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Comment by scarface_74 | Hacker News Reader

My wife and I travel a lot as a hobby. The first rule is never use a third party portal for hotels or flights

I mostly agree with this, but with two exceptions. First, I've had surprisingly good experiences with booking.com (no affiliation, just a satisfied user). And second, if you're booking a cruise, it's actually better to book through an agent. The cruise lines all have deals with agencies that forbid the cruise lines from undercutting the agents. If you find the right agent, they will give you kickbacks on their commissions so you actually end up paying less than you would booking direct.

Booking.com is great in discovery phase, when you want to find out what's available at certain date at certain location. After that you can book directly if you want, but surprisingly it can be even more expensive that way in some cases. Or terms can be worse, for example for cancelation or whether you have to prepay.

Yes, exactly. The first time I used booking.com it was because I was trying to book a particular hotel in an under-developed country and the hotel's web site wasn't working so I had no other option. I then had to cancel the reservation because covid happened, and I expected to have all kinds of problems, but it all went smoothly. So I started using them more often, tentatively at first, but now with full enthusiasm. I have yet to have a bad experience with them. They seem to be one of the good guys, which is one of the reasons I'm advocating them. We who value having good guys on the internet need to support them when we find them.

Have to agree. Die hard Airbnb user for years, then recently using booking.com more and more as it's clear and obvious what you are paying for (in most instances), and no insane "we're not a hotel, so change the sheets, wash them and put the rubbish out in these specific bins" list of exit rules.

Accidental discovery, but have to say they've helped far more than hindered (especially with last minute bookings in distant lands).

Welcome to Europe, Airbnb is dying since Covid. Booking is the clear winner. The only gripe I have with them ks their usage of dark patterns, not fully kosher

And their insecure platform. You occasionally get completely legit-looking phishing emails from the hotel you wanna stay in, because the hotel‘s account was compromised and attackers now send phishing emails through their side of booking.com.

Booking blames this on the hotels (probably true to some extend), but the problem is quite widespread so that Booking probably bears some responsibility, too.

Booking.com or frankly any other aggregator are great until the moment you have a problem and need to talk to their customer service. In that moment you realize that Booking.com does nothing that you can't do by yourself with same effort.

Kayak was the absolute worst about this to me. I had purchased premium economy tickets to Japan for several thousand USD from Kayak. Japan closed. The FAA made it clear that refunds were to be awarded. Kayak jerked me around and tried to keep half my money. Eventually I got it back less $400.

100% this

On rare occasions, using a 3rd party site will net you a better deal, but often, it's the exact same price, or a price within just a few dollars.

But if your reservation has a snag of any kind, you're basically fucked. The hotel will tell you to talk to Booking, Booking will tell you to talk to the hotel, if you can even talk to anybody.

I'd rather spent the extra dollars and book directly and just not have that worry.

My one and only experience with booking.com was around 10 years ago. I made a last minute late night booking, only to turn up and be told the room wasn't available. This was followed by a week of wrangling with booking.com to get the refund which was extremely annoying given I was traveling on a shoestring budget at the time. Never again.

Yes, if use booking.com (or any other third party) and there is any problem with the reservation and the hotel doesn't have a room for you, they will point you back to booking.com and say there's nothing they can do (which may be true).

I always book direct with the hotel. Saving $5 on a room is not worth showing up at 11pm to find out they don't have your reservation.

I once used booking.com to book a block of several rooms for a wedding. Paid and confirmed. When we arrived, the hotel had no record of our reservations! The explanation was that their sync with booking.com was prone to failure and hadn't been updating for several weeks and they hadn't noticed. Luckily, they still had enough rooms available for us, but I will never use a 3rd party site again and I will always call ahead to confirm the reservation is still on the books.

Nah often third party hotel rooms are cheaper. I've literally been in a hotel lobby, asked about the rate, only to see that it's about 20% cheaper on Hotels.com, ask the front desk person why they can't match, only to then use the app to book right in front of the clerk and then get my room.

