Skipping hotel booking apps like Booking.com and Agoda seems to save me 20%, and I don't need to support a company supporting Israel
What I've done a few times is just to use booking.com to find the hotel, then I'd call the hotel to book directly with them. The price the hotel gives me is always way less than what the app states.
Booking, Agoda, AirBNB and others are an the sorta bad list for BDS.
Most of these are work trips, although ya my gf and I went on a cheap holiday to nowhere last week.
I have friends in the hospitality industry. Yes it's usually cheaper and it's a lot easier on the staff to just book with the hotel.
Me too, and the only thing they warn about is that if it's a highly requested destination during a full season, the app/hotel will ask them to keep a number of rooms free, so they might not be able to book you directly, even if it's easier for them.
It may be automated, but the problem is that there’s a middle man. If some customer calls you to complain, now you have to deal with two entities instead of just the customer and your hotel system. Some hotels may have direct partnerships with booking sites but others will not and have to do what you do, i.e. call customer support and hope they have an answer for the provlem
If it is similar to food delivery gig companies, the booking site also probably takes a cut of what the Hotel charges too.
It's depends on the hotel, often it isn't and the staff has to pick the hotel room manually. Either way they have to use a shitty 3rd party site, then attempt to settle payment with the company, which I hear is not a straightforward process. They're also super scummy. They set up fake websites for hotels to trick people into thinking they are booking directly.
Yeah look on reddit about “the cheapest hotel booking site,” and it’s almost unanimous that you always go direct, even if it’s a bit expensive.