Booking.com no cancellation fee?!

PeacefulWaters

ferf1223 wrote: »

I'm missing something - why go via a 3rd party if you can get the same thing booking direct with the hotel?

TopCashback. Commission. Online flexibility.

ferf1223

ok - thanks for the various points of clarification. I suppose I approach things a bit differently and we normally only book hotels for holidays. We do use 3rd parties to help search what's out there, but once we narrow down to a specific hotel, we book direct via the hotel's website...We do check back occasionally to see if rates may have changed and have arranged for reduced rates where possible. I can understand if someone was flexible about which hotel that something like this might be useful. I don't think that I realised that bookings via bookings.com were always direct with the hotel, that's good to know, we generally don't book with 3rd parties.

We did use booking.com last fall for a serviced apartment booking in London - we could not find any way to book direct via the apartment company's website - and had no issues.

SW17

Deleted_User wrote: »

Correct.
I've used Booking.Com for years and saved a fortune.
First of all get your booking in early and the monitor the site on a weekly or even daily basis as hotel and resort costs fluctuate massively.
I booked a resort hotel in Florida for April months ago and have cancelled and re-booked the same room four times and saved myself $300 over a three-night stay.
The hotel doesn't give a toss because it's all automated and at the end of the day they just want full occupancy.
Why anyone would commit to a price months in advance is beyond me.

The cancellation flexibility and the fact that you don't pay until you stay is a big advantage for Booking.com, though hotels do offer lower non-refundable rates on there as well. Rates go up as well as down, so you may gain by committing to a rate early over busy periods. In the last few years, availability hasn't been an issue, so your strategy is a good one. That said, if everyone did it like you, the hotels would have to stop discounting so much in order to maintain overall revenues.

As to the hotels "not giving a toss", actually they do, they are just struggling to do anything about it because Booking and Expedia are so huge now. These giants, especially Booking, are demanding ever higher commissions and the hotels are so dependent on them that it is hard to refuse. The consumer may also not get the best deal online because of "rate parity" (hence the competition investigations), but that's too long a story for this post.

ferf1223 wrote: »

We do use 3rd parties to help search what's out there, but once we narrow down to a specific hotel, we book direct via the hotel's website...We do check back occasionally to see if rates may have changed and have arranged for reduced rates where possible.

And the hotels will love you for it as they won't have to pay commissions, but they can't usually give you a lower rate online than is available via the OTAs. Offline, by phone or email, you may have a chance, especially if you've stayed there more than once.

Doshwaster

I almost always book flights directly with the airline but with hotels I tend to go through third party sites.

Going direct to the hotel is better if you regularly use the same chain as you will get full recognition from their loyalty scheme but rooms booked through 3rd party sites tend not to get points. On the other hand, the likes of Expedia, Hotels.com etc can have very attractive cashback rates through TCB and Quidco.

When I used to travel a lot for work (and someone else was paying) I would try always to stop in Marriots as the points really added up quickly and I could use them for holidays. Now I'm usually not fussed which hotel chain I am in so will go for the best late availability rate I can find and that is almost always through a 3rd party.

SW17

Doshwaster wrote: »

Now I'm usually not fussed which hotel chain I am in so will go for the best late availability rate I can find and that is almost always through a 3rd party.

Although it's probably regarded as heresy on this site, for major hotel chains (Marriott etc) you will often get better rates these days by booking with an old-fashioned offline travel agent, especially during busier travel periods when the hotels are not discounting directly or to OTAs.

This is because nobody is allowed (by the chain) to sell online lower than the hotel's own online rate (hence the above-mentioned competition authority investigations), so there is effectively no competition on price. Offline, the lower rates these chains give to distribution partners can still be sold.

davelewis

Phone the hotel and ask if they can do a better direct rate than booking.com - you may be pleasantly suprised as they are not paying any commission to booking.com and will pass the saving on to you. I run a B&B and the clever guests phone us and tell us they can see our rate on booking.com and can we offer a better rate over the phone - of course we can!

savethepandas

I booked a hotel in St. Helier, Jersey over Easter with booking.com. The day before we were due to fly out to Jersey the hotel phoned me directly to say they were overbooked (found out later to be a walk in) and they were transferring us to another hotel on the other side of the island. A location we didn't want. I emailed booking.com and within a quarter of an hour our booking at the original hotel was honoured and a 'sorry' bottle of wine was in the room on arrival. If I had booked direct I would have been at the other hotel.

Also, when we made a reservation in Corsica for the start of the Tour de France and the hotel became overbooked, booking.com found us another hotel which was about three times the price and let us claim back the difference in cost between the two bookings.

One hotelier advised us that booking.com take a 15% cut.

davelewis

'One hotelier advised us that booking.com take a 15% cut.'


They certainly do - plus 20% VAT ;-)

stoneman

They are also pretty good if the room is non cancel-able as I found out a couple of days ago.
I booked a room but for the same dates a year later than I intended. Totally my mistake.

The hotel had already charged my card by the time I noticed, but an email to them and booking.com explaining the error and the booking was canceled and money returned to my card. Top bunch.

[Deleted User]

davelewis wrote: »

'One hotelier advised us that booking.com take a 15% cut.'


They certainly do - plus 20% VAT ;-)

Mind you for that money they do offer the hotels access to tens of millions of people around the world which they might not have had before.

I'm often amazed when Booking.Com throws up a hotel and when you go through to its own website you see how crap it is.

I've used Booking.Com extensively for years - it's a brilliant site with great research tools and maximum flexibility for the traveller.