ribeirasacra

I never work with TAs they want more commission than Booking.com They never guarantee more business after that one reservation either.

WeisserTee

Just an FYI, since we're on the subject of booking.com, if you're a comms professional and you'd like to live in Amsterdam, booking.com needs a new head of communications...

http://www.communication-director.co...communications

bvlenci

I had a friend in Princeton who was a travel agent, and a good one. The truth is that no one person can have great insights into everywhere you want to go, unless you always go to the same place and find an agent who specializes in that place. I learned pretty early on that I could find better hotels than my friend could, because her contacts were mostly with international chains. As the internet became ever more useful, I found that I usually could also find better air fares, and my travel agent friend was no longer enthusiastic about handling only the air tickets for a trip.

A travel agent is still better for really complicated air routing, like when my granddaughter comes to Italy with her Mom (who returns to the US alone) and then goes home with us (who return to Italy alone). However, although we've worked with an excellent travel agent for this kind of thing, I doubt that she earns enough from solving such knotty problems to make it worth her while. She's just a nice person, and besides she gets a lot of business from my daughter's university department.

Sue_xx_yy

Obviously hotels want to avoid paying a third party commission, and in consequence, many hotel chains publish - not just claim, but publish - a 'we will match any lower price that you find elsewhere' policy. This is fair as they have stated it upfront.

As an example, here is the policy of a well known chain:

<i> If within 24 hours of making your reservation, you find a lower hotel rate for the same hotel, room type and reservation dates, and submit a qualified claim form, we’ll match the rate + give you an extra 25% discount on the room. </i>

What I dislike about your case is that the hotel (apparently) didn't make this their published policy, and they are vague as to the terms as to when they would make such an offer. Would they make a lower offer on the basis of a no-refund arrangement or a completely refundable one? Within 24 hours of the other booking or whenever you happened to call (how long ago did you make the booking on booking dot com before you contacted them?)

It's easy for a hotel to make vague promises. Like politicians though, one should beware of any claim not published. I agree with Padraig, I think they are messing with your head.

WeisserTee

I will be in Philadelphia for a few days this fall and had booked a hotel through booking.com. I've always had good experiences with them, no complaints. But when booking my flight from Europe to the U.S., I saw that I could save quite a bit if I flew one day later. When I modified my Phila hotel reservation on booking.com, the rate was increased significantly, even though all I was doing was cutting one night (I had not booked a special long-stay rate). The rate for one of the nights had jumped from $229 to $359, excluding the 15.5% tax.

Yesterday, I called the hotel and explained the problem. The reservation assistant said that the rates I now had on booking.com were their current rates. She looked into the records and said that if I cancelled my booking.com reservation, she could rebook me directly into the hotel for my original rates. She sent me a confirmation with the "new" old rates. So I cancelled with booking.com (I nearly always choose the free cancellation rate).

Now it's possible that booking.com customer service might also have been able to get my rates rolled back if I had contacted them. But the hotel did it within five minutes of my phone call, so there was no need to do anything further.

I'm going to keep on using booking.com, I'm happy with their service, but this is one time (for me, anyway) where the hotel did come through with a better rate -- even though it was really just a rate rollback.