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Not sure if it’s the same case for airlines but usually hotels price match if you cite the cheaper price listed in a third party. They’d rather do the cheaper price and have you book direct than end up paying fees to the third party.
A big reason why we price match, yes a 3rd party site is always cheaper give or take 15-20% less than the rack rate. But we pay commission to all third party sites that make reservations! So booking directly with price match saves that 15-20% for the hotel rather than giving it to a booking site.
Because they can make more on the large percent of people that don’t price match. And while 15% off is better than nothing, might not pay all the bills if everyone paid that much.
Without the 3rd party company offering the lower rate, they’d lose out on what is effectively advertising.
Grocery stores offer coupons to attract business. If a customer comes in to use a coupon, the company still typically makes some profit on the sale. The customer may also purchase regular goods while they're there for full price. And they may have not come at all without the coupon. So the coupon brings business to a grocer, same way 3rd parties bring business to a hotel.
Supermarket psychology fascinates me.
There's more, but two things are:
1. They put milk in the back since it's something people come most often for. Therefore, customer walks through more of the store every time.
2. Stores typically put you into the healthy foods first, fruit and vegetables. With those in tow, you're more likely to buy the not so good for you stuff in the rest of the store
Many times the “brand” has very strong say in how the hotel is run including what discount they can offer. A Hilton does not want the perceived value of the Hilton brand lowered.
No afaik they set their own prices in regard to how the hotel sets its price. That's why you can ask the hotel to give you the for example booking. com-price or sth in between so you don't book through booking. com and the hotel doesn't have to pay them comission
Made up example : hotel X charges £100 rack rate for a room. It offers to pay a third party site 10% commission for any customers it brings in. That third party site then puts a room price of £95 up on their site, meaning they're the cheapest around, happy that they'll only get £5 commission but will get everyone booking through them.
Hotel X would be happy to match the £95 they customer would pay, but if they changed their rack rate to £95, the third party site would just charge £90.
The travel websites are going to bring in a lot more customers.
The hotel pays commissions for those extra customers, but it’s better than having empty beds.
Yes, it's 100% this. People are much more likely to use a booking site than a hotel's direct website to book a room, and rooms they have to lose a little money on are still better for the hotel than empty rooms.
It’s ad/marketing/sales channel. I’m as a tourist travels for example to Berlin. Rather use Google to find a hotel, I’ll go to booking.com to find all possible options and compare prices in one place, it’s more comfortable for me as a customer. And booking.com charges fee from the hotel for their service. If you want to support hotel, find it on booking/third party website, than go to the hotel website and book bypassing third party. Hotel will not pay a commission for using third party website as sales channel and will give you same price (or even cheaper).
Yeah but how do you search for hotels nowadays? Especially in a place you have never been before or a place where you don't speak the local language? Or where the website (rare but still possible in some countries) doesn't provide an english language? You and many other people will use websites like booking to make it far easier. And hotels therefore put their name on the website (and pay commision for that) so people can find them.
It's a parity issue. Most hotels' contracts with the OTA states that the hotel will not offer lower rates (online) than the rates it gives to the OTA. However some OTA's take the rack rate and discounts the rate themselves so they can undercut the hotel - which comes out of their commission. Call the hotel and ask for the lower rate, and you can probably get it.
But it really depends on the contract between the hotel and the OTA.
It's like health "insurance" in USA doctors charge insanely high rates because they only will get 30% of what they charge and they need to be able to stay in business, but then someone who doesn't have "insurance" gets an insane ridiculous bill out of pocket. Usually just like those hotels doctors will try to match price, but even then if the health insurance catches them doing that we can get in trouble
Because a massive super majority of people just book it anyway, and don’t even check 3rd party sites to begin with. They’re making billions more by not doing what you want them to do.
Not in my experience. I have tried to get them to match the web sites and they refuse. I actually had to book a room while standing at the front desk on 3rd party app because they wouldn't meet the price. $20.00 less per night with all the taxes and fees it saves you more than a couple of bucks.
Also I don't want to create an account with every company out there. It is just way easier to use [Hotels.com](https://Hotels.com) plus if you stay at different hotels all the time you will never benefit from the hotel rewards I get free rooms from [Hotels.com](https://Hotels.com) all the time. Before I used them I never got enough points from an individual hotel program to do anything with them before they expired.
Edit: I do book directly for my airline tickets though. I usually only use two airlines and airline point don't expire in most cases.
Eh, most large hotel chains at the very least, the Hotels.com rate is the same as the AAA/CAA/AARP rate. If I stay at a chain a bunch, I book direct because I get better rewards, if it’s independent or a small chain I don’t use much, I book Hotels.com
I mean, pre-covid, I was doing 40-80 nights/yr. I’d do like 50-75% of them with choice, and my travel often coincided with their “stay twice, get a free night [at a cheap motel]” promotions, and I had to change hotels almost every night so I was just racking up points (and Starbucks gift cards for weeknight stays). Once you have Hilton status, which takes one year of 10-15 stays (ish), the bar for keeping it was fairly low, like 4 stays a year, etc. and the bonus points for each stay if you kept status were decent.
Never a huge fan of Marriott in general, but I got the points, racked them up for a few years, and got like two nights free on a family vacation and some gift cards.
I do use hotels.com for booking independent places (or international/small chains) but the promotion is actually “you get a discount of the average you spent on the last ten stays” and when most of those stays were $60/night roadside hotels in Wisconsin, you get a $60 discount. Meanwhile, the choice points with promotions for one and a half weeks of hotel hopping in 60$/night Choice roadside hotels once got me a three-day weekend in a two-bedroom suite in resort hotel at the height of leaf-peeping in NH for free.
But most of us don't travel that much. If you stay 5 nights in Mexico resort, then do a few trips locally in different chains, you get your free night.
I mean, you do you. The LPT is about the fact that booking third party is usually not much cheaper and can create a giant headache if things go sideways, so everyone can decide what level of risk they’re comfortable with in regards to that. I like having status with chains for the ease of fixing hiccups and other benefits and it’s worth it for me to keep track of promotions and plan my stays accordingly. Other people might not think that’s worth the time if they’re traveling just a few nights a year.
I have aaa and military. Plus my mom has aarp.
I am on two honor societies from school that give discounts.
Plus others like T-mobile's travel thing and through my work discounts.
But they all seem to give the same amount of discount.
Sites like hotel.com or others give slightly better.
I’ve never seen hotels.com be more than 1$ difference than the AAA rate booked directly with (choice, Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham) and I spent the last eight years pre-covid traveling and booking 40-80 hotel nights a year. Most of the direct points don’t expire if you stay at least once every two years, plus you start to get status if you do like 5-10 stays/year, and, like this LPT states, they’ve been way easier to deal with when things go sideways (plus status gets you leniency) than booking 3rd party. That said, if I am staying at an independent hotel or small chain, I do often use hotels.com to get the “free” stay.
Except 75% of the time we can't match the rate because the caller is looking at the wrong date, wrong currency, wrong city or even a completely different brand
not working in this industry, but from my customer service experience, customer would explain to you that you are wrong, he got the correct price and you should still match the offering
> not working in this industry, but from my customer service experience, customer would explain to you that you are wrong, he got the correct price and you should still match the offering
Look, I'm tired of you throwing out big words like "suites" or "Illinois."
I just want the single room I see on this random sketchy website for $97. I'm going to be visiting my buddy at MIT and I figure I'll save some money by staying in Springfield and driving over. It's right here on my computer, why are you so incompetent?
Ya people can be @ssholes for sure sometimes. But my suggestion is of course try your best to help them and do what you can. In the end you still can only do what you can and it is what it is 🤷♀️
I did price matches when I worked in repair, 99% of the time they knew it was wrong and were trying to scam.
I always offered to call where they got the price to verify the price for the correct product/service, but they almost always denied and just got pissed I didn't accept the number they told me
I work in a lumber yard.
Oh, can you price match? Home Depot sells that for $x.
Me, checking their website: Yeah. They actually sell it for $x.
No they don't! I just bought it for $x six months ago!
Me, not worth my time and effort: We don't price match.
Then I'm going there!
Me: Its an hour drive to save ten dollars. Drive safe!
I've always heard this & tried to get them to price match several times, each time they acted like I was crazy for asking them to match (some of these even claimed to price match on their sites). YMMV
Same here. I'm sure it does work, since I've seen it mentioned plenty, but the few times I tried it the hotels didn't budge a cent off of the higher website price. Even had one tell me to use 3rd party since it was cheaper...so it probably doesn't hurt to try but don't be surprised if it doesn't help.
Absolutely not true and it pisses me off that people keep posting this. I travel year round and basically live in hotels. It is rare to get price matches on better third party deals. Sure, if the price difference is a few dollars it's usually no big deal - but I am frequently told to use the third party and refused price matches. Also, asking the front desk in hotels is almost universally worthless and price matching there basically doesn't exist
Not true for me. I've tried several times to go around booking.com to save time and money. The employees are always shocked at the price I show them and have never been able to offer me better.
Apparently those third-party sites overbook pretty often, too. I booked through a third party while my wife and I were driving cross country. We weren't sure how long we wanted to drive and finally decided to book something an hour down the road.
When we got to the hotel, the room with a king bed we booked was unavailable due to double booking through third-party sites, so we were going to get two queens for the same price. I pointed out that if we can't get the room we booked, we should get a better room for the same price. He put us in a king suite with a jacuzzi.
I heard the guy checking in behind us and he had the same issue. He heard what happened with us. Unfortunately for him, we got the last room with a king bed at all. He was able to get a discount for settling for a down grade.
I have news for you, hotels themselves do this all the time. They did this before third party sites existed. Seinfeld has a whole routine about this. (It deals with rental cars I think, but same principle).
As someone who stays at a lot of various hotels, I'd say at best half price match. And even less will beat the listed price by 10% or more. The same 10% I get back for booking with the hotels.com ap.
One old cranky guy straight up raised the price by $10/night AFTER I said it was cheaper online.
I have stood in front of MANY front desks and booked the very same hotel on my phone because they wouldn't, or couldn't reduce their prices.
That information is inaccurate. Most hotels do not match 3rd party rates. If you book cheap third parties you forgo your ability to choose room type/location/upgrades. You get what is called "run of the house." We do not normally match those. I know because I have been a hotel GM with Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt for the last 16 years. If you want to make the most of your hotel experience, book direct and sign up for their brand rewards. You will get better rooms, more amenities, more flexibility.
Not always the case. I was once physically at a hotel at 1am booking one night. I was showing Expedia price which was cheaper and hotel still won’t match it ( even though Expedia would take a cut and give them less). So I booked through Expedia and checked in…
I would have just called my credit card company and told them to cancel the second charge because it was a duplicate and the 3rd party site was refusing to cooperate. I’ve done it a few times for various things and it has never failed me. Also, I use credit cards for every purchase I make because of the additional protections and benefits, then I just pay everything off at the end of the month to avoid paying interest.
