Book direct with hotel or book with booking,com

Idontlikeworking

I booked to go to Blackpool in October but the place I booked didn't have the extra night I wanted so I've looked for places for one night and I have three places in mind but is it best to book direct or use booking.com. The first hotel if you book direct with them it says you need to pay a £20 deposit for damages and you have to show photo identification and a credit card which I don't have so I tried phoning the hotel and they didn't answer so I emailed them and they haven't emailed back. The second hotel asked for the country of passport but I don't have one.

Worried_fool

It is best NOT to use booking: they are very vulnerable to fraudsters and have minimal customer support, so when things go wrong they are generally unable to help.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6683362/book-direct-with-hotel-or-book-with-booking-com

These requirements would indicate the type of clientele they get so would bre looking elsewhere.

RandomTourist

Some time back, talking with the owner of a B&B we used in Tenby (not that Tenby would be different to anywhere else in UK), he pointed out that Booking.com take a big percentage from the hotel; he was willing to offer a lower price direct than the Booking.com price and would still be better off. using Booking.com to research, followed by booking direct, has advantages. It also means there's no middleman to mess things up or to fail to respond if things go wrong. Remember your booking (= contract) would be with Booking.com, not the hotelier.

Bigphil1474

If it's UK and just hotel, I usually use one of the booking companies, typically booking.com. If it involves flights or overseas at all, I don't use them. It is definitely worth trying to book direct but it isn't a guarantee of the lowest price, it depends what rooms they have left, demand at the time of booking etc. We booked a Premier Inn in Cardiff a few months ago that was cheaper on booking.com than direct - only a few quid though.

daveyjp

A few weeks ago we were looking at a couple of nights in an expensive hotel. Hotel offers were available, but we also looked at Booking.com and they had a significantly cheaper deal - about 30% cheaper than the hotel rate.

Called the hotel, told them the Booking.com price which they had no problem price matching. We also let the hotel know it was for a specific occasion which resulted in a room upgrade and a few freebies during our stay.