Hotel Aggregator Sites - Are They Worth It?

uniqualz on 23/08/2017 - 12:03
Last edited 23/08/2017 - 12:57 by 1 other user

Hi All,

Has anyone ever done an accurate bullS**t appraisal on these international hotel aggregator sites like Agoda, Hotels.com, Wotif etc? Do they REALLY offer GENUINE savings? Or is (example) a 50% off deal jacked up by a similar amount in the first place? Plus aggregator sites always add other complications to suit their business model that traditionally hotels directly booked may not impose - rigid cancellation fees etc. It's clearly still most flexible to walk into a hotel and negotiate the rate face to face - no cancellation clauses etc, and if off-season, probably much cheaper than aggregator sites offer anyway, as you can haggle face to face with the owner.

Is anything ever conclusively proven to be cheaper on these middle-man aggregator sites? About to book a month in Europe, so just curious if they factually are beneficial to the traveller, or if they're just snake oil!

Cheers,
UniQualz

Travel

Comments

  • retiredfeline on 23/08/2017 - 12:11
    +1

    You can compare booking through an aggregator with booking through the establishment's website (which I often do) but you can't really compare it with booking face to face. For one thing if it's high season or a popular place, there may be nothing left to negotiate over. But if it's low season, you could just wing it.

  • dazweeja on 23/08/2017 - 12:24
    +1

    Not on their own, but in combination with the deals on this page (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/pages/hotels), I've often found it cheaper to book through these sites than the hotel's own wbesite (I always books beforehand so can't comment on face-to-face).

  • pantsparty on 23/08/2017 - 12:25
    +1

    I usually use sites like Expedia and Hotels.com. I find them to be the cheapest option given the coupon codes they often have running. Always do a price comparison against other sources however - including directly with the hotel.

  • Clivey In Space on 23/08/2017 - 12:45
    +1

    Aggregators are my first port of call to find a hotel that is where I am going and to make my 'to check' list a bit smaller. Then I check reviews on these hotels at the booking prices directly on the hotels own website.

    I recently saved over US$100 booking directly on a hotels website as they openly advertised their specials, whereas the aggregate sites did not reflect this.

    Aggregators have not really helped me with saving $$$ compared to booking direct and what I have found that generally they all list they same hotels at the same price.

    So for me they are really just another tool in helping to find and make descision as to who to book with and if they are in my price range.

    Note: this is all based on my research for hotels in Hawaii so it may differ in other countries.

  • mskeggs on 23/08/2017 - 12:48
    +1

    Not sure the reason for such an aggressive tone.
    Hotel rack rates are always astronomical because it is the way they manage their marketing and offers. E.g. some corporate travel deals will offer %off rack rates with higher discounts further in advance.
    I have booked deals through sites that are lower than any other rate I have seen via promos etc.
    Could I have haggled a better rate face to face? Possibly, but if I want a room I'd rather have a booking than the hassle of locating lodgings on arrival.
    Or to put it another way, just one night where you were forced to pay rack rates for the only room left in town would undo all the savings from face to face haggling. Not to mention the uncertainty and time and effort costs of navigating a holiday destination to find suitable lodging.

    On the flipside, I have had a couple of stellar deals from local tourist offices or direct hotels with 'just show up', but that was in the days before aggregator sites allowed better inventory management. I suppose for some destinations or types of accommodation that might still be true.

    • uniqualz on 23/08/2017 - 14:50

      My apologies for offending with my aggressive tone. Thank you very kindly for the most helpful advice.

  • dasher86 on 23/08/2017 - 13:08
    +1

    Purely based on logic; there can be many other scenarios.
    1. Aggregators make money on commissions and volumes.
    Most hotels will price match rates that you can get on aggregators.
    Where you make savings are when they have promotional rates that eat at their margins.
    Eg. Room online for $250. They pay provider $240.
    Their margin is $10.
    Let's say you use a 20% off code. You pay $200 not their rate of $250. They still pay provider $240. They make a loss of $40.
    But that's okay for them. Because out of the people who use that 20% off 8 other people paid the full $250.

    1. They buy rooms in bulk and manage to get 60% off normal rate. They sell for 80% off the normal rate taking a gamble they can sell all rooms.

    2. They make money on cancellations as they rebook a non cancellable room / charge fees for changes etc.

    I tend to be on of the ones that use that 20%.

  • Baysew on 23/08/2017 - 13:23
    +1

    With the amount and the hard sell advertising, that Trivago and Hotels Combined do, I could not argue against them.

    It might as well be snake oil.

  • [Deactivated] on 23/08/2017 - 13:37
    +3

    I use Expedia as much possible. After trips to USA, Europe and Honeymoon im now a GOLD member. I get VIP privileges and free upgrades at some hotel chains. I also get credits i can use to discount the prices even more.

