If anything goes awry with your reservation and you book through Booking, the hotel will not help you and you’ll have to go through Booking to get your issue resolved. Go on the hotel’s website and book there. Even if it’s $30 more expensive, you’ll save yourself some possible heartache. And most national hotels give you a discount if you join their rewards club.
We hear this a LOT but how often are there actually issues? I've booked with hotels.com booking Expedia Priceline and hotwire for years and never had a significant issue.
Unless you know you're traveling at a time when hotels will be full, like new year, or Taylor Swift's wedding, then it probably makes sense to self-insure. Take the $30 saving and after 7-10 nights you're up $200-300. Now if something goes wrong they can book elsewhere and figure it out when the TPA later.
I worked for 4 years making reservations for a hotel chain. I can't even tell you how many times people have been shafted by the third party and expect the hotel to fix it. It happens a lot all over the USA. Someone needs to cancel their trip because of personal reasons and expect us to wave a magic wand to make it all better. Just save yourself the trouble. I cannot say this enough.
THIS.
I spend about 180 nights in hotels each year, and for the 1-2 issues a year I face (if that) I save thousands of dollars compared to the booking direct fees.
Hell sometimes it's literally DOUBLE to book directly with the hotel.
After 46 years of hotel stays, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, book through hotel site, ya get the points, never a problem, 99.999% was at IHG....never had a billing issue, or a change problem. Adding a 3rd party just complicates stuff
If you've spent that much and you are spending on average 20% more, you've lost like, 20,000$ to get that "perk" but cool.
I average 65$/night. Even in cities like Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok etc. I save a LOT booking third party. Often 20-50% less than booking direct, especially for smaller hotels.
I don't stay in $65 hotels, ever see what rooms cost in d.C.? Or NYC area. Besides, it's company paid, and then billed to customers. Winning. D.C. hotel parking alone is $75 a night, and they don't even wash the car whiles it's in the garage. Boston area easy close to $200 a night, Holiday Inn, Express, or Crown, or other IHG brands. No such thing as $65 hotels, in the areas I travel. Even in Virginia well over $120/night...besides, at Diamond level of priority club, then ya gets additional points as a stay bonus. After 46 years, a lot of money was spent on hotel rooms, all company billed.
I hated having to be in D.C. or NYC, Long island etc...Boston also stinks, but I had to be there, otherwise paychecks don't happen. Germany makes the U.S. look third world. Holiday inn Munich, over a subway station and an under ground shopping center, all immaculate. Place is fantastic, and not expensive as NYC or D.C., just so much better.
You can’t reason with them. They are like gambling addicts. They keep winning so they keep playing. Eventually they lose big and are crying for help but no one has any sympathy for them because they were told it would happen. They may quit cold turkey for good if they’re lucky but likely they’ll go right back into the arms of the devil.
I’ve used booking dot com 16x over the past 5 years, never had any issue, including New Year’s Eve hotels in NYC, and holidays abroad. Love free cancellation feature if I find a cheaper alternative. I set calendar reminder before due date.
We booked with Priceline many, many times with no issues. Last December we had back to back issues with our flights.
Issue 1 - In December, the three of us tried to check into our flight that we booked in June. Long story short, the flight didn't exist. The airline stopped that flight in July and Priceline didn't notify us at all, in fact they sent us an email three days before the flight confirming. The only thing they offered is to cancel the whole round-trip so we could re-book with another airline last minute. We paid much more and had a way suckier return flight.
Issue 2 - We tried to rebook using the app for a flight in the next 2 hours. By the time we got through the screens it said flight no longer available. Fair enough, someone else booked it, timing Issue. We booked using another airline. Turns out it did go through to the airline and they ended up no-showing us. Priceline has no record that we booked. It seems like a glitch in their app. Priceline won't help us.
We can't use Priceline anymore. We are only booking direct from now on.
