> What alternatives are people using?

Book online directly. The hotels hate OTAs (Online Travel Agents). You can typically find better terms direct on the hotel website (e.g. breakfast included or more flexible cancellation).

If you are in a financial position where you need to watch every penny, then take the extra time and effort to book by phone or email, because in some jurisdictions the hotels have rate-parity clause which means the hotels can't advertise a lower rate on their website than you can find on the OTA website. This probably mostly applies in North America, this sort of thing is likely illegal (or verging on ) in Europe so you're unlikely to get a better deal than a European hotel offers on its website already.

If you like the big US chain hotels (Hilton, Marriott etc.) and you travel reasonably frequently then pony up for an AMEX premium-tier card which gets you access to AMEX rates, and also some perks (e.g. premium WiFi for free, late-checkout etc.).

You really should just book direct. You'll often be treated better and will have better recourse on-site when things go wrong.

I prefer hotels, and dislike how booking mixes in airbnb type places. I've been using google maps to find hotels and then just book directly with them.

Calling hotels on the phone. When I suggest it to my 30-something peers they look at me like I have two heads though.

Go to the hotels website directly. Booking.com is terrible. They don’t even mediate any payments and simply pass all your CC details to the room provider. For a chain hotel, not great, but for some random B&B provider in another country - you might as well just hand your CC to scammers.