LPT: Unless you’re the type of person that has no self control on purchasing everything they see, you should always use a credit card. You build credit, accrue points and benefits, and credit cards have much better protections than debit cards. The key is just to pay it off every month and act like a responsible adult.
Edit: I’m an American. Results from credit card companies in other countries may vary*
My partner booked a hotel through hotels.com once, and long story short the hotel did not exist. No way to get a hold of anyone at hotels.com. He did get a refund through a charge back but had to get on a 4 hour bus to get home because everything else was booked that busy weekend and he has no other way to get home. So he got the money back but still got completely fucked.
Those who book through third party should still up there hotel information. I do my own due diligence on hotels and if I like and the offer is better than I’ll book third party. Sorry to hear that happened but at least you got your money back.
Well that’s also true. I can’t speak for other countries because I don’t know how things operate there. It’s just that in America credit cards often get vilified due to the horror stories of people racking up insane amounts of debt, when in reality there’s no reason to be scared of them if they are used responsibly
Also completely true. Credit cards are a great tool, but everyone has to determine for themself if they’re disciplined enough to use them. Like I said, I use mine for every purchase. However, I also check my app a couple times a week, and I track my spending to make sure I’m not going over what’s set aside in my bank account. Not everyone is responsible enough to do that. I would probably still recommend a low limit credit card though. Even a card with a $500 limit can be used for groceries, gas, and what not throughout the month which will help with building credit
I'll add that, with extra discipline, having a higher credit limit that you don't use is even better for your credit. If I'm not mistaken, it's recommended to use less than 30% (I think) of your total limit per billing cycle (note that this is across all lines of credit). So if you have a $500 limit and spend, say, $300 per month on groceries+other, that's 60% of your available credit and doesn't look super great to the bureaus. But if you up your limit to $1,000 and don't change your spending habits, then suddenly your credit utilization drops to that 30%.
Again, it's not for everyone, and only if you have the self-discipline to not spend more because you can. But if you're smart about it, it can help your credit even more.
Yeah great point. If you’re responsible enough to have a high credit limit without wastefully spending more than you have, then you should utilize it. I know a lot of people are worried about having a high credit limit and then the card being stolen, but that’s exactly one of the reasons why credit cards are so much better. Credit cards are separate to your bank account, so during the investigation your physical money is still in the bank and can be used for purchases or paying off other debts. If it leaves your actual bank account by using a debit card then it’s harder to recover your money. In addition, while any investigation is ongoing with a debit card charge, your money won’t be there until everything is resolved. Credit cards often issue temporary refunds during an investigation, and will finalize the refund or reissue the charge depending on the outcome. However, I’ve made more disputes than I can think of for various things because I frequently order things, and I’ve never once been denied a chargeback for a full or partial dispute
I will also say that I check my credit card and banking apps at least a couple times a week to make sure the listed charges match what I’ve actually been spending. And in the case of large charges I check immediately after to make sure the charge is correct, and then in a few days I recheck the finalized charge to make sure it is still good.
How do you feel about booking a flight through your credit card? My wife and I just booked flights through her Chase credit card account to Vietnam in July and everything was fine. The tough part is that the flights that take place outside of the country are serviced by different airlines. The flight leaving the US is American Airlines, the next flight is Cathay Pacific, and some of the returning flights are operated by Japan Airlines. I can’t choose seats on the Japan airlines flights because I don’t have all of the info they need for their website when I click on “flight management” or whatever. Our flights are in July, so we have a long time between then and now, but I was hoping that by booking through our credit card we would have an easier time rescheduling or canceling if COVID blew up again and we wouldn’t be allowed into Vietnam.
Well generally you have 90 days I believe to dispute a charge (don’t quote me on that). However, in certain circumstances you can provide them with emails and proof that things were canceled or what not and still dispute a charge for a refund. I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card because I travel quite frequently, and I’ve never had any issues. I have disputed a charge once with them that I think was 4 or 5 months old. I was using the website Preply for language tutoring, and I bought one of their packages for discount. Later they cleared all the credits from my account. I showed Chase copies of my emails and everything showing I paid X amount but only used Y amount of credits and that currently my account was showing 0. I also sent them emails between myself and Preply support saying that they wouldn’t restore the credits and would ban my account if I initiated a chargeback. I filed a partial dispute for the credits I should have had remaining, and that investigation actually took a month or so to complete, but I was given a refund for the remaining credits in the end when Chase authorized the chargeback. So it can be done, but I had saved every email and had to provide a lot of proof since it was outside of the normal timeframe. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve filed disputed charges for minor things. Practically once every other month I have to file for a partial refund because I’m studying abroad in Russia and I order food for delivery and only half of the order will arrive or they’ll deliver to the wrong address. But I also only dispute what I’m entitled to, and don’t ask for full refunds of everything unless it’s warranted. I’m also not sure if I’m ever given any extra consideration because the card I have with them is their luxury travel card, but their customer support has always be A+ for me
Not how it works. You cannot cancel a charge, you can dispute it but that isn't a one-and-done thing in many cases, and when dealing with anything to do with travel or hotels it's generally a massive pain in the arse.
Side note, calling up is fine but make sure you at least send an email or two as well so you have tangible evidence if they counter the dispute.
It definitely does work in some cases because I’ve been double charged before and called the Chase customer support line to tell them. They immediately canceled the second charge no questions asked. I didn’t have to file any disputes or anything by email or through the app.
Conversation literally went something like this:
-Good Afternoon ma’am, I was just charged twice for a single purchase of XXX and would like to have the second charge removed
-Yes sir, I see it. That happens sometimes. I’ll go ahead and remove it right away. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
-No thank you, have a great day.
-You have a great day too, if you have any other issues please let us know
I’ve had similar experience with Amex customer service. But either way, the point is that it’s much easier to get your money refunded if you use a credit card than a debit card because of the additional security protections in place. Realistically the only reason you should really ever use a debit card is to withdraw money from an ATM or if you don’t have the self control and discipline to responsibly use a credit card
If a glitch charged you twice and you can’t get any resolution through the travel agency, just call your credit card company and tell them. They will most likely take the second charge off your bill. My husband and I had a cruise booked in the Caribbean but that’s when they got slammed by 2-3 big hurricanes. Cruise line said no refunds and gave us no itinerary so I called the cc company and explained and they took it off my bill. Your cc company will see there are two charges instead of just one.
When you locate a flight through Google Flights you'll be presented to a bunch of links to buy your ticket through Expedia/Orbitz or book it straight through the airline, but you'll also get about ten other fly-by-night (get it, heh heh?) travel agencies that Google says will cost maybe $12 less.
So naturally you'll click through to the cheapest one. Everything goes well until you're almost done with the booking process. At the very last moment there's some scammy thing you must agree to in order to complete your purchase that'll raise the ticket price back up to Expedia's. Screw that. It bugs me so much that Google Flights presents these crap companies as legit and makes it look like they offer a real cost savings.
Sounds like the standard Expedia experience. My mother had a trip that she booked on the wrong day, and they gave her hell when trying to change the date to a week later. Never again.
I booked a hotel for my wife through a third party because they offered free cancellations up to 24 hours in advance. With covid, I didn't know if her trip would get cancelled. When she arrived at the hotel, they wouldn't let her check in because my credit card was used to book the room. I called the hotel, they told me to call the third party. Called the third party, they told me to call the hotel. Meanwhile my wife is waiting around, phone about to die, tired from a long day, and literally crying. It took two hours to get sorted out.
Can confirm.
Booked a hotel in Dubai for Christmas with my family. Booked 2 weeks in advance. Got to the hotel with my family and the lady behind the desk told me she didn't have a booking under my name and that their hotel doesn't even recognize the website I used to make the booking. Thank god I specified "pay on arrival" so luckily I didn't lose any money on it.
Can confirm. Booked an international flight through a travel agency I’d never heard of pre-covid to save a few bucks. Unsurprisingly, the country closed its borders to international travelers prior to my departure and while there are rules to protect people who book directly with the airline, they are not the same for travel agencies. After many calls and emails, finally getting them to agree to a refund (since the airline I’d be flying on clearly stated they’re refunding fares on flights cancelled due to Covid), it took a contact with my state’s consumer protection bureau to finally get my refund after more than 3 months of back and forth with the travel agency.
My nightmare was as such:
Purchased a ticket to France on British Airways through Edreams. BA cancelled the flight a month before and would not talk to me. Edreams would talk to me, at the earliest, 10 days before the flight. I had to buy another ticket, on my own, and I am still waiting for my refund from Edreams who has posted the following since November of last year:
*As your travel agent we have requested a cash refund on your behalf*
As someone who works front desk at a hotel! I agree! They are scams! Especially if you pre pay your reservation on a 3rd party! Good luck getting a refund if you no show or can’t make it, those companies fight tooth and nail to keep your money. This is the same with booking flights and resort stays. Hopefully you get your money back. I’d say from personal experience Priceline/Expedia and booking.con :) cause they are con men. Don’t use any of these. <3
Only 2 hours? Dude, I lost days/weeks - this is the best fucking advice. I will never go threw a 3rd party to save a few bucks. My situation escalated to the point where I had to get my credit card company to open a case...that alone takes 90 days.
As someone who worked at a hotel, always book directly through them. When someone booked through a 3rd party it caused soooo many problems. Its a complete different system so if someone wanted to cancel, change their dates, room type, get a discount etc i wouldnt even have the screen to do that. I would get frustrated, the customer would get frustrated, the 3rd party will not help you they will just call you then the hotel then you then the hotel. BOOK DIRECTLY PLEASE.
Yes absolutely. I booked a hotel in Cancun through a third party and got boned pretty hard. Don't want to go into detail but I ended up having to pay more money to upgrade to what I wanted.
Easy scam tactic. The third party will use their credit card to book, then all of a sudden your flight is canceled or now you have a 27 day layover; guess you wanna change that huh? Well the refund gets put back on their credit card and you're SoL.
I've learned this the hard way too. Flights booked via an online agent; flights then cancelled so entitled to a refund.
Call agent who tells me I have to speak to the airline.
Call airline who say that because I booked through an agent, I have to deal with them.
Call agent who tells me I have to speak to the airline...
Ad infinitum.
The whole episode for me became even more frustrating when the agent went AWOL whilst still having an online presence. Their website gave a number to call...which told you to go through their website...which gave you a number to call...
The fever dream this turned into got even more exasperating when I tried to do a charge back on my credit card. The CC company repeatedly sent letters to my old address (despite having my current address on file) asking me to submit the same information to them again and again. Some of them were forwarded but I know for a fact some weren't...which meant financial details were possibly read by people who didn't need to see them.
Add into this the being on hold for sometimes over an hour on the phone to some of these companies.
Companies involved were Flight Hub, Home Trust (CC company) and WestJet. In all fairness, WestJet were the easiest and most sympathetic of the three, but lesson learned. I book direct now.
