Just going to tag on this; I’ve come to use Booking.com preferentially as it seems the least irritating, and I don’t remember the last time I was sold something I didn’t want from it. Guess I just blur out the bad bits?
That’s kind of the point of this type of misdirection: they use less than honest tactics to make you feel good about your choice. You’ll never know what alternatives you may have otherwise chosen and how happy you would have been.
Edit: it occurs to me that this is much like the advantage that Amazon once had, for the period of my life when I bought pretty much everything via Amazon. Shame they've lost my confidence.
I use them sometimes, but from a company with such aggressive / dishonest marketing I would generally not expect any customer service worth the name. IIRC their terms and conditions exclude all responsibility whatsoever if the reservation does not work out, It's always the hotel's responsibility.
Luckily I have never had a case where I would have really had to contact their support.
These comments
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21859610 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21858747
tell different stories and honestly that's what I would fear.