using a 3rd party site will net you a better deal, but often, it's the exact same price, or a price within just a few dollars.

But if your reservation has a snag of any kind, you're basically fucked. The hotel will tell you to talk to Booking, Booking will tell you to talk to the hotel, if you can even talk to anybody.

I'd rather spent the extra dollars and book directly and just not have that worry.

[dcrazy]

Kayak was the absolute worst about this to me. I had purchased premium economy tickets to Japan for several thousand USD from Kayak. Japan closed. The FAA made it clear that refunds were to be awarded. Kayak jerked me around and tried to keep half my money. Eventually I got it back less $400.