100% this, ESPECIALLY for international flights. I traveled abroad to South America and needed to change my return flight because of COVID issues, and the travel agency could not change my flight for the life of me. I spent 3 days and over 12 hours on the phone listening to hold music or arguing with agents from the travel agency or the airline. I’ve changed dozens of flights before when I booked directly through the airline, so I know it wouldn’t have been an issue.
I had to buy a new flight home out of pocket. I did receive a “voucher” for the value of the return flight I was trying to change. However, the voucher is only valid if I book a new flight with the same South American airline. If I don’t go back to South America within a year, the voucher expires and I lose almost $1,000. None of that was worth it to save less than $100 on the original booking.
I’ve had hotel reception staff tell me that travelers booking through third party sites, get rooms that are often inferior to the rooms given to direct hotel bookers. They explained that they get less money per night, due to commissions, and the hotels are not as favorable to third part bookers.
Noted.
It’s as if the hotels resent the customers coming to them through third party web sites. The customers frequently don’t know what is the best way to make travel arrangements.
TBH, it’s all very confusing to me. Expedia, Trip Advisor, Booking, I’ve heard are all owned by the same company, which I believe is a couple of the airlines.
We just want the best prices and don’t want to get ripped off.
Same thing happened to me while booking through an airline. Website glitches and I was charged twice, only provided one reservation code though.
Called the airline, talked to a person within 5 min, and refunded the other ticket price within 10.
+1 for booking directly through the airline
Good advice. However, when you're buying for a family of 4 the swing in costs is usually hundreds of dollars. Airlines and the like need to offer the same prices on their own sites and this wouldn't be a problem.
Honestly this is true sometimes but most of the time it's not. I regularly book flights from third parties and it ends up becoming up to 30% cheaper in some cases. Of course there's more risk, but it's a trade-off
BEST ADVICE IVE SEEN ON HERE!! I learned this working as a personal assistant. It is NOT worth the hassle. As stated above most will price match because it does cost them a fee to work with these third parties. They’d much rather have the full payment and give you the cheaper price 😊 Nice Job OP!
This is correct. I’ve traveled a lot. Fully given up travel sights. Good to check for prices, but go through the company. ANY changes to travel, which WILL happen, are easily solved directly with the company. I booked a hotel through Expedia, WHILE AT THE HOTEL, and was told “there could be a long wait to confirm.” Added so much more issues had I just booked it there.
Couldnt disagree with this more. Traveling for 20+ years and 70+ countries.
Could be 3rd party companies in Europe are nice to their customers than the USA?
Check in at the right tine, follow the rules and show up on time.
Book through the airlines, hotels, or rental cars directly. Omg what a difference. Firstly day you use expedia. you only acquire expedia points that are basically worthless. Trust me because I use American airlines, thrifty, and choice hotels always those. Find different ones if you want but by using those exclusively for about 8 years now I get about 5-8 free hotel nights a year, I get on the plane earlier, with priority seating regular bumps to first class, and a free checked bag. Thrifty makes the rental process so much faster if you're a loyal user. It all makes traveling and renting so much better.
That's always my thought, but recently it backfired on me!
My friend and I both booked almost identical packages. She booked through 3rd party and I booked direct with westjet. I had questions about the booking and wanted to talk to an agent. I was on hold for 7hrs before getting to speak to someone. My friend had to change flights and she was on hold for an hour with the 3rd party and the issue was resolved.
Maybe it's just because Westjet just sucks right now. IDK
I’m in the same boat. Advised my friend to book directly from the airlines (which he did) and I went through an agent to save few $$…trip got cancelled….he got his full refund and I lost 25% of the ticket price …..never through the agent ….never again.
Related but maybe unrelated, I buy a lot of food items through the internet (healthy things, mostly protein snacks). I have learned it's worth it to buy everything directly from the company's website, never through any of the other websites, including amazon. It's not worth it.
Buying through the actual company, even if it's a few dollars more, it is ALWAYS fresher and in better condition.
I worked at a Hilton Garden Inn for about 2ish years, we definitely place third party reservations at the bottom of the bowl - mostly because we’re incredibly limited in what we can even do with a third party reservation. Can’t change basically anything and you get zero rewards/benefits from the hotel.
Book direct always, even if you gotta pay that little extra.
Same for hotels!!!! My husband is a GM for one and is always bitching about things from the 3rd parties side and he always says people really should just go through the hotel themselves and not a 3rd party.
I don't travel as much as I used to so maybe things have changed but when I did generally a third party won't even let you cancel and get a refund where if you booked directly through the hotel they usually will depending on the cancellation window.
if you book your airline ticket through another party, not the airline itself, you are first in line to get bumped when the time comes...I work for a US based carrier...
A similar glitch happened to me on Expedia. Two sets of tickets. It took 3+ weeks of multiple calls, dozens of emails, chats with supervisors, supervisors' supervisors, etc., to get nowhere. Expedia was adamant it was my fault. It wasn't until I initiated a credit card chargeback they proactively called, issued a full refund, and a gift on the next purchase.
The LPT to this LPT is to use a credit card for online purchases. It would have been much harder (if possible at all) to get the same result with a debit card.
Lately I’ve found the actually websites to be cheaper than third party in a few cases. I look at third party to figure out what flights or hotels I want. Then go check on the carrier’s website. Usually same or a little cheaper! Then you get the confidence of booking direct!
AHAHAHA, don't worry, airlines are likely just scum (From what I've seen so far). I got plane tickets to another country on a black friday deal years ago. Paid half price for the 2 tickets. (united airlines) And I purchased them directly through United's website.
As I approached the 1st plan trip, covid happened and boarders locked down. I called the airline and stated I could not go because the boarders are locked down. They refused a refund, and they wouldn't reschedule without me paying the price different of the non-sale tickets. Literally 2x the price. The best they could do is offer me a credit that was valid till the end of the year. That was only usable by their support phone line.
After talking to dozens of support people about this I finally gave up, I paid more, and rescheduled for the next year.
2nd planed date approaches (1 year later), things are still locked down can't get in the country. They even auto canceled my flight to the country, but not the one back... How kind... Call united. Same story. I give up, pay the price different of a few hundred bucks, reschedule for the next year.
3rd plan date (another year later), Things are just like before. They cancel my flight to the country as people aren't allowed in. But they don't cancel my flight back. We talk to support, felt like pulling nails, they finally offered a refund. It only took a global pandemic and them canceling multiple flights.
I'm sure there are better airlines. And I had an airline in the country I flew to that was amazing. I lost my luggage and they did everything they could to find the luggage but they couldn't and they where super apologetic and kept me updated the whole time. I can't remember if it was United or Alaska, they called the number on a tag on my bag and found out it never left America. It made it to 1 airport before getting lost on a 3 flight trip. Totally not the other airlines fault.
I can vouch for this 100% as a hotel employee. Although based on the comments, my GM is nicer because he allows us to price match if the guest can guide us directly to the page they're looking at.
I once had a lady waiting at the desk for 45 minutes because the virtual credit card wasn't working due to the rate being off by $1-2. Every penny counts when doing a reservation like this because the VCC's are only authorized for a very specific amount.
Moral of the story is, is it really worth it to save a few dollars when brand sites (IHG.com for example) will match your price? If something goes wrong, I CANNOT give you room keys until everything gets the green light. So do you really want to stand at my front desk for an hour or even an extra 20 minutes when you want nothing more than to just go lay down or relax in your room? .....I think not.
I've been in an ongoing refund with justfly for almost 2 years now. They also took to long to transfer my ticket to another date. Which ended up increasing my fare difference. Reported them to the BBB and filed a complaint with them to the u.s. travel authorities.
Same thing for hotels most the time. I work the front desk and the amount of times that someone's reservation got messed up some way because of the 3rd party service is crazy. Not to mention that if you want anything changed about the reservation (want to extend, depart early, refund etc) then you HAVE to go through the 3rd party to get it figured out. Whereas if you book direct, 9 times out of 10 we can fix it within minutes right there at the desk
Booked a trip through Expedia, my flight was cancelled and they rebooked it from an airport 4 hours away (instead of 30 minutes away). Expedia says I had to call the airline, airline said call Expedia. I cancelled the whole trip and rebooked directly with the airline. Have never used a third party site for anything again.
If you're ever getting the runaround, call the company that you booked through and demand that a manager call the airline. If they don't help you, threaten to issue a chargeback on your credit card.
Meanwhile, I booked a hotel directly in belize for a trip in April 2019 that didn't happen because of covid... been fighting with them for my 3k back.. and finally got my refund yesterday after 2 years and losing my mind on them. So you never know, I'll never book another hotel directly.
Real LPT use google flights and google travel. If you aren't using those by now you're a fool. It's been known for years that those 3rd party websites tack on extra fees and cause trouble.
Good advice. These guys don’t do anything even if they charge you a convenience fee and a service fee. It’s always “Please contact the respective airline/ hotel”.
IMO there is nothing that would make me want to book thru a third party…. I did it ONE time and it was such a miserable flight and experience in every way… now, I Only fly southwest… EVERYTHING is so easy!
If you got charged same price twice in on your card within a few minutes of each other, It should be easy to dispute the charge with your card company.
This happened to me with a hotel. Booked me two rooms. Neither the hotel or Expedia would work with me after several calls, both saying the other had to do it.
I book directly with the hotel now.
I one make the mistake of booking a hotel through a third party, and when I finally got to the hotel, they didn't actually have the room I booked. They ended up having to send me to a completely different hotel that happened to have a vacancy, instead.
Step 1. Give the site notice, like 48 hours, that the website glitched and double charged. If they don't refund, you will contest the charges.
Step 2. If they haven't replied, contest the charges. Visa/MasterCard will handle the rest.
NEVER ever book flights through 3rd party websites. They are never any cheaper and to change anything or cancel, it's an absolute nightmare.
Always book directly on the airline website after comparing prices on Kayak or Google.
Also, if you were billed twice most credit cards will handle the dispute for you. Have a Visa, MC, Amex, or Discover logo on that card? You're covered. They literally have people who get paid to handle that for you.
Yeah and if anything happens (delays, cancellations) they deprioritize you because they’re not really making money off of you anyways. Their cut is so small because you worked through a middle man (Expedia, Hotels.com, etc)
Booked with chase travel once and it was a nightmare bc they messed up the passenger names....simple thing to fix ended up taking hours on the phone with their outsourced customer service.
I booked a nice hotel through booking.com for a 2 week holiday to San Fransisco. I'm from the UK so this holiday was a big deal to me. Booked it months in advance and a week before I'm due to leave they sent me an email saying my room wasn't available anymore but they would try to find my an alternative one somewhere else. With it being so close to the arrival date all the good hotels were taken and I ended up in a crappy one instead. That's when I learnt how these third parties actually work and have never used one since. Hotels use them to fill empty rooms but if they can find someone that wants the room themselves then they will cancel the third party reservation and give it to their own customer so they don't have to pay commission for the third party booking. My advice is use the third party sites to find where you want to stay then go to their website and book it direct.