    I also use the AMEX 10% off link with expedia and save even more.

    Example, Turtle Bay Resort - Oahu:

    Their direct website wanted $750 AUD+ per night plus resort fees for the room we wanted (Vista Level which includes arvo canapes drinks etc). I booked a base room using expedia and got it for $500 AUD including resort fee (with amex 10% coupon code) then got upgraded when i showed up because im a GOLD member with expedia and also got a 50% voucher for restaurants on site.

    So i saved $500 AUD + over 2 nights purely by using expedia.

    In short, if you travel frequently, use expedia as much as possible. The hotels i stay at (Hilton, Hyatt) seem to like customers who book with Expedia. It's respected these days as they are all terrified of the market share expedia has (expedia owns alot of the smaller comparison sites too)

  • Cheap Charlie on 23/08/2017 - 13:45
    +2

    As mentioned, as to how you will secure the best offer will vary greatly, its a matter of investing the time.

    Most mainstream Online Travel Agents (OTA) in Australia work on a 12 - 15% commission.
    Accommodation that comes via a inbound Travel Provider is 25% commission (Generally 15% for the ITP/ITO and 10% for the Agent)

    With such levels of commission being payable to agents, the incentive is there for properties to offer a traveller better value for booking directly.

    You may find some properties will offer some or all of the below to encourage your direct reservation:
    - Offering a marginally reduced rate, in comparison to the rates they are providing OTA & ITP.
    - In some cases you may also find you are offered a higher level of service.
    - If you have preferences/requirements, often reservation will suggest a room type that suits your requirements.
    - Some properties prioritise the best rooms of your chosen room category for guests whom have reserved directly, higher floors the better view etc.
    - Some properties are more flexible in accommodating special requests outside of the cancellation terms for direct reservations.

    OTAs
    Its worth noting that most OTAs are working towards reducing there overheads.
    Booking.com has gone to great extents to remove their contact phone number from the web and encourages the use of reading FAQ's and a contact form.
    Some OTAs have gone to the extent that they charge a fixed fee to speak with a representative. (I have heard of $50)

  • Tech5 on 23/08/2017 - 14:11

    How often do people just walk in and ask for a room for established chains like Hilton, shang ri la etc? Is it possible? Will there be a big discount if rooms are free?

    • Cheap Charlie on 23/08/2017 - 14:46
      +1

      How often do people just walk in and ask for a room for established chains like Hilton

      I would imagine the vast majority of their business is pre booked.
      A percentage of walk in business would exist.
      This would vary greatly from location to location.

      Is it possible?

      I would image there are not to many accommodation providers that do not accept walk in reservations

      Will there be a big discount if rooms are free?

      How long is a piece of string?
      The answer to your question will vary greatly.

    • apple2016 on 23/08/2017 - 15:06

      How often do people just walk in and ask for a room for established chains like Hilton

      The only time I had to do this was the hotel I book was quite bad and I had to find another place to stay.
      • Cheap Charlie on 23/08/2017 - 15:12

        I have a feeling the instance of walk in business for major chains may be higher in SE Asia.
        Its not uncommon for travellers in SE Asia to arrive in the country with no accom booked or, just the first night or two.
        I am also thinking in some cultures such business may be more likely done face to face, rather then reaching for your i device and comparing?

        In Australia and perhaps a percentage of the Western World, I would imagine the majority of guests prefer the convince of comparing/booking online.
        For some there is also the element of not having to interact with another humane to achieve the result…

    • retiredfeline on 23/08/2017 - 15:11

      Well if the hotel is in a place where you have to drive or take a cab there, and get off with all your luggage, I think you are at a disadvantage bargaining. On the other hand if you are a backpacker walking around a district full of hotels…

  • apple2016 on 23/08/2017 - 15:08
    +2

    Usually I call up the hotels reservation line and ask them for a good deal. Usually I get a better deal EG Free break fast/ upgrade/ WiFi/ parking etc than the hotel aggregator sites. Also it help if you are member of their loyalty program.

  • [Deactivated] on 23/08/2017 - 15:27
    +1

    I use wotif to find places, but then book directly with the hotel. Works out cheaper as hotels don't charge the booking fee and are more flexible with their terms. Also if using external websites, clear your browser history, otherwise you can expect to see the prices increase on a return visit.

  • Halo375 on 23/08/2017 - 15:46

    In my experience these aggregators will normally have a cheaper prices than through booking directly - mind you there isn't one website which is always cheaper than the rest. The critical skill is finding the hotel you want, then searching multiple sites to confirm the best deal. Using Ozbargain to find which site has the 10 / 16 / 18% discount code at the time is often the best deal - be careful though! A lot of these bastard websites don't show taxes until the final payment screen, making it harder to compare.

