But Hyatt is almost always cheaper directly. Hyatt is my fav chain, they maintain a proper standard of service for their price. I’m a believer.
The hotel did not give a rats ass about how happy I was, if I wanted to come back, and were not accountable. They basically gaslit me. The person pretended I was crazy or stealing, and I would surely have proof otherwise.
In most systems, you get some kind of ticket notification. I really felt I would be better with any portal system. I know booking can be shitty too, but dealing with hotels individually just seems worse to me.
By the way, they finally only charged me for one day. Chargeback rejected. Assume all of your chargebacks will be rejected if you don't have evidence. They WILL side against you, in favor of a large hotel at least (I don't think they were a chain either).
In Dominican Republic I was told to just use an online booking site as it was much cheaper than doing it in person. Their own site was also more expensive than expedia.
When I last did this, for a vacation, the cost at an aggregator was less if there was no cancellation allowed, and more if the option to cancel was added (but to a couple days before I believe), and needed to be paid at time of booking. When I called, I got a rate slightly less than the online+cancellation, I was able to cancel up to 24 hours in advance, and I only needed to pay on arrival, meaning I didn't tie up a few thousand for a few months.
There's also always the option to state the rate you found online and see if they are willing to match it. It's not like there usually some magic involved, if they're willing to offer it to an aggregator, why wouldn't they at least consider offering it to you direct?
The magic is actually being given the direct authorization to give you a matching rate or if not then having to get management to authorize that rate for you. That depends entirely on the hotel. Some employees might also recognize a deal seeker as someone who's also more likely to be picky and complain more and so would rather deny your price negotiations and avoid working with you if they have the choice depending on how filled they already are.
As I said elsewhere, the hotel's support can be even worse, and amount to them basically robbing you.
It wasn't advice, it was an anecdote about my experiences from doing what I describe. People can use that as advice, while knowing it's based on what I've experienced and not a wide survey of how the industry works.
>> as they offer the same or better rates usually
> I will say in most cases, it seems around the same.
The same what? Price? Wasn't that what I was describing? Or are you referring to some other aspect of it that I'm not connecting?
To further ground my statement, I'm generally dealing with larger name hotel chains or tourism spots that deal with repeat visitors, not random small or independent hotels. Maybe that matters.
To my eyes, most this thread seems like a missed opportunity for people to examine why sometimes dealing directly seems to work well and why sometimes it doesn't, and which types or brands are better than others in this respect. I think that would have been a much more interesting conversation. (I know you did contribute somewhat along these lines as well, I'm more criticizing the thread in general, not your specific replies).