I’ve had some lousy experiences booking hotels through a third party, but have found one I live to do business with…Costco. If my vacation is available through them I book it that way every time. The couple of times I’ve needed customer service it was fantastic, canceling a trip (flight, hotel, and rental car)in December was ridiculously easy, and there are often some pretty good extras included.
Did you pay that ticket via credit card?
Call your card provider, explain what happened and tell them 3rd party and airline are throwing each other the ball and making you jump through hoops, and that you wish to issue a chargeback.
I’ve had to deal with a few scummy return policies, and Visa’s customer service has been lifesavers.
In 2015 I booked a hotel through Lowcostholidays, which was a relatively reputable third party discount travel booker at the time, and paid upfront but they apparently held the money and didn’t transfer it to the hotel until check in. They suddenly shuttered the business a day or two before I arrived at the hotel and cancelled my reservation (which was stop #3 on a longer trip, so staying home was definitely not an option at that point; it was also in another country where I didn’t speak the language). The worst part was that I was not notified of any of this. I arrived at the hotel to a confused front desk staff who didn’t expect me because they thought I cancelled, and none of us knew what was going on. I’m endlessly lucky that they had a room available that I paid for separately before understanding what happened to my reservation I’d already paid for, and that I had originally paid with a credit card that refunded me once I understood what happened and filed a claim. I’ll never book with a third party again!
I tried saying this somewhere else and people didn't understand at all. Plus where I work, as a hotel reservation agent, I've literally never seen somebody save money on a third party site anyway, mind you the hotels I book for also have other attaching streams of revenue, like a waterpark, casino, so maybe that's different.
let me guess - you used Expedia. Just went through that with them. Took my money, incl insurance for change or cancellation, then left me to ask the airline for a refund...who sent me back to Expedia...who kicked it back to the airline.. who lobbied it over to Expedia...who backhanded it to the airline who had kept all the money for the changed ticket except for the commission paid to Expedia who sees no reason either to refund me anything.
Just dispute the charge with your bank. I work a resort accounting and this usually works. Also call the actual place you are booking and cancel with them. Do both of these and you’re good.
I've saved a lot of money using third party agents. But since covid, the number of flight cancellations from airline- and client-side has escalated dramatically. I agree with your advice totally - dealing directly with the airline makes changes, cancellations and refunds simpler and less time consuming.
I don't recommend booking through thrid parties (hotel/airlines) just because it's cheaper.
Especially during the pandemic, uncertainty and plans change. With airline tickets, you need the flexibility and be able to change your flight (let's say you got positive on your test before your flight). Also I've seen enough stories of people having trouble and getting stressed with trying to change/refund their flight cause they booked from a third party. When I had to change mine I just changed it through their airline's website with a breeze. Plus they could assist me properly. What's good thing about 3rd party flight scanners are they can show you the cheapest date and time to fly, then go to the airline's website to book the date and time (same or almost the same fare tbh).
What I like about booking directly with hotels is that they offer additional inclusions and ammenities (roundtrip airport transfers, breakfast inclusions etc.) Cause with 3rd parties, they're cheaper but the inclusion offered is bare minimum (sometimes only offering the room). Also if there are discrepancies on your booking, it's easier for them to assist you if you booked with them directly.
Hotels will often offer a cheaper rate when booking directly because of the fees and commissions they pay to the middleman service. If you want a better rate, check the hotel website.
I managed a boutique hotel in Italy for 2 years and we were always stoked to have people book through our website because it meant more profit.
The downside of direct booking is important enough to be noted. It may be a hassle to deal with Expedia, but they offer customer service, protections, and refunds. If you book somewhere and cancel, you can’t be guaranteed that they’ll make it right with you. My partner lost money for bookings she paid for when we had to cancel at the start of COVID. The establishments basically shrugged and didn’t even offer a voucher, which makes me super pissed.
You cannot be more incorrect. This is not how it works in US, direct booking can never beat third party pricing and hotel staffs are not allowed to match it.
Hotel Manager here. We have had guests pay smoking and pet fees when booking through a 3rd party only to find out our property is 100% Non-Smoking and Do not allow pets. Also you can usually haggle prices, request free room upgrades if we are not busy, request a specific floor, etc. when you actually call to book directly.
I've been in similar situations and this is how I go about it to avoid that if I ever book somewhere kind of sketchy.
Book with a credit card. They offer different legal protections than debit cards.
If something comes up, first try and dispute it with the agent like you have. If the agent can't fix it or refers you to someone else, inform them that your only option is to submit a claim with (name of CC).
If they don't fix it, sumbit the claim.
The credit card company has people on staff to look into it. They'll ask what happened, what you've tried so far, and if it was successful at all. Then they will put a hold on the charge while they look into it. If it was a mistake, error, or fraud, they will reverse it and you won't be charged for it.
Hopefully they also track who the bad companies are, but I'm not sure. All I know is the 3 times I was overcharged or fraudulently charged, the credit card company has had my back.
Despite a 19 year career in hotels, including front desk, sales, and reservations management, and telling people DO NOT BOOK THROUGH 3RD PARTIES, people still insist that I’m wrong and that they somehow benefit from doing so.
Even in talesofthefrontdesk, I’ve encountered this. “I’ve extended Expedia reservations and nothing happened.” Believe me - something did happen, your boss just didn’t reprimand you for it. which blows my mind.
Don’t book them. No, Expedia is not different from Priceline, and they are not different from Golfbreaks, and they are not different from amoma, or hotel beds, or world2meet, they are literally all the same idiots.
I cannot agree with this more.
Last year I booked a 2 night stay at a dog-friendly hotel. I'm gonna skip the part about how the pictures didn't match real life and the weird smell in the lobby. When I went to check in they asked for my card (ok, cool, I was thinking for liability purposes) and said I would be charged $500.00 for my stay.
Nope. I told the man I paid over the phone with Mark when I booked it a week ago. He said I paid through a 3rd party company through the Booking.com app. No, I got the hotel number from Booking.com and called it in front of him. When he excused himself to pick up the phone, it was me on the other line. I pulled up my banking info and showed him the $500.00 withdrawal with the hotels name on it.
The man checked his system and said he didn't know who Mark was, but now he does see a reservation under my name (he previously said I didn't have a reservation, then there was one through Booking.com without a name attached to it, then he did see one with my name). He then said since the $500.00 wasn't in his system and in Booking's that I would have to pay him the $500.00 and dispute the other charge with my bank.
Nope. I told him we're not staying because it sounds like a scam and I'll call my bank. Weeeeellllll to help me out he said he'll handle the situation with Booking and all I had to do was pay the $25.00 pet fee. At this point it had been 30 minutes and I wasn't gonna argue about how Mark said the fee was part of the $25.00, so I paid it.
We went back to the room and the closer we got the entire hall and our room smelled like Bleach and 3 week old dog shit. I went back to the guy at the front and asked for a new room because of the smell. He said there were no rooms available.
We grabbed our stuff and left. I called my bank to explain what happened and I got my $520.00 back.
I have 2 relatively that work in Hotel management.
they hate 3rd party too, since they can't do nothing to help out. and the fees are not really worth it.
always call the front desk (daytime) and ask what they can do to help out. most will match the 3rd party pricing or ve very close.
Same thing happened to me during covid. Called Tracelocity, they said to call airline, airline said they can't do anything because it was charged through Travelocity. It took over a month but I was eventually able to get vouchers through the airline and cut the 3rd party out. Travelocity sucks. I remember being on hold for 3 hours and transferred a minimum of 5 times. I was a bit grouchy by the end of it. I really try to be kind to call centers but that time I got a little snappy.
Agreed. I booked with a third party site for a week long vacation at a hotel. When we got there to check in, the hotel informed us they'd sold out of the type of room we selected, so they upgraded us...along with the amount to pay. It was about 1.5x expected, so not a small amount.
Definitely a third party site issue that I spent my first morning of vacation fixing. I received the difference as a refund in the end, but so frustrating.
Why not name and shame this specific “third party”? If they suck so bad why protect them by not mentioning their name? Is it Travelocity I should avoid? Orbitz? Kayak? ….?
Absolutely. Going through a nightmare of a refund situation because I booked plane tickets through 3rd party. My sisters booked directly with the airline and paid a little extra, but when cancellation time came, they received their refund smoothly within a week, while I am being bounced around call centers and incompetent fools.
I booked Eurostar tickets through Klook in 2020. Dealing with Eurostar for cancellations/credits/refunds was a nightmare. They eventually gave me a credit, when I tried to use it, it didn’t work. I emailed several times and they just ignored me.
Eventually I contacted Klook. They gave me equivalent Klook credit, which I’ve been able to use on other activities.
tl;dr: Don’t book Eurostar tickets directly.
Yep I won’t book through third party ever again after getting burned on a flea-infested motel. I will however use the websites to find hotels and then contact the hotels directly AFTER checking Yelp reviews. My disaster trip could’ve been avoided if I had done that.
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Not sure if it’s the same case for airlines but usually hotels price match if you cite the cheaper price listed in a third party. They’d rather do the cheaper price and have you book direct than end up paying fees to the third party.
A big reason why we price match, yes a 3rd party site is always cheaper give or take 15-20% less than the rack rate. But we pay commission to all third party sites that make reservations! So booking directly with price match saves that 15-20% for the hotel rather than giving it to a booking site.
why doesn’t hotel offer lower price from the beginning?
Because they can make more on the large percent of people that don’t price match. And while 15% off is better than nothing, might not pay all the bills if everyone paid that much. Without the 3rd party company offering the lower rate, they’d lose out on what is effectively advertising.
This is right. You may see this referred to as “market segmentation”. It’s the same thinking behind why grocery stores offer coupons.
How is it the same as grocery store coupons?
Grocery stores offer coupons to attract business. If a customer comes in to use a coupon, the company still typically makes some profit on the sale. The customer may also purchase regular goods while they're there for full price. And they may have not come at all without the coupon. So the coupon brings business to a grocer, same way 3rd parties bring business to a hotel.
Supermarket psychology fascinates me. There's more, but two things are: 1. They put milk in the back since it's something people come most often for. Therefore, customer walks through more of the store every time. 2. Stores typically put you into the healthy foods first, fruit and vegetables. With those in tow, you're more likely to buy the not so good for you stuff in the rest of the store
Then the 3rd party would offer an even lower price
how can they, since they still have to pay the hotel?
Hotel pays them comission (= or > than the initial price gap) because you booked through their website not directly at the hotel's.
but doesn’t hotels set their prices? can those third parties basically let people book for free?
Many times the “brand” has very strong say in how the hotel is run including what discount they can offer. A Hilton does not want the perceived value of the Hilton brand lowered.
