I used to be a Hotels.com junkie. Back when I was traveling a lot, I’d book between 15 and 20 nights in hotels on an annual basis.
Being such a high-volume traveler, I qualified for the company’s loyalty program. I got 10% off each night, plus access to exclusive deals.
But over the years I began to realize a few things. After a few conversations with front desk agents, it became clear people who book with third-party sites are put into the hotel’s worst rooms. You see, a hotel must pay the website a commission on those rooms. Therefore, it makes less money, and those customers become less ideal.
Third-party website users also aren’t brand-loyal. They’ll jump around to whichever hotel offers the best deal. Hotels would much rather rent their rooms to a business person at full price than someone they know likely will never come back at a discount.
And then there are the inevitable snafus. I’ve had more than one confirmation get lost between Hotels.com and the individual hotel. One call to customer service was all it took to get it straightened out, but those were valuable minutes I would have rather spent relaxing in my room.
For those reasons, I now book hotel rooms completely differently. I’ll start by researching prices online. Once finding a place with a fair price, decent reviews, and so on, I then contact the hotel directly and ask them to match the price. They’ve always said yes.
I’m a firm believer that dealing with the hotel directly is the easiest way to get the best value for your room, ultimately saving you money.