The backend system lots of hotels uses will sell rooms at what is essentially the market rate, based on occupancy, demand, etc..., whereas the posted room rate is more stable, for better or worse (better if the hotel is close to full, worse if it's empty).

If you stay at the sane hotel brand often, the loyalty points make up the difference.

If Hilton isn’t running a special - and they are always running a special - if you have the Hilton Aspire credit card, you get 34 points per dollar worth usually around 20% in all. But often higher.

We will be staying at a hotel in Manuel Antonio n Costa Rica next month that would cost $4700 for 400K points.

The aggregators are often buying inventory at below cost. They exist to help fill rooms that otherwise won’t sell.

I agree with this for _purchasing_ things, but not aggregating. I use a lot of these services to aggregate results and then visit airlines/hotels independently to see if the price is reasonable.

In some places in Canada there's many airports that are served by literally only two airlines. Air Canada and Westjet. It's certainly possible to use a 3rd party booking site to try to find a 'cheaper' price to go to/from those places, but as you'll see when you get your search results for a flight, there's basically no competition. Go directly to the Air Canada or Westjet websites themselves and the prices will usually be the same or slightly better.

Sure, of course aggregation makes no sense when there are only two options. But we recently traveled internationally to an extremely populated place with literally hundreds of hotels, and these aggregation services were invaluable in deciding where to stay.

I've seen online travel agencies with better prices compared to the airline/hotel website even with fares at the same changes/cancellation policies.

OTOH, I prefer to purchase tickets directly with the airline because dealing with them directly when something happens is way better compared to having the OTA in the middle. Sometimes paying a small difference is worth the peace of mind.

Does the air Canada website work nowadays? Last time I tried (admittedly 2 years ago) I found myself literally screaming "just take my goddamn money".. the most painful website I've used for years.

And then they lost our luggage (tents and all), but that's another story.

For context, my wife and I did the digital nomad thing flying one way trips across the US for 10 months between 10/2022-10/2023 staying in hotels and I was traveling for work and she had conferences so we were staying in two hotels at a time sometimes.

Last year, we had around 70 days and this year we are looking at between 60-70 days.

At that point, hotel loyalty has benefits - loyalty points for free hotel stays , seat upgrades for flights and hotel room upgrades, lounge access when you fly a preferred airline etc.

Right now, if at all possible and the rates aren’t too much different, I’m going to stay in Hilton or Hyatt brand hotels. While I don’t care about 5 star hotels, I’m not staying at a Days Inn.

It's worth explicitly stating that you (often?) don't get hotel rewards when your stays are booked through a third party.

This isn't the case with airline miles; you get them either way, it seems. But there are often other benefits (eg, you get 5x miles if you book with your airline credit card directly through the airline).

That’s true. The issue with airlines is that if you have to make any changes, it’s harder and in the case of st least AA, they charge a fee when you change a flight that was booked through a third party portal that would be free if you book directly.

Third parties often have their own fairly reasonable reward systems. And you are not tied down to a specific chain.

Some large chains will only give you rewards points or honor your status if you book directly.

My wife and I just spent several days finding and booking hotels for a 2 week trip with several stops. We searched on aggregators (Booking’s “king size bed” filter was particularly useful) but always defaulted to booking directly with the hotel. Oddly enough, one hotel had no means of booking directly; they only supported booking through an aggregator. One other hotel was offering the same price via Chase Travel, so I took the extra bonus Chase points.

No hotels that I’m aware of will give you loyalty points unless you book directly. You can also get more loyalty points by using a cobranded hotel card. But only by booking directly.

I’ve had mixed success asking to add my loyalty number at check-in, even if I already provided it to the aggregator.

I stay in IHG hotels a fair amount booked through work's travel agent - indeed I'm about to check in to one when the train gets in. Always get the points and credited stay.

Don't get them if you book it through booking.com or similar though (although hotels.com at least used to give you a 10% cashback as a credit for free nights, which is handy when you can't stay in one chain)

Booking through something like Concur is different. Concur doesn’t charge the hotel a fee for booking through them. Concur gets paid by the company.