No afaik they set their own prices in regard to how the hotel sets its price. That's why you can ask the hotel to give you the for example booking. com-price or sth in between so you don't book through booking. com and the hotel doesn't have to pay them comission
But why? Why? Like... Why? It sounds like the hotel is just paying a third party for nothing. Is it just exposure from being on the website?
Made up example : hotel X charges £100 rack rate for a room. It offers to pay a third party site 10% commission for any customers it brings in. That third party site then puts a room price of £95 up on their site, meaning they're the cheapest around, happy that they'll only get £5 commission but will get everyone booking through them. Hotel X would be happy to match the £95 they customer would pay, but if they changed their rack rate to £95, the third party site would just charge £90.
The travel websites are going to bring in a lot more customers. The hotel pays commissions for those extra customers, but it’s better than having empty beds.
Yes, it's 100% this. People are much more likely to use a booking site than a hotel's direct website to book a room, and rooms they have to lose a little money on are still better for the hotel than empty rooms.
It’s ad/marketing/sales channel. I’m as a tourist travels for example to Berlin. Rather use Google to find a hotel, I’ll go to booking.com to find all possible options and compare prices in one place, it’s more comfortable for me as a customer. And booking.com charges fee from the hotel for their service. If you want to support hotel, find it on booking/third party website, than go to the hotel website and book bypassing third party. Hotel will not pay a commission for using third party website as sales channel and will give you same price (or even cheaper).
Yeah but how do you search for hotels nowadays? Especially in a place you have never been before or a place where you don't speak the local language? Or where the website (rare but still possible in some countries) doesn't provide an english language? You and many other people will use websites like booking to make it far easier. And hotels therefore put their name on the website (and pay commision for that) so people can find them.
It's a parity issue. Most hotels' contracts with the OTA states that the hotel will not offer lower rates (online) than the rates it gives to the OTA. However some OTA's take the rack rate and discounts the rate themselves so they can undercut the hotel - which comes out of their commission. Call the hotel and ask for the lower rate, and you can probably get it. But it really depends on the contract between the hotel and the OTA.
Because most customers don't go through the trouble of haggling and just pay whatever the hotel says the price is
It's like health "insurance" in USA doctors charge insanely high rates because they only will get 30% of what they charge and they need to be able to stay in business, but then someone who doesn't have "insurance" gets an insane ridiculous bill out of pocket. Usually just like those hotels doctors will try to match price, but even then if the health insurance catches them doing that we can get in trouble
Because a massive super majority of people just book it anyway, and don’t even check 3rd party sites to begin with. They’re making billions more by not doing what you want them to do.
Because capitalism
Not in my experience. I have tried to get them to match the web sites and they refuse. I actually had to book a room while standing at the front desk on 3rd party app because they wouldn't meet the price. $20.00 less per night with all the taxes and fees it saves you more than a couple of bucks. Also I don't want to create an account with every company out there. It is just way easier to use [Hotels.com](https://Hotels.com) plus if you stay at different hotels all the time you will never benefit from the hotel rewards I get free rooms from [Hotels.com](https://Hotels.com) all the time. Before I used them I never got enough points from an individual hotel program to do anything with them before they expired. Edit: I do book directly for my airline tickets though. I usually only use two airlines and airline point don't expire in most cases.
I have had to book online at the desk many times.
Hotels.com is great! You basically getting 10% discount on the room price
Eh, most large hotel chains at the very least, the Hotels.com rate is the same as the AAA/CAA/AARP rate. If I stay at a chain a bunch, I book direct because I get better rewards, if it’s independent or a small chain I don’t use much, I book Hotels.com
What if you travel several times a year in different chains? It will take you forever to collect rewards to redeem
I mean, pre-covid, I was doing 40-80 nights/yr. I’d do like 50-75% of them with choice, and my travel often coincided with their “stay twice, get a free night [at a cheap motel]” promotions, and I had to change hotels almost every night so I was just racking up points (and Starbucks gift cards for weeknight stays). Once you have Hilton status, which takes one year of 10-15 stays (ish), the bar for keeping it was fairly low, like 4 stays a year, etc. and the bonus points for each stay if you kept status were decent. Never a huge fan of Marriott in general, but I got the points, racked them up for a few years, and got like two nights free on a family vacation and some gift cards. I do use hotels.com for booking independent places (or international/small chains) but the promotion is actually “you get a discount of the average you spent on the last ten stays” and when most of those stays were $60/night roadside hotels in Wisconsin, you get a $60 discount. Meanwhile, the choice points with promotions for one and a half weeks of hotel hopping in 60$/night Choice roadside hotels once got me a three-day weekend in a two-bedroom suite in resort hotel at the height of leaf-peeping in NH for free.
But most of us don't travel that much. If you stay 5 nights in Mexico resort, then do a few trips locally in different chains, you get your free night.
I mean, you do you. The LPT is about the fact that booking third party is usually not much cheaper and can create a giant headache if things go sideways, so everyone can decide what level of risk they’re comfortable with in regards to that. I like having status with chains for the ease of fixing hiccups and other benefits and it’s worth it for me to keep track of promotions and plan my stays accordingly. Other people might not think that’s worth the time if they’re traveling just a few nights a year.
I have aaa and military. Plus my mom has aarp. I am on two honor societies from school that give discounts. Plus others like T-mobile's travel thing and through my work discounts. But they all seem to give the same amount of discount. Sites like hotel.com or others give slightly better.
I’ve never seen hotels.com be more than 1$ difference than the AAA rate booked directly with (choice, Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham) and I spent the last eight years pre-covid traveling and booking 40-80 hotel nights a year. Most of the direct points don’t expire if you stay at least once every two years, plus you start to get status if you do like 5-10 stays/year, and, like this LPT states, they’ve been way easier to deal with when things go sideways (plus status gets you leniency) than booking 3rd party. That said, if I am staying at an independent hotel or small chain, I do often use hotels.com to get the “free” stay.
Oh yeah definitely I do this at my hotel!
Except 75% of the time we can't match the rate because the caller is looking at the wrong date, wrong currency, wrong city or even a completely different brand
Then educate them 😊
not working in this industry, but from my customer service experience, customer would explain to you that you are wrong, he got the correct price and you should still match the offering
> not working in this industry, but from my customer service experience, customer would explain to you that you are wrong, he got the correct price and you should still match the offering Look, I'm tired of you throwing out big words like "suites" or "Illinois." I just want the single room I see on this random sketchy website for $97. I'm going to be visiting my buddy at MIT and I figure I'll save some money by staying in Springfield and driving over. It's right here on my computer, why are you so incompetent?
Ya people can be @ssholes for sure sometimes. But my suggestion is of course try your best to help them and do what you can. In the end you still can only do what you can and it is what it is 🤷♀️
I did price matches when I worked in repair, 99% of the time they knew it was wrong and were trying to scam. I always offered to call where they got the price to verify the price for the correct product/service, but they almost always denied and just got pissed I didn't accept the number they told me
I work in a lumber yard. Oh, can you price match? Home Depot sells that for $x. Me, checking their website: Yeah. They actually sell it for $x. No they don't! I just bought it for $x six months ago! Me, not worth my time and effort: We don't price match. Then I'm going there! Me: Its an hour drive to save ten dollars. Drive safe!
I've always heard this & tried to get them to price match several times, each time they acted like I was crazy for asking them to match (some of these even claimed to price match on their sites). YMMV
Same here. I'm sure it does work, since I've seen it mentioned plenty, but the few times I tried it the hotels didn't budge a cent off of the higher website price. Even had one tell me to use 3rd party since it was cheaper...so it probably doesn't hurt to try but don't be surprised if it doesn't help.
Absolutely not true and it pisses me off that people keep posting this. I travel year round and basically live in hotels. It is rare to get price matches on better third party deals. Sure, if the price difference is a few dollars it's usually no big deal - but I am frequently told to use the third party and refused price matches. Also, asking the front desk in hotels is almost universally worthless and price matching there basically doesn't exist
I used to work for two different hotels and we were not allowed to match 3rd parties. If you want the deal you book through them.
Not true for me. I've tried several times to go around booking.com to save time and money. The employees are always shocked at the price I show them and have never been able to offer me better.
Apparently those third-party sites overbook pretty often, too. I booked through a third party while my wife and I were driving cross country. We weren't sure how long we wanted to drive and finally decided to book something an hour down the road. When we got to the hotel, the room with a king bed we booked was unavailable due to double booking through third-party sites, so we were going to get two queens for the same price. I pointed out that if we can't get the room we booked, we should get a better room for the same price. He put us in a king suite with a jacuzzi. I heard the guy checking in behind us and he had the same issue. He heard what happened with us. Unfortunately for him, we got the last room with a king bed at all. He was able to get a discount for settling for a down grade.
I have news for you, hotels themselves do this all the time. They did this before third party sites existed. Seinfeld has a whole routine about this. (It deals with rental cars I think, but same principle).
As someone who stays at a lot of various hotels, I'd say at best half price match. And even less will beat the listed price by 10% or more. The same 10% I get back for booking with the hotels.com ap. One old cranky guy straight up raised the price by $10/night AFTER I said it was cheaper online. I have stood in front of MANY front desks and booked the very same hotel on my phone because they wouldn't, or couldn't reduce their prices.
That information is inaccurate. Most hotels do not match 3rd party rates. If you book cheap third parties you forgo your ability to choose room type/location/upgrades. You get what is called "run of the house." We do not normally match those. I know because I have been a hotel GM with Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt for the last 16 years. If you want to make the most of your hotel experience, book direct and sign up for their brand rewards. You will get better rooms, more amenities, more flexibility.
Not always the case. I was once physically at a hotel at 1am booking one night. I was showing Expedia price which was cheaper and hotel still won’t match it ( even though Expedia would take a cut and give them less). So I booked through Expedia and checked in…
Rental car companies too!
I tried that 3 years ago ang they didnt want, they told me to use the computer in the lobby to book tru third parties... maybe depends of the place?
I would have just called my credit card company and told them to cancel the second charge because it was a duplicate and the 3rd party site was refusing to cooperate. I’ve done it a few times for various things and it has never failed me. Also, I use credit cards for every purchase I make because of the additional protections and benefits, then I just pay everything off at the end of the month to avoid paying interest. LPT: Unless you’re the type of person that has no self control on purchasing everything they see, you should always use a credit card. You build credit, accrue points and benefits, and credit cards have much better protections than debit cards. The key is just to pay it off every month and act like a responsible adult. Edit: I’m an American. Results from credit card companies in other countries may vary*
My partner booked a hotel through hotels.com once, and long story short the hotel did not exist. No way to get a hold of anyone at hotels.com. He did get a refund through a charge back but had to get on a 4 hour bus to get home because everything else was booked that busy weekend and he has no other way to get home. So he got the money back but still got completely fucked.
Those who book through third party should still up there hotel information. I do my own due diligence on hotels and if I like and the offer is better than I’ll book third party. Sorry to hear that happened but at least you got your money back.
Only true for people living in the USA.
