Unless I already know of a place, I always check with a booking site first. A benefit to booking that way is if I’m traveling to a country not accepting my home currency, is that I don’t have an exchange fee on my credit card (assuming it’s a home-based site).

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I always book hotels on the GDS (in my case, Amadeus (worse luck – come back Sabre, all is forgiven!!!)) as being the safest way to book a hotel. This means the booking is made, effectively, directly with the hotel concerned. Never had any problem with getting “the best” rate, save where a manager is doing his own thing, which can happen.

This occurs when an indivdual hotel manager has some spare rooms and basically offloads them; to get this sort of deal you have to ring the right hotel at the right time. The concern with (any) third party booking site/shop is that the money has to go from you to the agent to the hotel – and the hotel has to find that money.

There must be trust twixt the hotel and the booking agent (apart from twixt you, the end user and the agent). Then there is the issue of being a “principal” ie who takes possession of the booking and any problems that may ensue. The beauty of the CRS way is that, though they take a credit card to guarantee the booking (needed especially in cases of late arrival) you pay the whole bill when you leave, secondly that cancellation is possible (usually) up to 16:00 hrs day of arrival, so there is none of the brouh-ha-ha getting ones money back form third parties. Thirdly, it is clear where any problems are to be dealt with (the hotel).

Remember that any pre-payment (from XYZ booking agents) has to be found by a receptionist, for example, at 06:00 on a cold Feb morning after he or she had a row with the partner/ got a parking ticket/ has 25 other guests wanting to check out/ is trying to deal with someone who is paying in Moldavian Pobble Beads and wants the change in Nigerian Ningi. Bit old hat and old fashioned, I know; but make booking and pay bill when leave, works remarkably well.

There are a lot of these third party booking sites about and some are a lot better tha others. I know some that are quite efficient and some that I would not trust to book a … well, you know what I mean. Trouble is, there is no way for you, the Great British Public to know which is which. That said, I would certainly trust Trailfinders to do the job properly.

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I always go through a booking site. I usually find better deals this way, and I like being able to see other people’s opinions of the property. Too many times I’ve booked over the phone with a hotel that I just looked up the phone number for, only to find out that it’s a dump or worse in a bad neighborhood.

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As a hotel worker, I can tell you 95% of the time, it pays to contact the hotel directly. Circumstances change any parameters but on average, it pays to call a front desk. Why?

Conditions can change hourly. You can’t spend every minute updating the internet and many hotels don’t have in house staffs anyway. Prices that are SET, by the hotel, to begin with may not update those sites for days or weeks even.

A smart clerk will at least match a Third Party price, some will beat it and some will act indifferent. But only calling the desk WHEN you need the room or booking will get you the lowest price – as long as you are willing to risk a full hotel and higher quotes. It’s about risk/reward and you need to be able to step lively and change plans in order to get the best deal.

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That’s exactly what I suggest in my book that people do. The trick is in knowing WHEN to book also however. Right now, unless the town was near full, hotels are likely to offer their lowest rate the day or night of your arrival, depending upon occupancy. If you can handle the last minute aspect, you’ll probably see your biggest savings.

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I use the HotelsCombined hotel price comparison site to find the best price from more than 30 accommodation sites but I always check directly with the hotel too. I’ve found that it’s generally cheaper to book through a 3rd partly supplier such as Hotels Board, Late Rooms, GTA hotels, than directly with the hotel which seems perverse.

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I tend to agree with Karen, as most overseas hotels will have a reputable marketing and representation company working on their behalf. This company will promote the hotel through the trade and give accommodation agents and other travel trade companies special contracted rates and incentives which are not available to the consumer.

This is not always the case I imagine, but from my own experience this is what I have found. These offers could be anything from early booking incentives with reduced rates, to free nights offers and free room upgrades.

Sounds odd, but the hotels can’t shoot themselves in the foot and undercut the very people who are selling and putting all these offers all over the web for them!

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GDS = Global Distribution System (e.g. Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo). Travel agents connect with a GDS in order to access travel content and make live bookings.