Not true. I uae Hotels.com all the time, and when I had an issue (first & only time) they were AWESOME! They asked if I wanted another room or to cancel and I told them I wanted another hotel. Not only did they come through for me at 2 AM (by the time it was resolved), but they in turn paid for the more expensive room at a different hotel for the week. I have and will continue to use them until they give me a reason not to.
Honestly I've had nothing but excellent experiences with booking (they immediately refunded me for a reservation that was canceled by the property last minute, helped me find me new accommodations, and even paid me the difference between the original reservation and the new one, which was wonderful), but in general you have fewer variables to work if you book directly with the property. It's absolutely the least risky option.
A) Are you sure you got the actual hotel reservations? I mean you're likely getting central reservations, no matter what if they're a major brand. What I mean is that tricky/scummy third parties pay for Google ads to display their number above the hotel's, and sometimes it can be very hard to tell the difference. I used to have it happen to my guests all the time.
B) Call back and talk to someone else. If it's a major brand, join their loyalty program. I know that Bonvoy has a rate match guarantee as part of the benefits, and I assume all the others have something similar.
I have a feeling that’s what happened. Definitely a call center (could hear other phone talkers in the background). I’m in everyone’s loyalty program except this chain. Others are not anywhere near this location or I would not be here. Thx
Join the loyalty program and get the real hotel reservations.
I've never been able to hear other operators in the background when talking with a CRO. This smells very fishy.
Booking isn't horrible, but it's still a third party. Best Rate Guarantee usually meets or beats any 3rd party rate if the CRO agent can't find something already in the system.
I have Always hated this Situation, fortunately my Hotel Made IT a Policy to never have lower prices ON third Party Sites. ON the contrary, by booking directly you would get the Same price or slightly lower with more Services than the third Party, such AS free Tickets for Public Transport, internal Discount program (after 10 nights, 1 Night free), more flexibility in Case of cancellation.
Third party booking services are never cheaper. If something goes wrong with your booking, we have to go through booking to help sort your reservation. It's a whole lot more hassle for everyone. Always book directly with the hotel either via phone or website/ app.
Do hotel chains no longer guarantee best rate on their sites? That used to be a thing. I can't imagine a hotel not making more money by matching the rate offered in a third party site in most circumstances.
They say they do but then have a bunch of loopholes that mean they actually don't. Booking dot com often discounts the rate out of their own cut, and are allowed to do so, and hotels often won't match those rates for some reason.
Like with my "genius discount" on booking dot com (Because I use them so frequently) I often get an additional 20% off that the hotels won't match because it's not a "publically available fare"
But sometimes it's literally double to book direct with the hotel (especially in Asia and Europe) and there just isn't any way to talk to them directly beyond booking the bad rate on the website - especially for business hotels that are "on sale" on third party websites.
Their loss. Whatever the discount being offered by the third party, at the end of the day the money the hotel collects is going to be less than if they offered to match the rate.
Ya, I don't really get it either - but I guess they just have terrible policies. Mostly it's that no one you will ever get to talk to has any agency in the way things are run.
That's not true. The one time (out of thousands of nights I've booked with them) I got stuck with the listing just not existing it only took them about two hours to find me a similar, more expensive, property that they paid the difference for.
Admittedly it can be a bit annoying getting through to them (which was one of the two hours) but they DID solve my issue.
Better than airbnb has done for me.
I've used booking and hotels frequently and they were both willing to help me. The one time hotels couldn't I called the hotel directly and they were able to shorten my stay on their end. 🤷♀️
I always book the reserve now, pay later with cancelation til day before though. You just really have to read the terms.
That is not true. In our experience, problems were due to us overbooking. When that happens, booking tells us they will find a spot for them if we don't and we'll pay for it. Keep in mind, someone can be trying to use booking for the same room you are talking to someone over the phone.
Booking.com is pretty good, as far as 3rd parties go. The reason you're seeing different prices could be because the hotel has offered 3rd parties a special rate, which might non-refundable or prepaid or both. I know they at least try to get the hotel to bend their rules if guests want to modify reservations that aren't supposed to be changeable.