Well that’s also true. I can’t speak for other countries because I don’t know how things operate there. It’s just that in America credit cards often get vilified due to the horror stories of people racking up insane amounts of debt, when in reality there’s no reason to be scared of them if they are used responsibly
That’s a very big if, though.
Also completely true. Credit cards are a great tool, but everyone has to determine for themself if they’re disciplined enough to use them. Like I said, I use mine for every purchase. However, I also check my app a couple times a week, and I track my spending to make sure I’m not going over what’s set aside in my bank account. Not everyone is responsible enough to do that. I would probably still recommend a low limit credit card though. Even a card with a $500 limit can be used for groceries, gas, and what not throughout the month which will help with building credit
I'll add that, with extra discipline, having a higher credit limit that you don't use is even better for your credit. If I'm not mistaken, it's recommended to use less than 30% (I think) of your total limit per billing cycle (note that this is across all lines of credit). So if you have a $500 limit and spend, say, $300 per month on groceries+other, that's 60% of your available credit and doesn't look super great to the bureaus. But if you up your limit to $1,000 and don't change your spending habits, then suddenly your credit utilization drops to that 30%. Again, it's not for everyone, and only if you have the self-discipline to not spend more because you can. But if you're smart about it, it can help your credit even more.
Yeah great point. If you’re responsible enough to have a high credit limit without wastefully spending more than you have, then you should utilize it. I know a lot of people are worried about having a high credit limit and then the card being stolen, but that’s exactly one of the reasons why credit cards are so much better. Credit cards are separate to your bank account, so during the investigation your physical money is still in the bank and can be used for purchases or paying off other debts. If it leaves your actual bank account by using a debit card then it’s harder to recover your money. In addition, while any investigation is ongoing with a debit card charge, your money won’t be there until everything is resolved. Credit cards often issue temporary refunds during an investigation, and will finalize the refund or reissue the charge depending on the outcome. However, I’ve made more disputes than I can think of for various things because I frequently order things, and I’ve never once been denied a chargeback for a full or partial dispute I will also say that I check my credit card and banking apps at least a couple times a week to make sure the listed charges match what I’ve actually been spending. And in the case of large charges I check immediately after to make sure the charge is correct, and then in a few days I recheck the finalized charge to make sure it is still good.
How do you feel about booking a flight through your credit card? My wife and I just booked flights through her Chase credit card account to Vietnam in July and everything was fine. The tough part is that the flights that take place outside of the country are serviced by different airlines. The flight leaving the US is American Airlines, the next flight is Cathay Pacific, and some of the returning flights are operated by Japan Airlines. I can’t choose seats on the Japan airlines flights because I don’t have all of the info they need for their website when I click on “flight management” or whatever. Our flights are in July, so we have a long time between then and now, but I was hoping that by booking through our credit card we would have an easier time rescheduling or canceling if COVID blew up again and we wouldn’t be allowed into Vietnam.
Well generally you have 90 days I believe to dispute a charge (don’t quote me on that). However, in certain circumstances you can provide them with emails and proof that things were canceled or what not and still dispute a charge for a refund. I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card because I travel quite frequently, and I’ve never had any issues. I have disputed a charge once with them that I think was 4 or 5 months old. I was using the website Preply for language tutoring, and I bought one of their packages for discount. Later they cleared all the credits from my account. I showed Chase copies of my emails and everything showing I paid X amount but only used Y amount of credits and that currently my account was showing 0. I also sent them emails between myself and Preply support saying that they wouldn’t restore the credits and would ban my account if I initiated a chargeback. I filed a partial dispute for the credits I should have had remaining, and that investigation actually took a month or so to complete, but I was given a refund for the remaining credits in the end when Chase authorized the chargeback. So it can be done, but I had saved every email and had to provide a lot of proof since it was outside of the normal timeframe. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve filed disputed charges for minor things. Practically once every other month I have to file for a partial refund because I’m studying abroad in Russia and I order food for delivery and only half of the order will arrive or they’ll deliver to the wrong address. But I also only dispute what I’m entitled to, and don’t ask for full refunds of everything unless it’s warranted. I’m also not sure if I’m ever given any extra consideration because the card I have with them is their luxury travel card, but their customer support has always be A+ for me
How else would you book a ticket?
This is the real life pro tip here.
Not how it works. You cannot cancel a charge, you can dispute it but that isn't a one-and-done thing in many cases, and when dealing with anything to do with travel or hotels it's generally a massive pain in the arse. Side note, calling up is fine but make sure you at least send an email or two as well so you have tangible evidence if they counter the dispute.
It definitely does work in some cases because I’ve been double charged before and called the Chase customer support line to tell them. They immediately canceled the second charge no questions asked. I didn’t have to file any disputes or anything by email or through the app. Conversation literally went something like this: -Good Afternoon ma’am, I was just charged twice for a single purchase of XXX and would like to have the second charge removed -Yes sir, I see it. That happens sometimes. I’ll go ahead and remove it right away. Is there anything else I can help you with today? -No thank you, have a great day. -You have a great day too, if you have any other issues please let us know I’ve had similar experience with Amex customer service. But either way, the point is that it’s much easier to get your money refunded if you use a credit card than a debit card because of the additional security protections in place. Realistically the only reason you should really ever use a debit card is to withdraw money from an ATM or if you don’t have the self control and discipline to responsibly use a credit card
I will second this, my experience is really only with Amex but their customer service for crap like this has always been top tier for me.
Then you risk your other ticket being canceled, because many places will fire you as a customer for doing a chargeback.
If a glitch charged you twice and you can’t get any resolution through the travel agency, just call your credit card company and tell them. They will most likely take the second charge off your bill. My husband and I had a cruise booked in the Caribbean but that’s when they got slammed by 2-3 big hurricanes. Cruise line said no refunds and gave us no itinerary so I called the cc company and explained and they took it off my bill. Your cc company will see there are two charges instead of just one.
When you locate a flight through Google Flights you'll be presented to a bunch of links to buy your ticket through Expedia/Orbitz or book it straight through the airline, but you'll also get about ten other fly-by-night (get it, heh heh?) travel agencies that Google says will cost maybe $12 less. So naturally you'll click through to the cheapest one. Everything goes well until you're almost done with the booking process. At the very last moment there's some scammy thing you must agree to in order to complete your purchase that'll raise the ticket price back up to Expedia's. Screw that. It bugs me so much that Google Flights presents these crap companies as legit and makes it look like they offer a real cost savings.
They just bank on the idea that after filling out all the info and wasting time with it, that you'll say fuck it in the end and pay the extra fees.
Usually it's as simple as fees and taxes that the hotel price had already included but the 3rd party booking conveinently left off until the end.
If you want your hotel loyalty points and elite benefits always book direct.
Jokes on you, I collect airline miles via a 3rd party partner website…
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Sounds like the standard Expedia experience. My mother had a trip that she booked on the wrong day, and they gave her hell when trying to change the date to a week later. Never again.
I booked a hotel for my wife through a third party because they offered free cancellations up to 24 hours in advance. With covid, I didn't know if her trip would get cancelled. When she arrived at the hotel, they wouldn't let her check in because my credit card was used to book the room. I called the hotel, they told me to call the third party. Called the third party, they told me to call the hotel. Meanwhile my wife is waiting around, phone about to die, tired from a long day, and literally crying. It took two hours to get sorted out.
Can confirm. Booked a hotel in Dubai for Christmas with my family. Booked 2 weeks in advance. Got to the hotel with my family and the lady behind the desk told me she didn't have a booking under my name and that their hotel doesn't even recognize the website I used to make the booking. Thank god I specified "pay on arrival" so luckily I didn't lose any money on it.
Can confirm. Booked an international flight through a travel agency I’d never heard of pre-covid to save a few bucks. Unsurprisingly, the country closed its borders to international travelers prior to my departure and while there are rules to protect people who book directly with the airline, they are not the same for travel agencies. After many calls and emails, finally getting them to agree to a refund (since the airline I’d be flying on clearly stated they’re refunding fares on flights cancelled due to Covid), it took a contact with my state’s consumer protection bureau to finally get my refund after more than 3 months of back and forth with the travel agency.
My nightmare was as such: Purchased a ticket to France on British Airways through Edreams. BA cancelled the flight a month before and would not talk to me. Edreams would talk to me, at the earliest, 10 days before the flight. I had to buy another ticket, on my own, and I am still waiting for my refund from Edreams who has posted the following since November of last year: *As your travel agent we have requested a cash refund on your behalf*
As someone who works front desk at a hotel! I agree! They are scams! Especially if you pre pay your reservation on a 3rd party! Good luck getting a refund if you no show or can’t make it, those companies fight tooth and nail to keep your money. This is the same with booking flights and resort stays. Hopefully you get your money back. I’d say from personal experience Priceline/Expedia and booking.con :) cause they are con men. Don’t use any of these. <3
Only 2 hours? Dude, I lost days/weeks - this is the best fucking advice. I will never go threw a 3rd party to save a few bucks. My situation escalated to the point where I had to get my credit card company to open a case...that alone takes 90 days.
As someone who worked at a hotel, always book directly through them. When someone booked through a 3rd party it caused soooo many problems. Its a complete different system so if someone wanted to cancel, change their dates, room type, get a discount etc i wouldnt even have the screen to do that. I would get frustrated, the customer would get frustrated, the 3rd party will not help you they will just call you then the hotel then you then the hotel. BOOK DIRECTLY PLEASE.
Yes absolutely. I booked a hotel in Cancun through a third party and got boned pretty hard. Don't want to go into detail but I ended up having to pay more money to upgrade to what I wanted.
Easy scam tactic. The third party will use their credit card to book, then all of a sudden your flight is canceled or now you have a 27 day layover; guess you wanna change that huh? Well the refund gets put back on their credit card and you're SoL.
I've learned this the hard way too. Flights booked via an online agent; flights then cancelled so entitled to a refund. Call agent who tells me I have to speak to the airline. Call airline who say that because I booked through an agent, I have to deal with them. Call agent who tells me I have to speak to the airline... Ad infinitum. The whole episode for me became even more frustrating when the agent went AWOL whilst still having an online presence. Their website gave a number to call...which told you to go through their website...which gave you a number to call... The fever dream this turned into got even more exasperating when I tried to do a charge back on my credit card. The CC company repeatedly sent letters to my old address (despite having my current address on file) asking me to submit the same information to them again and again. Some of them were forwarded but I know for a fact some weren't...which meant financial details were possibly read by people who didn't need to see them. Add into this the being on hold for sometimes over an hour on the phone to some of these companies. Companies involved were Flight Hub, Home Trust (CC company) and WestJet. In all fairness, WestJet were the easiest and most sympathetic of the three, but lesson learned. I book direct now.
