Best hotel booking site.

I use hotels.com more than booking.com as it gives you a kick back with cash rewards you can use to reduce the cost of future stays.

Trivago.com is pretty useful as it compares all the sites like booking.com / hotels.com and has a simple app.

This year on my europe jaunt, I tended to use a mix of apps, AirBnB, B&B Hotels, Accor Hotels, but if you want to consolidate to a single app, then maybe give Trivago a run.
 
Yes, booking.com can be barstewards, best going direct and cutting-out the middle man! Booking do offer a good way to search, but they do seem to use cookies to fleece the customer!
 
I filter using Google Maps as this shows prices at the main booking sites like Trivago and often shows the direct price. The latter can save cash as they are not paying 15% to a 3rd party booking site. Sometimes one site has rooms when others don't as hotels get a better deal by loyalty to one site so best to use an aggregator. Google Streetview is very handy for checking parking and the local area for the proximity of bars and free of steep streets (important for my group with a few coffin dodgers).
I try to avoid B*****g.com as they have had some really bad press about late payments to small businesses.

I like the hotels.com rewards programme, especially when booking a group trip as I get a little kickback for my efforts as the Dumb Fuck Volunteer. I have 2 free nights in Spain to book from credits earned on our group trip to Austria last year.

If going to Spain, join the Parador Amigo programme for discounts and a free drink on arrival.

Accor have decent discounts on their brands if you join their rewards scheme should you want to use Ibis, Mercure, Novotel etc. As with other brands, you often get better cancellation terms going direct.
 
Both booking.com and Expedia trade under several names/websites. So just when you think you are looking at alternatives you arent.

Booking Holdings - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org

Expedia Group - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

FWIW we use booking.com or Airbnb mainly. Just for the convenience really, I try not to overthink it for the sake of saving a fiver or so here and there. Or just walk in somewhere we fancy, chat them up, and see what they can do. Paper versions of Lonely planet and rough guides used to be really good with their recommendations, sadly not so good now.
 
Just booked an Alps trip of 11 nights and used Trivago. It compares all the hotel sites showing the price on each. Having said that I do try and use Hotels.com as "Topcashback" give (currently) 11% cashback on next years bookings
 
stickywicket said:
Just booked an Alps trip of 11 nights and used Trivago. It compares all the hotel sites showing the price on each. Having said that I do try and use Hotels.com as "Topcashback" give (currently) 11% cashback on next years bookings
Click to expand...

oh, yes, that's another perk when making a group booking - might earn me a free night on a 10 day trip - my friends are aware of the perks and see it as good value compared to paying MCI Tours to arrange their holiday
 
Google, just putting in the town, usually flags up assorted offers as a part of its map.
 
Monsieur said:
I tend to use booking.com for a search then go direct to the hotel website to book.
Click to expand...
Recently just did this for a central London bridge but despite a loyalty bonus at the hotel they couldn't match the booking.com price. Rang them up and they still couldn't match the price which normally they are more than happy to, so I hastily booked through booking.com only to realise after I've booked with a "partner agency" from Hong Kong. I'm expecting to spend the night under Waterloo bridge and have started saving cardboard accordingly. Anyone with experience of "partner agency" with booking.com?
 
JoolsB said:
Recently just did this for a central London bridge but despite a loyalty bonus at the hotel they couldn't match the booking.com price. Rang them up and they still couldn't match the price which normally they are more than happy to, so I hastily booked through booking.com only to realise after I've booked with a "partner agency" from Hong Kong. I'm expecting to spend the night under Waterloo bridge and have started saving cardboard accordingly. Anyone with experience of "partner agency" with booking.com?
Click to expand...

Google it, then ring the hotel to see if they have had the reservation
one hit I saw
https://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/181ctyy/a_warning_about_bookingcoms_partner_offers
 
JoolsB said:
Recently just did this for a central London bridge but despite a loyalty bonus at the hotel they couldn't match the booking.com price. Rang them up and they still couldn't match the price which normally they are more than happy to, so I hastily booked through booking.com only to realise after I've booked with a "partner agency" from Hong Kong. I'm expecting to spend the night under Waterloo bridge and have started saving cardboard accordingly. Anyone with experience of "partner agency" with booking.com?
Click to expand...

Did this a few weeks ago, hotel in Hamburg couldn’t match booking.com so I reserved and like you realized it was a partner, also in Hong Kong I think

When we got to the hotel they informed us that they were closing in a couple of days, I think they’d failed a safety inspection or something similar, we’d booked for 4 nights

Luckily, they’d booked us into another hotel about 100 meters away, it was even better than where we’d originally booked and they paid the bill directly so we came out winners
 
leadfarmer said:
Did this a few weeks ago, hotel in Hamburg couldn’t match booking.com so I reserved and like you realized it was a partner, also in Hong Kong I think

When we got to the hotel they informed us that they were closing in a couple of days, I think they’d failed a safety inspection or something similar, we’d booked for 4 nights

Luckily, they’d booked us into another hotel about 100 meters away, it was even better than where we’d originally booked and they paid the bill directly so we came out winners
Click to expand...
As above hotel have confirmed my booking. No mention of closing down (so far). (Charringcross Station open all night if need be or if they book me into another it could be the Savoy,so we live in hope)
 
I’ve rarely found a cheaper deal direct to hotel.

I like the convenience of the info neatly downloaded to my phone; to Calendar, photos, pdf, Wallet.

And, I’ve enjoyed a significant number of donations from Booking dot com to my favourite charity via Easyfundraing.com

Booking dot com 4% per transaction.

EBay 1%

Amazon a measly 0.5% (I stopped using them)
 
Monsieur said:
I tend to use booking.com for a search then go direct to the hotel website to book.
Click to expand...
Same. At least then you can call the hotel if there’s a problem, if there’s any issue with the booking you’ll never get anywhere with Booking.com.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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