Dogeared

Why is it that so many people don't seem to realize that third party bookings sites are simply parasites making money of them and providing them with nothing?

They're in the news today being taken to task by the European consumer protection body for misleading the public.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39529584

I get so tired of seeing tv ads by them, all saying, 'we get you the lowest price', etc. All they get you is the lowest price THEY are offering you, not the lowest price that exists. Yet the majority of the public seem to believe their nonsense.

WoinParis

If they were parasites and provided no added value either for the hotel or the customer they would not exist.

I have never used a third party for airplanes, as it can be a real PITA is you have any problem and they become a filter but I use weekly third party for hotels.

I don't have time to argue/discuss with hotels when I book my nights and using a third party allows me to benefit from real discount. I usually get a 30% off the tarrif price of the hotel. Knowing that I get an additional 10% under the form of a voucher and that the site asks about 20% from the hotel, it means the hotel gets less than half of the advertized price.

So who is the thief or the parasite between the third party site or the hotel that tries and succeeds selling his rooms double the price he acceptes from these said sites ?

I will add that a lot of hotels then ask me to book direct with them, usually they just aligne their price - but why should I when I have to check if their price is ok ?

So long life to third party sites...

Dogeared

Typical false logic.

suze

I realize it. I don't use Expedia. Do I win a prize?

WoinParis

Can you elaborate dog ?

Another advantage : I gave booked 3 hotels this week - they are all on hotels.com and I can access them easily vus the app.
So I don't bother remembering/noting where I sleep.

Lots of time saved for me.

Dogeared

Yes I can elaborate WoinParis if you want to discuss the issue.

On another thread for example, another poster mentioned 3 third party sites. On a third thread, you yourself actually mentioned the same 3 sites.

When the other poster mentioned them, I did a quick check and here is what I replied to that poster.

"You name Booking com, hotels com, and expedi Odin. OK, I have just checked all 3 for a hotel I know. They show $96, $102 and $102 respectively. Checking with the hotel directly, I got a price of $79 for the same room on the same dates. Now you tell me how those third party sites who all claim to find you the 'best price' are not misleading you."

So if one of the 3 hotels you just booked happened to be the hotel I checked, then obviously you would not have got the best possible price WoinParis. Nor do 'price match' guarantees impress me. They assume that you know you didn't get the best price! How else can anyone ask for them to match a price or better it? How likely is it that you will discover I got a price of $79 and you got a price of $102?

What's more, the chances are that if you had booked with Hotels com and I had booked directly with the hotel, I will get a better room. You are also more likely to get 'walked'(when a hotel is overbooked and someone has to be told, 'sorry, the inn is full, you need to go down the road.')

Regarding using their app, so what? It takes no longer for me to phone the hotel and make a reservation than it does for you to make the same reservation using an app. If we both know what hotel we want to book, there is no time saving either way.

If you strip down the transaction you are entering into to it's basic form, it goes like this. You need a bed and will pay for it. A hotel has a bed and will rent it to you. There are only 2 entities required for that transaction. Now if you add a third party, do you really believe that will get you a lower price? Or does common sense tell you that you the customer are going to have to pay extra if you allow a third party to enter into the transaction.

Hotels com happens to be a site that offers you 'free 10th night reward'. A reward? Really? Do you actually believe that the cost of that 10th night 'free' is not built in to the cost of the other 9 nights you have to book? As the saying goes, 'there ain't no free lunch.'

There are other factors as well that come into play and if you take the time to do the research by looking at what industry 'insiders' have to say, you will quickly find just what using a third party site really gets you. You can start by reading the Book 'Heads in Beds' by Jacob Tomsky for example. Here are a few of his tips to start with. Note 2 and 7 in particular.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/50569...ind-front-desk

If you take the time to research what 'insiders' have to say, you will find several recurring themes. One is that, speaking to a person on the front desk is always the best way to book. You have a much better chance of getting a better room. Never believe the oft stated lie that, 'all our rooms are the same'. They never are. The room next to the elevator or the ice machine in the hallway is not the room you want is it? The longer you are staying, the more important the choice of room becomes obviously but even for 1 night, you don't want to be next to the elevator or ice machine.

I always book by phone and always with the front desk of the hotel itself. I won't even use a call centre 1-800 number for a hotel chain.

Front desk staff have more discretion than most people realize. They actually pick the room you will get. When you tell them the trip is in celebration of your wedding anniversary, they tick the box to have a free basket of goodies waiting in your room. They give you a corner room (bigger) facing the best view. Do you think booking with a third party site gets you that? I can give you lots of personal examples of what speaking to the front desk got me that booking with a third party site never would have.

On one occasion my wife went to a business convention along with 3 of her colleagues. The booking was done by an agency for all of them. So obviously, there was no person to person contact between the hotel and my wife beforehand.