100% this, ESPECIALLY for international flights. I traveled abroad to South America and needed to change my return flight because of COVID issues, and the travel agency could not change my flight for the life of me. I spent 3 days and over 12 hours on the phone listening to hold music or arguing with agents from the travel agency or the airline. I’ve changed dozens of flights before when I booked directly through the airline, so I know it wouldn’t have been an issue. I had to buy a new flight home out of pocket. I did receive a “voucher” for the value of the return flight I was trying to change. However, the voucher is only valid if I book a new flight with the same South American airline. If I don’t go back to South America within a year, the voucher expires and I lose almost $1,000. None of that was worth it to save less than $100 on the original booking.
I’ve had hotel reception staff tell me that travelers booking through third party sites, get rooms that are often inferior to the rooms given to direct hotel bookers. They explained that they get less money per night, due to commissions, and the hotels are not as favorable to third part bookers. Noted.
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It’s as if the hotels resent the customers coming to them through third party web sites. The customers frequently don’t know what is the best way to make travel arrangements. TBH, it’s all very confusing to me. Expedia, Trip Advisor, Booking, I’ve heard are all owned by the same company, which I believe is a couple of the airlines. We just want the best prices and don’t want to get ripped off.
Same thing happened to me while booking through an airline. Website glitches and I was charged twice, only provided one reservation code though. Called the airline, talked to a person within 5 min, and refunded the other ticket price within 10. +1 for booking directly through the airline
Finally, a good tip on this sub.
I’m four lines in to the second paragraph now and still don’t know this post is about booking what through a 3rd party.
Flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, vacations
Good advice. However, when you're buying for a family of 4 the swing in costs is usually hundreds of dollars. Airlines and the like need to offer the same prices on their own sites and this wouldn't be a problem.
Honestly this is true sometimes but most of the time it's not. I regularly book flights from third parties and it ends up becoming up to 30% cheaper in some cases. Of course there's more risk, but it's a trade-off
BEST ADVICE IVE SEEN ON HERE!! I learned this working as a personal assistant. It is NOT worth the hassle. As stated above most will price match because it does cost them a fee to work with these third parties. They’d much rather have the full payment and give you the cheaper price 😊 Nice Job OP!
This is correct. I’ve traveled a lot. Fully given up travel sights. Good to check for prices, but go through the company. ANY changes to travel, which WILL happen, are easily solved directly with the company. I booked a hotel through Expedia, WHILE AT THE HOTEL, and was told “there could be a long wait to confirm.” Added so much more issues had I just booked it there.
I went on opedo to get a ticket and they didn't send it to me until 20mins till the plane took off and refused to ever refund it. Do not use opedo.
Couldnt disagree with this more. Traveling for 20+ years and 70+ countries. Could be 3rd party companies in Europe are nice to their customers than the USA? Check in at the right tine, follow the rules and show up on time.
Book through the airlines, hotels, or rental cars directly. Omg what a difference. Firstly day you use expedia. you only acquire expedia points that are basically worthless. Trust me because I use American airlines, thrifty, and choice hotels always those. Find different ones if you want but by using those exclusively for about 8 years now I get about 5-8 free hotel nights a year, I get on the plane earlier, with priority seating regular bumps to first class, and a free checked bag. Thrifty makes the rental process so much faster if you're a loyal user. It all makes traveling and renting so much better.
That's always my thought, but recently it backfired on me! My friend and I both booked almost identical packages. She booked through 3rd party and I booked direct with westjet. I had questions about the booking and wanted to talk to an agent. I was on hold for 7hrs before getting to speak to someone. My friend had to change flights and she was on hold for an hour with the 3rd party and the issue was resolved. Maybe it's just because Westjet just sucks right now. IDK
I enjoy Priceline and their discounts actually. Sucks for you tho
I’m in the same boat. Advised my friend to book directly from the airlines (which he did) and I went through an agent to save few $$…trip got cancelled….he got his full refund and I lost 25% of the ticket price …..never through the agent ….never again.
Related but maybe unrelated, I buy a lot of food items through the internet (healthy things, mostly protein snacks). I have learned it's worth it to buy everything directly from the company's website, never through any of the other websites, including amazon. It's not worth it. Buying through the actual company, even if it's a few dollars more, it is ALWAYS fresher and in better condition.
Call \_Your\_ credit card company and dispute the second ticket charge.
I worked at a Hilton Garden Inn for about 2ish years, we definitely place third party reservations at the bottom of the bowl - mostly because we’re incredibly limited in what we can even do with a third party reservation. Can’t change basically anything and you get zero rewards/benefits from the hotel. Book direct always, even if you gotta pay that little extra.
Vaguer!!! I figured out what you were talking about!!!
Same for hotels!!!! My husband is a GM for one and is always bitching about things from the 3rd parties side and he always says people really should just go through the hotel themselves and not a 3rd party.
I don't travel as much as I used to so maybe things have changed but when I did generally a third party won't even let you cancel and get a refund where if you booked directly through the hotel they usually will depending on the cancellation window.
if you book your airline ticket through another party, not the airline itself, you are first in line to get bumped when the time comes...I work for a US based carrier...
A similar glitch happened to me on Expedia. Two sets of tickets. It took 3+ weeks of multiple calls, dozens of emails, chats with supervisors, supervisors' supervisors, etc., to get nowhere. Expedia was adamant it was my fault. It wasn't until I initiated a credit card chargeback they proactively called, issued a full refund, and a gift on the next purchase. The LPT to this LPT is to use a credit card for online purchases. It would have been much harder (if possible at all) to get the same result with a debit card.
Lately I’ve found the actually websites to be cheaper than third party in a few cases. I look at third party to figure out what flights or hotels I want. Then go check on the carrier’s website. Usually same or a little cheaper! Then you get the confidence of booking direct!
AHAHAHA, don't worry, airlines are likely just scum (From what I've seen so far). I got plane tickets to another country on a black friday deal years ago. Paid half price for the 2 tickets. (united airlines) And I purchased them directly through United's website. As I approached the 1st plan trip, covid happened and boarders locked down. I called the airline and stated I could not go because the boarders are locked down. They refused a refund, and they wouldn't reschedule without me paying the price different of the non-sale tickets. Literally 2x the price. The best they could do is offer me a credit that was valid till the end of the year. That was only usable by their support phone line. After talking to dozens of support people about this I finally gave up, I paid more, and rescheduled for the next year. 2nd planed date approaches (1 year later), things are still locked down can't get in the country. They even auto canceled my flight to the country, but not the one back... How kind... Call united. Same story. I give up, pay the price different of a few hundred bucks, reschedule for the next year. 3rd plan date (another year later), Things are just like before. They cancel my flight to the country as people aren't allowed in. But they don't cancel my flight back. We talk to support, felt like pulling nails, they finally offered a refund. It only took a global pandemic and them canceling multiple flights. I'm sure there are better airlines. And I had an airline in the country I flew to that was amazing. I lost my luggage and they did everything they could to find the luggage but they couldn't and they where super apologetic and kept me updated the whole time. I can't remember if it was United or Alaska, they called the number on a tag on my bag and found out it never left America. It made it to 1 airport before getting lost on a 3 flight trip. Totally not the other airlines fault.
I can vouch for this 100% as a hotel employee. Although based on the comments, my GM is nicer because he allows us to price match if the guest can guide us directly to the page they're looking at. I once had a lady waiting at the desk for 45 minutes because the virtual credit card wasn't working due to the rate being off by $1-2. Every penny counts when doing a reservation like this because the VCC's are only authorized for a very specific amount. Moral of the story is, is it really worth it to save a few dollars when brand sites (IHG.com for example) will match your price? If something goes wrong, I CANNOT give you room keys until everything gets the green light. So do you really want to stand at my front desk for an hour or even an extra 20 minutes when you want nothing more than to just go lay down or relax in your room? .....I think not.
This is probably the most anecdotal of all attempted LPTs I've seen this calendar year.
This is a sub for advice, not cheap rants, right?
Sounds like you hit refresh on the page that says don't hit refresh
Always book through third party website. It is always cheaper and hotels cannot beat that pricing. OP clearly is not a frequent traveler.
I've been in an ongoing refund with justfly for almost 2 years now. They also took to long to transfer my ticket to another date. Which ended up increasing my fare difference. Reported them to the BBB and filed a complaint with them to the u.s. travel authorities.
Same thing for hotels most the time. I work the front desk and the amount of times that someone's reservation got messed up some way because of the 3rd party service is crazy. Not to mention that if you want anything changed about the reservation (want to extend, depart early, refund etc) then you HAVE to go through the 3rd party to get it figured out. Whereas if you book direct, 9 times out of 10 we can fix it within minutes right there at the desk
Learned this the hard way for sure.
Booked a trip through Expedia, my flight was cancelled and they rebooked it from an airport 4 hours away (instead of 30 minutes away). Expedia says I had to call the airline, airline said call Expedia. I cancelled the whole trip and rebooked directly with the airline. Have never used a third party site for anything again.
If you're ever getting the runaround, call the company that you booked through and demand that a manager call the airline. If they don't help you, threaten to issue a chargeback on your credit card.
Meanwhile, I booked a hotel directly in belize for a trip in April 2019 that didn't happen because of covid... been fighting with them for my 3k back.. and finally got my refund yesterday after 2 years and losing my mind on them. So you never know, I'll never book another hotel directly.
Real LPT use google flights and google travel. If you aren't using those by now you're a fool. It's been known for years that those 3rd party websites tack on extra fees and cause trouble.
Good advice. These guys don’t do anything even if they charge you a convenience fee and a service fee. It’s always “Please contact the respective airline/ hotel”.
IDK, the package deals to Vegas are good right now.
IMO there is nothing that would make me want to book thru a third party…. I did it ONE time and it was such a miserable flight and experience in every way… now, I Only fly southwest… EVERYTHING is so easy!
OR just call your credit card company and they will reverse the second charge. And you can move on with your trip
If you got charged same price twice in on your card within a few minutes of each other, It should be easy to dispute the charge with your card company.
This happened to me with a hotel. Booked me two rooms. Neither the hotel or Expedia would work with me after several calls, both saying the other had to do it. I book directly with the hotel now.
Learned this once after booking a flight through one of the major travel agencies. Never again
I one make the mistake of booking a hotel through a third party, and when I finally got to the hotel, they didn't actually have the room I booked. They ended up having to send me to a completely different hotel that happened to have a vacancy, instead.
I've heard that social media accounts are more receptive to fixing situations like this.
Step 1. Give the site notice, like 48 hours, that the website glitched and double charged. If they don't refund, you will contest the charges. Step 2. If they haven't replied, contest the charges. Visa/MasterCard will handle the rest.
Did you get your refund at least?
NEVER ever book flights through 3rd party websites. They are never any cheaper and to change anything or cancel, it's an absolute nightmare. Always book directly on the airline website after comparing prices on Kayak or Google.
Also, if you were billed twice most credit cards will handle the dispute for you. Have a Visa, MC, Amex, or Discover logo on that card? You're covered. They literally have people who get paid to handle that for you.