I bet Concur gets paid for having slow page loads and thereby discouraging employee travel. It's the only explanation.

RIU hotels does. If you are part of their program after you stay you can go to your profile and add points for previous stays that weren't booked through them

source: staying now in the hotel and done it ;)

And some booking websites will also give you rewards points and free hotel stays.

Yes, but when you show up to your hotel across the world and they can’t find your reservation or they gave your room away because they didn’t know you were arriving after at 8pm, they then tell you to take it up with your third party booking company.

100% seconded. One of the things that's often buried in the terms/conditions and booking if using an expedia/booking.com type 3rd party site is that your reservation cannot be modified in any way. Often if you book directly with the hotel chain in question you'll have a better experience in the event that unforeseen circumstances require a change in plans.

It depends entirely on the hotel how they will let you cancel or modify your reservation through the third party.

Same.

I feel so strongly that I built a site to help with finding those prices.

https://directbooker.com

What's different than just using any other aggregator and just not clicking the "book" button on their side then?

Where do the prices on your site come from?

You obviously do not have an Amex platinum card, and you haven't had the delicious experience of a guaranteed 4PM checkout, free room upgrades, and paid for breakfasts.

Recent-ish recipient of a Venture X. It and the Platinum were my two finalists, but the “coupon book” aspects required to really benefit from the Platinum pushed me away. Have I made a terrible mistake?

I ended up using many of the "Coupons" (not all), but the travel benefits after 2 international trips more than pay for the yearly price - and that's without the generous 150K points. Lounge access at airports is a life saver.

I hate credit card companies too - but I can't deny that it's cheap to be rich and expensive to be poor. Just bite the bullet and get it or equivalent nice credit cards and use their (the credit cards) own travel booking websites. You'll be happy you did.

Currently we have:

- Amex Platinum + paid authorized user

- Amex Delta Platinum, Business Platinum and Reserve - having all three got me halfway to Delta Platinum Medallion. They each have a buy one get one free ticket and Delta Stays credits

- Amex Green and Blue Business Plus

I’m also a credit card churner, I’m looking to get four this year for sign up bonuses

This is only for Fine Hotels and Resorts bookings and those prices are usually more than booking directly.

Last year I was Hyatt Globalist and Hilton Diamond, so I got those benefits booking directly.

This year I will be Hilton Gold and Hyatt Explorist.

But I will get free C+ upgrades on Delta at time of booking because we are both Delta Platinum Medallion

Amex Platinum gives you Hilton Gold as part of the "coupon book" of benefits for holding it.

Flights...agreed, but hotels sometimes have such shitty booking interfaces that I'd rather use the one from Booking which is solid and already has all my data.

Hotels are worse. Especially if you need to change anything. I stay loyal to Hilton and Hyatt

I on other hand prefer the added security from Europe from getting both from same agency. As long as they are packaged.

The agency is still a third party and if something goes wrong with either the flight or the hotel, you are still having to deal with both. What happens if the hotel isn’t satisfactory?

The agency isn’t going to do anything for you.

Have not travelled for a while now, but the relatively tiny travel agency I used to use had a 24/7 support phone line. Did not personally have a need to use it, but a friend did, and the agency indeed handled the situation to his satisfaction.

Moreover, booking international flights through that agency somehow always ended up cheaper than what I could find myself, even when accounting for their fees.

A travel agency works differently than a portal. It’s considered a first party booking.

I travel in Japan a lot and quite frankly Booking/Agoda have been comparable in most cases and extremely accessible for making reservations and even communicating with hotel staff.

I used to use sites like Expedia for flights but lately i just book those directly through the carriers and i think the experience on that end is better.

On a previous trip to Japan I used my CC travel portal (can’t remember if it was Chase or Amex) to book one of the hotels. It took several days of back and forth with the CC company acting as a middleman to clarify whether “twin bed” meant a single bed sized for a child, or two beds which could be pushed together to approximate a U.S. queen size bed. (Japan seems to translate “two beds” as “twin room”, but it was unclear whether that had been re-translated when shown on the CC company’s whitelabeled Expedia instance.)

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