This used to be the case, and most people think this without ever actually confirming this while traveling. The hotels have been working hard to incentivize away from this mentality with very tangible perks for directly booking with them which makes them, as you put it “literally cheaper”.
All the major hotel chains IHG, Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham, which collectively account for over 98% of hotel properties across their various brands, now offer best price guarantees. In order to do this, hotels are strictly enforcing that travel aggregators can not advertise below certain prices.
Now admittedly, there are still deals out there cheaper than the direct hotels such as Hotwire and Priceline’s “name your price” programs. But the trick here is that they aren’t advertising specific prices for hotels. They are hiding the exact location or price unless you go through an extended process, which usually means committing with your credit card number before revealing the location or hotel chain. However, even these have caveats as they often lack perks that hotels offer direct customers. Often they don’t even guarantee a room type.
Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers. Also, with only a few exceptions, most hotels now only offer points and loyalty programs to direct purchase customers. You miss out on these by using aggregators, which usually equates to a roughly 5-10% value. This trickles down to other perks like the likelihood of getting a room upgrade, which is generally nil when booking through a travel aggregator. Some travelers like me that have even modest loyalty can get guaranteed room upgrades when available if booking directly. Even with status you miss out on these by booking through aggregators.
So no, it doesn’t pay to use a travel aggregator. It’s great for discovery or maybe a quick last minute purchase, but generally it’s better to book directly with the hotel.
None of this mentions non-tangible benefits like the fact that if you have a problem with your room and you booked directly you are going to find the problem getting corrected much quicker, easier, and better because the hotel can resolve the problem themselves. Disputes when you book through the travel aggregators requires you to call the aggregator. Which then, like the woman in this story, requires them to make you wait while they call the hotel and play phone tag back and forth, rarely yielding positive results.
"Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers."
I'll be honest, this is a perk I've seen advertised alot but never really understood. Maybe I just don't stay at good hotels or something but the breakfast I've always seen is a open bar with like coffee, milk, orange juice, cereals, toast/bagel, breakfast sausage, some fruit and a waffle iron. Is that really worth more than like 5$? Is it even worth factoring into the price of a 100$+ a night stay? Almost feels petty on the part of hotels to say no you can't have this bowl of offbrand cheerios and milk
It's $5, plus the convenience factor of finding somewhere to have breakfast in an unfamiliar city when you probably just want to get on with your business trip/holiday.
I don't doubt though the pettiness of hotels; I've seen way too many pictures of "this water bottle is free if you have Quadruple Osmium status with our loyalty programme, or $3.50 added to your bill otherwise."
Just feels like you could throw a handful of oranges and oatmeal packets in your luggage for the same experience til you find a grocery store. Like it's nice they have it but specifically pushing or pulling it as a perk? I guess I've just never felt that rushed. Your probably right on the pettiness of hotels though.
The concept might work, but I've never seen a regular hotel that provides a meaningful set of dishes. So if you made oatmeal, you'd have to do it in a coffee cup and try to drink it, or carry cutlery with it.
TBH, that's the perk I want in a hotel room-- a couple of sets of plastic silverware, so I can just bring back a takeaway (or leftovers) at the end of the day and be able to eat it without some comical scenario like trying to use plastic straws as chopsticks or smashing my face into a bowl of Pad Thai.
> So no, it doesn’t pay to use a travel aggregator. It’s great for discovery or maybe a quick last minute purchase, but generally it’s better to book directly with the hotel.
> All the major hotel chains IHG, Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham, which collectively account for over 98% of hotel properties across their various brands, now offer best price guarantees.
All the major hotel chains IHG, Hilton, Marriott, and Wyndham, which collectively account for over 98% of hotel properties across their various brands, now offer best price guarantees. In order to do this, hotels are strictly enforcing that travel aggregators can not advertise below certain prices.
Now admittedly, there are still deals out there cheaper than the direct hotels such as Hotwire and Priceline’s “name your price” programs. But the trick here is that they aren’t advertising specific prices for hotels. They are hiding the exact location or price unless you go through an extended process, which usually means committing with your credit card number before revealing the location or hotel chain. However, even these have caveats as they often lack perks that hotels offer direct customers. Often they don’t even guarantee a room type.
Most commonly hotels are removing the perk of free breakfast from travel aggregator deals, but still reserving it for direct customers. Also, with only a few exceptions, most hotels now only offer points and loyalty programs to direct purchase customers. You miss out on these by using aggregators, which usually equates to a roughly 5-10% value. This trickles down to other perks like the likelihood of getting a room upgrade, which is generally nil when booking through a travel aggregator. Some travelers like me that have even modest loyalty can get guaranteed room upgrades when available if booking directly. Even with status you miss out on these by booking through aggregators.
So no, it doesn’t pay to use a travel aggregator. It’s great for discovery or maybe a quick last minute purchase, but generally it’s better to book directly with the hotel.
None of this mentions non-tangible benefits like the fact that if you have a problem with your room and you booked directly you are going to find the problem getting corrected much quicker, easier, and better because the hotel can resolve the problem themselves. Disputes when you book through the travel aggregators requires you to call the aggregator. Which then, like the woman in this story, requires them to make you wait while they call the hotel and play phone tag back and forth, rarely yielding positive results.