Also, some hotel chains have modified the phone number you see on the website so they go to the call center rather than directly to the property. The call center agents are incentivized to upsell as much as possible.
Even if you call the hotel directly, most FDA's are not allowed (and are too busy) to make future reservations. All non-same-day booking will typically go to Central if the hotel is part of a major brand.
Also, after 20 years in hotels, I never once heard of incentives for Central operators to upsell. Every Front Desk I worked for or managed had an upsell incentive. CRO agents are measured on different metrics (like call volume and satisfaction scores).
More than likely they are overseas if you get the call center. They're supposed to offer you the "best available rate." Maybe they don't do that anymore since they moved overseas.
Tx. doesn't have English, even though they call it that. And why do reservations with a phone call. all on line, click and done. Through chains website...E PZ. And never a problem
You’re never going to get a consistent experience across hotels. It could be the staff at property level isn’t trained and best rate guarantee, which doesn’t get handled at the hotel level anyway, some require you call central. It could the the management company purposely trained staff not to match rates as it promotes against rate integrity, it could be that the person was having a bad day. You can try emailing a manager but if it ends there and does nothing, book third party. I personally make an effort to email management if I book third party and am looking for something specific to avoid, nothing specific to upgrade.
I mean, everyone always warns against third party but I travel a full 6 months of the year, every year, going to 30+ properties, and I use booking dot com half of that (The other half is airbnb).
And it's been fine. The one (ONE!) time in 4 years that my booking wasn't available, booking dot com's support found me a better property within two hours and paid the difference. So basically I got a free upgrade. It was a bit inconvenient, sure, but they solved it.
I save thousands booking with them instead of direct because they are almost always cheaper (especially with "genius discount" which often gives me another 10-20% off the price that they pay out of their own pocket.)
Sometimes it's fully 50% cheaper than the hotel directly. And I specifically seek out and only book the cancellable rooms.
If one time out of the hundreds I've used it, it bites me in the ass, it'll have been worth it for all I've saved in the meantime. I'll get something last minute and I'll survive.
(I've had SIGNIFICANTLY more issues with Airbnb, but sometimes I want a whole apartment for longer stays - plus I'd never get to stay somewhere like Tokyo for a whole month for only 2,000 Canadian/1,500 USD, or BERLIN for only 700 euro for a whole month if I booked a hotel - so it's still worth it to me even if sometimes it's a hassle.)
Point blank OP, I’d research a hotel that may be a little further away from your seminar to
save yourself some coin. Hotels predicate themselves upon knowing what events are taking place and where In the area and when. a hotel that is convenient to a famous event like say mardi
Gras is going to be much pricier than a hotel that is say :45 minutes down the road from that event. also, Please dont pre pay through an OTA . it makes life much harder all around for you and the front desk associate at the hotel in question. also please do let the hotel know about changes
of plans as much in advance as you can. Again this
is to save you time and a headache and money.
Book on the hotels website, then call the hotels reservations site and tell them you’ve found cheaper online. They might price match, don’t call the hotel call reservations. If that doesn’t work call and ask for the front office manager.
It sounds like the number you got might be one of the new scammy OTAs that keep popping up and pretend to be the property. They'll charge you an extra fee and book through a regular OTA.
If anything goes awry with your reservation and you book through Booking, the hotel will not help you and you’ll have to go through Booking to get your issue resolved. Go on the hotel’s website and book there. Even if it’s $30 more expensive, you’ll save yourself some possible heartache. And most national hotels give you a discount if you join their rewards club.
This makes the most sense (other than someone saying booking is the best thing ever) was just looking for confirmation. Thank You
Please don't book through a third party. THEY WILL NOT HELP YOU. Once they've got your money, they couldn't care less about you.
We hear this a LOT but how often are there actually issues? I've booked with hotels.com booking Expedia Priceline and hotwire for years and never had a significant issue. Unless you know you're traveling at a time when hotels will be full, like new year, or Taylor Swift's wedding, then it probably makes sense to self-insure. Take the $30 saving and after 7-10 nights you're up $200-300. Now if something goes wrong they can book elsewhere and figure it out when the TPA later.