  • [Deactivated] on 23/08/2017 - 16:55

    Trivago has some good early bird and last minute specials, but they definitely have seasonal and weekly cycles to catch out people who are stuck for choice.

  • takutox on 23/08/2017 - 17:05
    -3

    They are not snake oil at all. The price is almost guaranteed to be better when you take into account cashback and promo codes for 99% of hotels.

    Depends on the hotel. 95% of the time its better to go with an OTA (online travel agent, which is what sites like expedia and wotif are called). Only 5% of cases (such as being part of a chain loyalty program like Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton) would it be better to book direct because you get loyalty benefits and points. However right now (with booking.com promo for example), its actually better to go for the OTA even for these chains because you can upgrade your benefits yourself with the cashback you get)

    Aggregators are sites like hotelscombined.com and Trivago which aggregate OTA and direct prices.

    So no, its almost never better to book direct unless you have loyalty or there is a very specific good promotion on at the moment involving free nights/points/sale discounts. the other situation is where you can price match an OTA

    I can easily conclusively prove over 10000+ hotels (and at least a 90% ratio of hotels) are cheaper on these OTA sites than they are booking direct.

    Direct is ONLY IF YOU HAVE HOTEL CHAIN STATUS or there is a MAJOR promo.

    You might get slightly better treatment booking direct but imo its negligible (even booking direct the hotels are cheapass if you don't have status), with the discount you save you can upgrade an entire room category or 3 or pay for dinner.

    • Cheap Charlie on 24/08/2017 - 11:38
      +2

      I can easily conclusively prove over 10000+ hotels (and at least a 90% ratio of hotels) are cheaper on these OTA sites than they are booking direct.

      Challenge accepted.
      Please upload your findings when you are done.

      • uniqualz on 24/08/2017 - 14:44
        +2

        Yes please. Would be a very interesting comparison.

    • Baysew on 25/08/2017 - 11:47
      +1

      Home come you haven't posted your proof yet. You said it was easy.

      I was looking for something conclusive.

      • takutox on 25/08/2017 - 14:06
        -1

        because its redundant and easily observable. and im getting paid nothing to do it.

        no point of doing all this work over people who are unaware of how to get discounts when deals are posted daily on ozb beating the prices

        the onus should be on you to prove the direct is better since the amount of hotels im saying is much lower. im not here to hold your hand because you cant do maths.

        • takutox on 25/08/2017 - 15:29
          -2

          its very easy, but very redundant and time consuming mentioning the same promos again and again. i can very easily go through 10k hotels within a day or two, but that's wasted time over proving uninformed people on a forum wrong. it being easy doesn't mean that it doesn't take up time. easy does not = instant. put up a few hundred dollar bet and then we're talking

          if im saying 95% of the time its better. all you have to do is prove the 5%. its stupid as hell to prove the 95% unless its a bet or im getting paid to do so. in certain locations or dates there might not even be 100 hotels available on that date.

          how about we do this, you select a location as sample size on a certain date 2-4 weeks in the future (for average prices that don't skew too much towards last minute 3rd party offering cheaper prices trying to get rooms sold) and tell me which deals are better direct. all you have to do is find me 5 hotel for every 100 hotels in which going direct is cheaper after promos. like i said, each location or date might only have 100-300 hotels available or less if you specify a smaller region. this task will only take you up to 20 minutes (few googles) if you don't believe what i said is true.

          reasonable challenge, is it not? or you can go the ad hominem route and insult me then back down. your choice.

        • Cheap Charlie on 26/08/2017 - 11:31
          +1

          @takutox:
          Your recent comments are contrary to your initial statement.

          I can easily conclusively prove over 10000+ hotels (and at least a 90% ratio of hotels) are cheaper on these OTA sites than they are booking direct.

        • takutox on 26/08/2017 - 12:06
          -2

          @Cheap Charlie:

          Geez dude, Don't worry already, people think you're so smart :)

          But for real now, leaving the challenge open for anyone who wants to take it. Or you can keep blahing along psuedointellectually.

          Easy != I want to do it for you. Get that?

          I'd rather have the ignorant/smart alecs who say things like 'WHERES UR EVIDENCE THAT WE STIPULATED THAT YOU NEVER AGREED TO? HUH? HUH?' not save money.

          Meanwhile challenge still available for you. Any of you :)

        • Cheap Charlie on 26/08/2017 - 12:15
          +2

          @takutox:
          You made quiet a strong statement to support your claim.
          We took you up on your offer and now you are triggered.
          I see your logic.

          TL:DR Some times your foot is bigger than your mouth.