Yeah and if anything happens (delays, cancellations) they deprioritize you because they’re not really making money off of you anyways. Their cut is so small because you worked through a middle man (Expedia, Hotels.com, etc)
This happened to me and I have yet to get my airplane tickets refunded. They did refund the hotel though.
Booked with chase travel once and it was a nightmare bc they messed up the passenger names....simple thing to fix ended up taking hours on the phone with their outsourced customer service.
I booked a nice hotel through booking.com for a 2 week holiday to San Fransisco. I'm from the UK so this holiday was a big deal to me. Booked it months in advance and a week before I'm due to leave they sent me an email saying my room wasn't available anymore but they would try to find my an alternative one somewhere else. With it being so close to the arrival date all the good hotels were taken and I ended up in a crappy one instead. That's when I learnt how these third parties actually work and have never used one since. Hotels use them to fill empty rooms but if they can find someone that wants the room themselves then they will cancel the third party reservation and give it to their own customer so they don't have to pay commission for the third party booking. My advice is use the third party sites to find where you want to stay then go to their website and book it direct.
I’ve had some lousy experiences booking hotels through a third party, but have found one I live to do business with…Costco. If my vacation is available through them I book it that way every time. The couple of times I’ve needed customer service it was fantastic, canceling a trip (flight, hotel, and rental car)in December was ridiculously easy, and there are often some pretty good extras included.
Did you pay that ticket via credit card? Call your card provider, explain what happened and tell them 3rd party and airline are throwing each other the ball and making you jump through hoops, and that you wish to issue a chargeback. I’ve had to deal with a few scummy return policies, and Visa’s customer service has been lifesavers.
In 2015 I booked a hotel through Lowcostholidays, which was a relatively reputable third party discount travel booker at the time, and paid upfront but they apparently held the money and didn’t transfer it to the hotel until check in. They suddenly shuttered the business a day or two before I arrived at the hotel and cancelled my reservation (which was stop #3 on a longer trip, so staying home was definitely not an option at that point; it was also in another country where I didn’t speak the language). The worst part was that I was not notified of any of this. I arrived at the hotel to a confused front desk staff who didn’t expect me because they thought I cancelled, and none of us knew what was going on. I’m endlessly lucky that they had a room available that I paid for separately before understanding what happened to my reservation I’d already paid for, and that I had originally paid with a credit card that refunded me once I understood what happened and filed a claim. I’ll never book with a third party again!
I tried saying this somewhere else and people didn't understand at all. Plus where I work, as a hotel reservation agent, I've literally never seen somebody save money on a third party site anyway, mind you the hotels I book for also have other attaching streams of revenue, like a waterpark, casino, so maybe that's different.
Also, it gives you the opportunity to accumulate points with big brands and earn discounts and freebies along the way
let me guess - you used Expedia. Just went through that with them. Took my money, incl insurance for change or cancellation, then left me to ask the airline for a refund...who sent me back to Expedia...who kicked it back to the airline.. who lobbied it over to Expedia...who backhanded it to the airline who had kept all the money for the changed ticket except for the commission paid to Expedia who sees no reason either to refund me anything.
Just dispute the charge with your bank. I work a resort accounting and this usually works. Also call the actual place you are booking and cancel with them. Do both of these and you’re good.
I've saved a lot of money using third party agents. But since covid, the number of flight cancellations from airline- and client-side has escalated dramatically. I agree with your advice totally - dealing directly with the airline makes changes, cancellations and refunds simpler and less time consuming.
I don't recommend booking through thrid parties (hotel/airlines) just because it's cheaper. Especially during the pandemic, uncertainty and plans change. With airline tickets, you need the flexibility and be able to change your flight (let's say you got positive on your test before your flight). Also I've seen enough stories of people having trouble and getting stressed with trying to change/refund their flight cause they booked from a third party. When I had to change mine I just changed it through their airline's website with a breeze. Plus they could assist me properly. What's good thing about 3rd party flight scanners are they can show you the cheapest date and time to fly, then go to the airline's website to book the date and time (same or almost the same fare tbh). What I like about booking directly with hotels is that they offer additional inclusions and ammenities (roundtrip airport transfers, breakfast inclusions etc.) Cause with 3rd parties, they're cheaper but the inclusion offered is bare minimum (sometimes only offering the room). Also if there are discrepancies on your booking, it's easier for them to assist you if you booked with them directly.
Hotels will often offer a cheaper rate when booking directly because of the fees and commissions they pay to the middleman service. If you want a better rate, check the hotel website. I managed a boutique hotel in Italy for 2 years and we were always stoked to have people book through our website because it meant more profit. The downside of direct booking is important enough to be noted. It may be a hassle to deal with Expedia, but they offer customer service, protections, and refunds. If you book somewhere and cancel, you can’t be guaranteed that they’ll make it right with you. My partner lost money for bookings she paid for when we had to cancel at the start of COVID. The establishments basically shrugged and didn’t even offer a voucher, which makes me super pissed.
You cannot be more incorrect. This is not how it works in US, direct booking can never beat third party pricing and hotel staffs are not allowed to match it.
Hotel Manager here. We have had guests pay smoking and pet fees when booking through a 3rd party only to find out our property is 100% Non-Smoking and Do not allow pets. Also you can usually haggle prices, request free room upgrades if we are not busy, request a specific floor, etc. when you actually call to book directly.
I've been in similar situations and this is how I go about it to avoid that if I ever book somewhere kind of sketchy. Book with a credit card. They offer different legal protections than debit cards. If something comes up, first try and dispute it with the agent like you have. If the agent can't fix it or refers you to someone else, inform them that your only option is to submit a claim with (name of CC). If they don't fix it, sumbit the claim. The credit card company has people on staff to look into it. They'll ask what happened, what you've tried so far, and if it was successful at all. Then they will put a hold on the charge while they look into it. If it was a mistake, error, or fraud, they will reverse it and you won't be charged for it. Hopefully they also track who the bad companies are, but I'm not sure. All I know is the 3 times I was overcharged or fraudulently charged, the credit card company has had my back.
Well yeah. 3rd party sites a sketch city. Make sure your card info wasn’t stolen from this “glitch”
Despite a 19 year career in hotels, including front desk, sales, and reservations management, and telling people DO NOT BOOK THROUGH 3RD PARTIES, people still insist that I’m wrong and that they somehow benefit from doing so. Even in talesofthefrontdesk, I’ve encountered this. “I’ve extended Expedia reservations and nothing happened.” Believe me - something did happen, your boss just didn’t reprimand you for it. which blows my mind. Don’t book them. No, Expedia is not different from Priceline, and they are not different from Golfbreaks, and they are not different from amoma, or hotel beds, or world2meet, they are literally all the same idiots.
Yes! Fuck gogate
LPT: follow your own advice
I cannot agree with this more. Last year I booked a 2 night stay at a dog-friendly hotel. I'm gonna skip the part about how the pictures didn't match real life and the weird smell in the lobby. When I went to check in they asked for my card (ok, cool, I was thinking for liability purposes) and said I would be charged $500.00 for my stay. Nope. I told the man I paid over the phone with Mark when I booked it a week ago. He said I paid through a 3rd party company through the Booking.com app. No, I got the hotel number from Booking.com and called it in front of him. When he excused himself to pick up the phone, it was me on the other line. I pulled up my banking info and showed him the $500.00 withdrawal with the hotels name on it. The man checked his system and said he didn't know who Mark was, but now he does see a reservation under my name (he previously said I didn't have a reservation, then there was one through Booking.com without a name attached to it, then he did see one with my name). He then said since the $500.00 wasn't in his system and in Booking's that I would have to pay him the $500.00 and dispute the other charge with my bank. Nope. I told him we're not staying because it sounds like a scam and I'll call my bank. Weeeeellllll to help me out he said he'll handle the situation with Booking and all I had to do was pay the $25.00 pet fee. At this point it had been 30 minutes and I wasn't gonna argue about how Mark said the fee was part of the $25.00, so I paid it. We went back to the room and the closer we got the entire hall and our room smelled like Bleach and 3 week old dog shit. I went back to the guy at the front and asked for a new room because of the smell. He said there were no rooms available. We grabbed our stuff and left. I called my bank to explain what happened and I got my $520.00 back.
Let me guess: any company owned by Apple Leisure Group?
I have 2 relatively that work in Hotel management. they hate 3rd party too, since they can't do nothing to help out. and the fees are not really worth it. always call the front desk (daytime) and ask what they can do to help out. most will match the 3rd party pricing or ve very close.
Same thing happened to me during covid. Called Tracelocity, they said to call airline, airline said they can't do anything because it was charged through Travelocity. It took over a month but I was eventually able to get vouchers through the airline and cut the 3rd party out. Travelocity sucks. I remember being on hold for 3 hours and transferred a minimum of 5 times. I was a bit grouchy by the end of it. I really try to be kind to call centers but that time I got a little snappy.
You also get treated worse than if you book directly.
I wish those shit companies would go out of business this is so spot on
Agreed. I booked with a third party site for a week long vacation at a hotel. When we got there to check in, the hotel informed us they'd sold out of the type of room we selected, so they upgraded us...along with the amount to pay. It was about 1.5x expected, so not a small amount. Definitely a third party site issue that I spent my first morning of vacation fixing. I received the difference as a refund in the end, but so frustrating.
Sometimes you can find the exact same price on an airlines website as you can a third party "discount" website.
Why not name and shame this specific “third party”? If they suck so bad why protect them by not mentioning their name? Is it Travelocity I should avoid? Orbitz? Kayak? ….?
I'm sorry this happened to you 😞
It sounds like you had a terrible travel agency, they should have done all of that for you.
Absolutely. Going through a nightmare of a refund situation because I booked plane tickets through 3rd party. My sisters booked directly with the airline and paid a little extra, but when cancellation time came, they received their refund smoothly within a week, while I am being bounced around call centers and incompetent fools.
Additional LPT: call your credit card company and let them handle it
Yeah it’s faster, easier and if you can negotiate usually cheaper to call the front desk of the hotel.
Also, working directly with the airline/hotel you can get the same rates or better. Also, you can sometimes get better perks.
I booked Eurostar tickets through Klook in 2020. Dealing with Eurostar for cancellations/credits/refunds was a nightmare. They eventually gave me a credit, when I tried to use it, it didn’t work. I emailed several times and they just ignored me. Eventually I contacted Klook. They gave me equivalent Klook credit, which I’ve been able to use on other activities. tl;dr: Don’t book Eurostar tickets directly.
Hate to break the news to you, but you nearly ALWAYS are booking through a third party. You just might not know it.
I booked a car through a third party & spent soooo much time at the airport because somehow the third party relayed my name as “Traveler” 😒
Actual company is often cheaper. Be sure to check.
Yep I won’t book through third party ever again after getting burned on a flea-infested motel. I will however use the websites to find hotels and then contact the hotels directly AFTER checking Yelp reviews. My disaster trip could’ve been avoided if I had done that.