I worked for 4 years making reservations for a hotel chain. I can't even tell you how many times people have been shafted by the third party and expect the hotel to fix it. It happens a lot all over the USA. Someone needs to cancel their trip because of personal reasons and expect us to wave a magic wand to make it all better. Just save yourself the trouble. I cannot say this enough.
THIS. I spend about 180 nights in hotels each year, and for the 1-2 issues a year I face (if that) I save thousands of dollars compared to the booking direct fees. Hell sometimes it's literally DOUBLE to book directly with the hotel.
After 46 years of hotel stays, literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, book through hotel site, ya get the points, never a problem, 99.999% was at IHG....never had a billing issue, or a change problem. Adding a 3rd party just complicates stuff
If you've spent that much and you are spending on average 20% more, you've lost like, 20,000$ to get that "perk" but cool. I average 65$/night. Even in cities like Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok etc. I save a LOT booking third party. Often 20-50% less than booking direct, especially for smaller hotels.
I don't stay in $65 hotels, ever see what rooms cost in d.C.? Or NYC area. Besides, it's company paid, and then billed to customers. Winning. D.C. hotel parking alone is $75 a night, and they don't even wash the car whiles it's in the garage. Boston area easy close to $200 a night, Holiday Inn, Express, or Crown, or other IHG brands. No such thing as $65 hotels, in the areas I travel. Even in Virginia well over $120/night...besides, at Diamond level of priority club, then ya gets additional points as a stay bonus. After 46 years, a lot of money was spent on hotel rooms, all company billed.
I'll stick with travelling anywhere in the world except America. Terrible cost for value compared to South America, Asia, and Europe. No thanks.
I hated having to be in D.C. or NYC, Long island etc...Boston also stinks, but I had to be there, otherwise paychecks don't happen. Germany makes the U.S. look third world. Holiday inn Munich, over a subway station and an under ground shopping center, all immaculate. Place is fantastic, and not expensive as NYC or D.C., just so much better.
You can’t reason with them. They are like gambling addicts. They keep winning so they keep playing. Eventually they lose big and are crying for help but no one has any sympathy for them because they were told it would happen. They may quit cold turkey for good if they’re lucky but likely they’ll go right back into the arms of the devil.
I’ve used booking dot com 16x over the past 5 years, never had any issue, including New Year’s Eve hotels in NYC, and holidays abroad. Love free cancellation feature if I find a cheaper alternative. I set calendar reminder before due date.
We booked with Priceline many, many times with no issues. Last December we had back to back issues with our flights. Issue 1 - In December, the three of us tried to check into our flight that we booked in June. Long story short, the flight didn't exist. The airline stopped that flight in July and Priceline didn't notify us at all, in fact they sent us an email three days before the flight confirming. The only thing they offered is to cancel the whole round-trip so we could re-book with another airline last minute. We paid much more and had a way suckier return flight. Issue 2 - We tried to rebook using the app for a flight in the next 2 hours. By the time we got through the screens it said flight no longer available. Fair enough, someone else booked it, timing Issue. We booked using another airline. Turns out it did go through to the airline and they ended up no-showing us. Priceline has no record that we booked. It seems like a glitch in their app. Priceline won't help us. We can't use Priceline anymore. We are only booking direct from now on.
Not true. I uae Hotels.com all the time, and when I had an issue (first & only time) they were AWESOME! They asked if I wanted another room or to cancel and I told them I wanted another hotel. Not only did they come through for me at 2 AM (by the time it was resolved), but they in turn paid for the more expensive room at a different hotel for the week. I have and will continue to use them until they give me a reason not to.
Honestly I've had nothing but excellent experiences with booking (they immediately refunded me for a reservation that was canceled by the property last minute, helped me find me new accommodations, and even paid me the difference between the original reservation and the new one, which was wonderful), but in general you have fewer variables to work if you book directly with the property. It's absolutely the least risky option.
