What are the advantages of booking through a booking site instead of booking directly with the hotel?

5/20/2014 11:54:03 AM

I use both depending on the situation.

When I use an aggregator it is only booking.com and airbnb. Outside these two I book directly through the primary site.

Booking.com has three features I like very much.

  1. Often you can cancel your reservation without cost up until 24hours before arrival. This is especially interesting if you would like to wait for a better airfare or don’t know the arrival date yet in detail. In the latter you just make multiple bookings for different dates to secure an interesting fare.
  2. Your credit card is only charged in case you don’t show.
  3. Hotels sometimes use Booking.com to dump empty rooms, which means that you can get some great quotes if you need a hotel immediately.

I use airbnb for personal holidays with the family. Usually hotels and hostels are quite costly if you need accommodation for a family trip.

9/24/2013 4:36:45 AM

The only major advantage is price: it’s not uncommon for a third-party site to have better prices than those offered directly by the hotel. That said, major chains are increasingly offering best-price guarantees, although these usually only mean that you can claim the difference if you spot it, not that they’re actually always the cheapest option.

Minor advantages include:

  1. A faster booking process if you’re a repeat customer and they already have your details on file.
  2. The infrastructure behind a site like booking.com is rock solid, meaning very reliable booking and payment processes. Little independent hotels have to cobble together their own, so things can and do go wrong, eg. filling out their 16-page booking form and then getting an error on the last page because it doesn’t like your credit card or something.
  3. Some chance of getting your money back if the hotel goes bankrupt or something before your stay. (That said, any halfway decent credit card will let you dispute the charge in this case even if you book directly.)

But all that said, I still book directly through the hotel if I can. Your reservation is less likely to get lost, you may get better rooms and more perks, making changes to your booking is easier, and you’ll get points if you belong to the hotel chain’s frequent traveller program.

Also, Airbnb is (supposed to be) for person-to-person short stay rentals, not regular hotels. For most of the properties listed there, Airbnb is the only option for booking.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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