re: #84 Targetpractice

If there is one piece of advice I keep repeating again and again, it’s do not believe a single fucking thing you are told by the person on an OTA reservation line because they do not work at whatever hotel you are booking. They’re not paid to help you, they’re not paid to give you good advice, they’re paid to pressure you into making a booking and will tell you whatever it takes to achieve that goal every time.

It seems to me that booking sites like Priceline or Hotels (dot) com are nothing more than rent-seeking capitalism.

Such services only provide a service to compare prices amongst a range of hotels or motels in a city, do not have to update their services to include current prices or room availability, and put their hands in the income stream to skim money.

My wife used to be a big fan of hotels (dot) com. She regularly booked hotels or motels through them. I convinced her to ignore what hotels (dot) com was pitching regarding a convention we were attending at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. As it turned out, calling the Brown Palace resulted in better accommodations (such as a handicap-accessible room) than hotels (dot) com presented.

Since then, she’s only used the site to get the information about a hotel or motel in question, then directly booked through the hostillier. There is no confusion about price, services, or availability when you directly speak to the hotel or motel rather than a third-party rent-seeker.