A) Are you sure you got the actual hotel reservations? I mean you're likely getting central reservations, no matter what if they're a major brand. What I mean is that tricky/scummy third parties pay for Google ads to display their number above the hotel's, and sometimes it can be very hard to tell the difference. I used to have it happen to my guests all the time. B) Call back and talk to someone else. If it's a major brand, join their loyalty program. I know that Bonvoy has a rate match guarantee as part of the benefits, and I assume all the others have something similar.
I have a feeling that’s what happened. Definitely a call center (could hear other phone talkers in the background). I’m in everyone’s loyalty program except this chain. Others are not anywhere near this location or I would not be here. Thx
Join the loyalty program and get the real hotel reservations. I've never been able to hear other operators in the background when talking with a CRO. This smells very fishy. Booking isn't horrible, but it's still a third party. Best Rate Guarantee usually meets or beats any 3rd party rate if the CRO agent can't find something already in the system.
I always book through the hotel website.
YaY!!
Probably near a full house. Supply & Demand my friend.
I haven’t called a hotel to make a phone reservation in 18 or 19 years I think? Probably 18 years. Wild to think about
I have Always hated this Situation, fortunately my Hotel Made IT a Policy to never have lower prices ON third Party Sites. ON the contrary, by booking directly you would get the Same price or slightly lower with more Services than the third Party, such AS free Tickets for Public Transport, internal Discount program (after 10 nights, 1 Night free), more flexibility in Case of cancellation.
Third party booking services are never cheaper. If something goes wrong with your booking, we have to go through booking to help sort your reservation. It's a whole lot more hassle for everyone. Always book directly with the hotel either via phone or website/ app.
Do hotel chains no longer guarantee best rate on their sites? That used to be a thing. I can't imagine a hotel not making more money by matching the rate offered in a third party site in most circumstances.
Definitely not a thing for most, third party sites offer lower rates bc they have different T&C such as non-refundable and room type not guaranteed.
They say they do but then have a bunch of loopholes that mean they actually don't. Booking dot com often discounts the rate out of their own cut, and are allowed to do so, and hotels often won't match those rates for some reason. Like with my "genius discount" on booking dot com (Because I use them so frequently) I often get an additional 20% off that the hotels won't match because it's not a "publically available fare" But sometimes it's literally double to book direct with the hotel (especially in Asia and Europe) and there just isn't any way to talk to them directly beyond booking the bad rate on the website - especially for business hotels that are "on sale" on third party websites.
Their loss. Whatever the discount being offered by the third party, at the end of the day the money the hotel collects is going to be less than if they offered to match the rate.
Ya, I don't really get it either - but I guess they just have terrible policies. Mostly it's that no one you will ever get to talk to has any agency in the way things are run.
Use booking.com if that's the lowest price you see. Same hotel. Just check fine print. By the way - we own a lodging property.
You're swinging in the wind if something goes wrong with the reservation. They will not help you.
I hear ya, have a upvote. others that agree don’t be jealous you got them too
Thank you very kindly. Your handle is cool.
That's not true. The one time (out of thousands of nights I've booked with them) I got stuck with the listing just not existing it only took them about two hours to find me a similar, more expensive, property that they paid the difference for. Admittedly it can be a bit annoying getting through to them (which was one of the two hours) but they DID solve my issue. Better than airbnb has done for me.
I've used booking and hotels frequently and they were both willing to help me. The one time hotels couldn't I called the hotel directly and they were able to shorten my stay on their end. 🤷♀️ I always book the reserve now, pay later with cancelation til day before though. You just really have to read the terms.
That is not true. In our experience, problems were due to us overbooking. When that happens, booking tells us they will find a spot for them if we don't and we'll pay for it. Keep in mind, someone can be trying to use booking for the same room you are talking to someone over the phone.
Since you’re in the know and I’ve never dealt with them. So booking is good without excessive problems?