I knew her flight was arriving at 3pm local time. At 3pm local time I called the hotel and asked if she had checked in yet. I knew she wouldn't have got there yet of course. When the front desk clerk said that she hadn't, I asked if I could leave a message for her. Of course the answer was yes. I then said, 'it's a bit embarrassing but the message I would like you to give her is that I miss her already.' Did I mean it? Of course I did but was I also being manipulative, of course I was. I knew what I was doing. I was making my wife a real person to that front desk clerk.

When she arrived at check-in and gave her name, the clerk who was checking her in immediately said, 'Oh, we have a message for you from your husband'. The clerk had a big smile on her face. She gave her the message and checked her in. In to a much nicer room than any of her colleaugues were given and yes, there was even a free basket of goodies in her room. All because she was not just another anonymous booking any more.

Third party sites do not necessarily get you the best price or best room. What third party sites do is make money off the customer while providing nothing of any real value in return.

Maybe it is because I am old enough to remember life before the internet, that I see booking sites as simply parasites making money off a transaction between a hotel and a customer by misleading the customer into thinking they add something to the equation. But if I am wrong, I have yet to see anyone tell me any real value that they add to the transaction and I see lots of evidence that they in fact get the customer less value for their money than dealing directly with the hotel does.

Years ago, someone once said to me that 'paper prints anything'. What he was referring to was that you could not take everything you read in a newspaper as gospel. Today, we can say that the internet prints anything and just because every third party booking sites tells you they get you the best deals, does not mean they do. I don't think they ever do.

suze

<Third party sites do not necessarily get you the best price or best room.>

That's true.

WoinParis

You have more time on your hands than I.

As I said, I make 100 bookings a year, and I simply don't have the time to check each time with the guy at the desk.

If he has a better deal, he should say it upfront. Onnhis iste ? I don't have time to chek-ck each site.

I check best disconted rates at the time I book. I don't care what hotel I will end up in.

So for me third party sites for hotels are great. When I double check with the hotel - whihc I don't bother much these days - I don't get better rates.

Good for you if you like booking with the guy at the desk. Good for me I'm satisfied with third party sites.

So, no. not parasites for me. A good help to find easily discounted rooms.

scotttraveller

I love to travel anywhere, where I want to travel. Recently, I have faced the Similar problem as mentioned here. I travel a lot but I recently booked a package of 2 nights and 3 days in china.

I went to my room, I saw the room is different what they have shown on the website. I asked hotel manager and he told me that he has no business with that website or what they have shown you. then, He left.

I also complained it on that website but I didn't receive any feedback until now. I must say don't book or buy anything from the Third party websites.

Dogeared

"A good help to find easily discounted rooms."

Yet another example of how they mislead you. In many countries, hotels have the price of a room shown or published somewhere. In some countries you find it on the back of the door into the room for example. This price is known as the 'rack rate'.

Almost no one ever pays that rate. But that is the rate that third party sites refer to when suggesting you will save '25%, 40%, etc. if you book through them. So the question then becomes, did you actually get a 'discounted' price or simply the price the hotel is offering on that date through that third party?

If you read the following article on 'rack rate', you will perhaps find a couple of things of interest.
http://traveltips.usatoday.com/rack-...ls-107299.html

Note the Marriott guarantee. If you find a price on a third party site you like and then simply call the hotel and tell them the price you have found, they will beat that price by 25%. Other hotels offer similar price guarantees.

Also note what the article says about negotiating, as in simply phoning and asking for a better price.

While I can understand when you write, "As I said, I make 100 bookings a year, and I simply don't have the time to check each time with the guy at the desk.", that changes nothing in terms of are the third party sites misleading people or not.

You do it out of convenience is what you are saying, but that does not mean you are getting the best price or best rooms. Let's not forget what the topic here is and is not WoinParis. The topic is about third party sites being misleading, not about what's convenient for you.

The average person using third party sites to book leisure travel are not making 100 bookings per year WoinParis. What about those people? What would you advise them to do? They are booking for a 2 week vacation and they do want the best prices and the best rooms.

WoinParis

I advise nothing, you are the ones who say third party are parasites.

I disagree.

But you want to say you are the one who knows better, so be it : you know better.

WoinParis

Update.
I slept yesterday in a very nice hotel booked via hotel.com fir half the asked price or a third of the max price and was upgraded in a room with a gorgeous terrace.
So why did they give me their unique room ?

Dogeared

LOL, there are many reasons why a hotel decides to 'upgrade' someone to a better room WoinParis. It certanly wasn't because you booked through hotel com.

The simplest reason is that all their lower priced rooms are full, you have a confirmed reservation and so it's upgrade you to an available room or turn you away.

You don't really think they upgraded you because you booked through hotel com do you?