Here in Australia, price parity is becoming very common (the same price is offered on all sites, including the hotel’s website) and ringing the hotel direct will not get you a better rate as this would go against the terms in their distribution agreements.

The reason that offline travel agents are not always able to get the same rates is due to there being more middle men between them and the supplier (e.g. the GDS) all taking their cut and bumping up the distribution costs.

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My experience is mainly within Australia but probably similar to Europe. I use search facilities to find what appear to be suitable hotels and then check prices across two or three sites including the hotel themselves. As has been said above, the hotel itself is typically not the cheapest, though a quick call sometimes gets you a good price near the time.

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Trailfinders probably have a limited number of hotels as they probably only want those whom they are happy working with, have checked out health & safety etc.

I don’t think there is a clear answer to this, sometimes it’s cheaper to book with the hotel directly, sometimes through a hotel consolidator and in some cases I’d think you’d be better off booking all through Trailfinders, I don’t know what fare you got on your airline ticket (maybe they had a special) but I know Trailfinders have good IT (‘inclusive tour’) rate which the airline only allows them to use if they are packaging the flight with a hotel, even if it’s only for one night.

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It seems (I think) that I am right in that contacting the hotel directly is a good idea, as long, as I said, you contact the right hotel at the right time (see David’s comments passim). The GDS (again for definition see before) is a 1980′s invention that has yet to be surpassed for what it does and the 4 main ones power nearly all the worlds major airlines (as opposed to “me only” systems) along with (I am open to correction on this) probably the vast majority of all airline booking websites. Hotels (and car hire) have always been on the GDS systems (the 4th one being Worldspan – good in the Pacific basin, I am told, but I am sure our Australian friends can clarify that)).

The point is, the GDS is the system that hotels (an car hire) have to be on a) to get exposure to agents and airlines – and hence the Great World’s Public and (laterly) b) for those websites powered by the GDS’s – and though the GDS’s are technically middlemen, you do have to have a middleman unless each hotels wants to do all it’s marketing itself – but the GDS is the only middleman you really need. There have been, however, hotel agencies around a long time before the internet, Utell for example and indeed any tour operator is a hotel booking agency in essence.

It does depend a bit on what sort of hotel you want are looking for, there being three types – the holday hotel (block booked by tour operators), the business/ Posh hotel, chains such as Hilton, Crowne Plaza, NH etc and many of the well known ones, and others.

Any hotel that is on a GDS is going to be one which warrants being there in the first place. If you only have 10 rooms somewhere miles from anywhere, the cost of being on a Gobal System may not be warranted, so internet booking sites could have a role to play in this niche market.

In order to decide if it is better to book direct or third party, one must remember that without the third party, one may not be able to find the hotel’s existance in the first place! – Good idea, by the way, for a hotel to remember that! But if anything is going to get updated by the hotel (or rather, hotel chain) I would suggest, it is the GDS system.

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Hotel booking sites certainly may be good source of getting first hand information about the available options. Some luxury hotels share a certain percentage to the brokers while they charge as per their price list from the customers.

Some times brokers share their profit with their customers. If this is the case, you get the benefit. Some times you can save considerably by dealing directly with the hotels. So, all depends upon your negotiating capability and up to date information about the promotional offers of available alternatives.

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I almost always book direct. Many hotels/airlines now have lowest price guarantees, so I’ll check around on booking sites and if I find a lower than advertised price, I’ll get on the phone directly and ask for the lower price. They comply.

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I work for a major hotel franchise. I agree with all of these comments, definitely good information. Third party websites take upwards of 20% commission on bookings for our hotels when you book through their website. These are high cost bookings for hotels whereas if they get a booking through their brand website or over the phone is costs them little or nothing. I would always call a hotel and ask for a better rate than what you see on a third party website and if they are smart they will give you a discount which would be less than the commission to the website which is better rate for you and more money for them. Plus they gain brand loyalty this way. Win Win.

With that said, in this market some hotels are stupid and are offering crazy deep discounts through third party websites while undercutting their brand websites in desperation. Always good to check rates everywhere, sites like kayak and sidestep are great to do this.

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