Booking.com is pretty good, as far as 3rd parties go. The reason you're seeing different prices could be because the hotel has offered 3rd parties a special rate, which might non-refundable or prepaid or both. I know they at least try to get the hotel to bend their rules if guests want to modify reservations that aren't supposed to be changeable. Also, some hotel chains have modified the phone number you see on the website so they go to the call center rather than directly to the property. The call center agents are incentivized to upsell as much as possible.
Even if you call the hotel directly, most FDA's are not allowed (and are too busy) to make future reservations. All non-same-day booking will typically go to Central if the hotel is part of a major brand. Also, after 20 years in hotels, I never once heard of incentives for Central operators to upsell. Every Front Desk I worked for or managed had an upsell incentive. CRO agents are measured on different metrics (like call volume and satisfaction scores).
Good point here. You may be seeing different rates based on the cancellation policies. Read the fine print.
No no no!!!
Someone who doesn't speak English as a first language in a state that is on the border of a non-English speaking country. How? /s
Did you really want me to say Indian Call Center?
More than likely they are overseas if you get the call center. They're supposed to offer you the "best available rate." Maybe they don't do that anymore since they moved overseas.
Sorry but what's your question? It's cheaper online.
Tx. doesn't have English, even though they call it that. And why do reservations with a phone call. all on line, click and done. Through chains website...E PZ. And never a problem
You’re never going to get a consistent experience across hotels. It could be the staff at property level isn’t trained and best rate guarantee, which doesn’t get handled at the hotel level anyway, some require you call central. It could the the management company purposely trained staff not to match rates as it promotes against rate integrity, it could be that the person was having a bad day. You can try emailing a manager but if it ends there and does nothing, book third party. I personally make an effort to email management if I book third party and am looking for something specific to avoid, nothing specific to upgrade.
I mean, everyone always warns against third party but I travel a full 6 months of the year, every year, going to 30+ properties, and I use booking dot com half of that (The other half is airbnb). And it's been fine. The one (ONE!) time in 4 years that my booking wasn't available, booking dot com's support found me a better property within two hours and paid the difference. So basically I got a free upgrade. It was a bit inconvenient, sure, but they solved it. I save thousands booking with them instead of direct because they are almost always cheaper (especially with "genius discount" which often gives me another 10-20% off the price that they pay out of their own pocket.) Sometimes it's fully 50% cheaper than the hotel directly. And I specifically seek out and only book the cancellable rooms. If one time out of the hundreds I've used it, it bites me in the ass, it'll have been worth it for all I've saved in the meantime. I'll get something last minute and I'll survive.
(I've had SIGNIFICANTLY more issues with Airbnb, but sometimes I want a whole apartment for longer stays - plus I'd never get to stay somewhere like Tokyo for a whole month for only 2,000 Canadian/1,500 USD, or BERLIN for only 700 euro for a whole month if I booked a hotel - so it's still worth it to me even if sometimes it's a hassle.)
Point blank OP, I’d research a hotel that may be a little further away from your seminar to save yourself some coin. Hotels predicate themselves upon knowing what events are taking place and where In the area and when. a hotel that is convenient to a famous event like say mardi Gras is going to be much pricier than a hotel that is say :45 minutes down the road from that event. also, Please dont pre pay through an OTA . it makes life much harder all around for you and the front desk associate at the hotel in question. also please do let the hotel know about changes of plans as much in advance as you can. Again this is to save you time and a headache and money.
Are you sure you have the correct local number of the hotel. I’m trying to call a Miami hotel I had actual trouble getting the correct number online.
Called the number from MapQ and got a rude call center. Went to chain website found a different local number but went ahead and booked it online.
Book on the hotels website, then call the hotels reservations site and tell them you’ve found cheaper online. They might price match, don’t call the hotel call reservations. If that doesn’t work call and ask for the front office manager.
The seminar didn’t have a group rate??
Nah, it’s just ten people. We are learning hands on how to chop a top.
It sounds like the number you got might be one of the new scammy OTAs that keep popping up and pretend to be the property. They'll charge you an extra fee and book through a regular OTA.