6 Reasons to Book a Room Through the Hotel’s Website

A (non-travel industry) friend pointed me to great post this weekend over at Consumerist, Four Reasons Not To Book Your Hotel Room Through A Third-Party Site.

The reasons they give?

1. Lower Prices

2. Better Compensation

3. More flexibility

4. Better rooms

Let me share my thoughts on this:

1. Lower Prices: I’ve found this to be true time and time again, not just with Aqua but with my own travels. Like a lot of people, I use Expedia to comparison shop and find out what’s in the area, then I check out the hotel’s website to see what kind of offers they have. Aqua has Savvy Surfer internet rates, which are guaranteed to be the lowest non-qualified (qualified rates=AAA, AARP, corporate; anything you have to, you know, qualify for) rates out there. Often hotels run specials that aren’t given to 3rd party sites, so you can sometimes find deals that are much better on the hotel’s website.

2. Better Compensation: Consumerist basically means better service. One of the reasons I no longer use 3rd party sites is because I had a nightmare scenario with one of them a few years ago. If you’ve ever prepaid for a room on a 3rd party site, checked into a hotel that you may have seen on an old episode of Cops and tried to get a refund, all at 1:00am, you know what I’m talking about. Granted, the Cops hotel may not have had the best service either, but it’s much easier to try to get a refund or at least explain your problem to someone who is invested in the outcome.

3. More flexibility: When you use a 3rd party site, you prepay and your dates are set. Aqua has a 24 hour cancellation policy for most of our reservations (if it’s non-refundable, we make that very clear up front in the booking process). Like many hotels, we ask for a one-night deposit upon booking to guarantee your reservation.. You can also change your dates, your room type and we’ll even help you if prices have gone down since you booked. Even if things go relatively well, it’s easier to ask for a refund or discount from the hotel itself than by trying to go through the 3rd party.

4. Better rooms: I have to disagree with this one, at least at Aqua. We don’t assign rooms based on what the guest paid for the room or how they made the reservation. They may do this at other hotel chains but we want to make sure all guests are treated fairly once the reservation enters our hands. Also, assigning rooms, especially in hotels that run a high rate of occupancy, is like putting together a complex puzzle each day. Even if we wanted to assign rooms based on rate, we wouldn’t have much wiggle room after assigning rooms based on length of stay, number of check-ins and check-outs that day, and guest requests (we can’t guarantee guest requests, but we do try!).

Additionally, I can think of 2 more reasons why booking direct makes sense:

5. Greater inventory: Many hotels, including Aqua, put limited amounts of rooms and room categories on 3rd party sites. If you look at a 3rd party site, you may not see room categories that better fit your needs (especially suites and other premium rooms).

6. We respect your privacy and security: a.k.a., you know who you’re dealing with. The major 3rd party sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline, as well as major travel agencies are fine, but I’ve seen fly-by-night websites that promise deals for hotels that no longer even exist. Finding and reporting these sites is a full-time job and more pop up every day. If someone is carrying a deal that seems too good to be true, it probably is.

As one of the commenters on Consumerist says, “*EVERYTHING* is more complicated when a third party is involved. ”

And if you don’t like making reservations online, there’s also the option of calling the hotel’s central reservations line or the hotel directly. I try to do everything online so sometimes I’m reluctant to actually pick up the phone, but often it saves a lot of confusion! Plus, all of Aqua’s reservations agents are located in Waikiki, so they can answer questions about the neighborhood, Aqua’s portfolio of hotels, transportation options and even things like the weather!