        • takutox on 26/08/2017 - 12:16
          -2

          @Cheap Charlie:

          Oh, the ad hominem begins now. How sweet.

          Hahah, after keyboard warrioring is done the challenge is still up.

          Gn babe, your knowledge of how to google commissions is triggering me gorilla.jpg

        • Cheap Charlie on 26/08/2017 - 12:26

          @takutox:
          Apology accepted.

        • takutox on 26/08/2017 - 12:26
          -1

          @Cheap Charlie:

          Apology accepted, challenge not accepted.

          Mental gymnastics accepted.

        • Baysew on 26/08/2017 - 12:31
          +2

          I guess the bottom line is that we won't get the "conclusive proof" that you said was "easy" to provide.

        • takutox on 26/08/2017 - 12:40
          -2

          @Baysew:

          Nah, that ended with a ingrate attitude. 'challenge accepted' (to something that wasn't even a challenge), 'WHERES UR PROOF BROOOO' (to something i never agreed to posting'), rather than a welcoming learning attitude. Mod: Personal Attack. The annoying people that have to be right in every argument and think they know better.

          I laugh at the fact you guys can't even provide a few hotels and choose to keep up the ad hominem. I never issued a challenge in my initial post, nor did I say I would do it for you. If you want to bounce around with your fragile egos feel free to do so.

          Now, if you actually want to learn/have a discussion. Do the thing I said that would take 10 minutes tops. If you select any random suburb in Au there aren't even a few hundred hotels in a lot of them.

          If you can prove me wrong, that will be your proof. But nah, you'd rather sit back and bag out someone who is trying to help OzBers, and listen to a guy spamming worthless google facts about how booking.com is trying to reduce commission and making loldeductions over the fact booking.com took away their contact numbers (OH GR8, A BUSINESS TRYING TO REDUCE EXPENSES, LEL)

          You want to learn and you want to improve yourself instead of shielding ego? Discuss this with me and actually try to put in some effort.

          Mod: Removed Personal Attack.

        • Moderatorneil on 26/08/2017 - 13:48

          To all: Enough with this discussion about proof. Discuss without attacking each other and being disrespectful.

          Commenting Guidelines

  • Mumbles on 23/08/2017 - 17:36
    +3

    Previously the hotel booking websites were the cheapest way to book rooms because they contractually forced the hotel owners to enforce their price guarantee.

    This led to industry wide price hikes for hotel rooms and price gouging by the hotel booking websites. The same situation has previously occurred in other countries and the ACCC undertook an investigation.

    In September 2016 the ACCC forced Expedia and Booking.com to amend their contracts:
    https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/expedia-and-bookingcom…
    http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/checkout-stories/FR1602H001…

    Am not sure about whether the OP's destination country is still affected by the dodgy contracts and prices.

    • Cheap Charlie on 24/08/2017 - 11:46

      Previously the hotel booking websites were the cheapest way to book rooms because they contractually forced the hotel owners to enforce their price guarantee.

      Like all things there are loop holes.
      Properties simply offered the rooms as different names between their own site and the OTAs and or with differing terms.
      You can not price match a room that is not offered by the OTA.
      Also its common in larger properties to offer a "member discount"
      When checking pricing on the hotels site, you are required to log in to access pricing.
      OTA's do not match member pricing.

      OTA's initially started out online under the guise of Last minute.
      The business model was that there was all these hotels with vacant rooms.
      The properties offer the vacant rooms at a reduced rate to fill them, last minute.
      Well what do you know, this whole online travel agent thing caught on.
      The problem was lastminute.com was limited to 90 days into the future.
      Thus the OTAs evolved into what we know them as today.

      This led to industry wide price hikes for hotel rooms and price gouging by the hotel booking websites

      This is incorrect, the issue was properties wanted to offer lower price point compared to the OTAs to encourage direct reservations.
      The ACCC ruled the contracts of the Booking.com, Expedia etc were anti competitive.

  • capslock on 23/08/2017 - 23:41
    +2

    Aggregators in my opinion are useless because they don't take into account discount codes and promos like the ones on the OzBargain hotel page. I am also finding that the hotel website these days sometimes has the cheapest deals which are not made available to online booking sites.

    I have noticed though that booking.com is always the most expensive.

  • dasher86 on 25/08/2017 - 11:34
    +1

    I like to use tripadvisor as my hotel Aggregator, then book direct with what ever is the cheapest on the list after trawling through available discount codes.

  • Ace Ventura on 28/08/2017 - 17:19
    +6

    Hotelier here.
    For me to sell a room on a OTA, I pay 10-17% to that OTA, NO OTA has the power to sell a room for cheaper than I dictate. they request specials every now and then to go with their email blast marketing, but I still dictate that rate and inclusions. No matter the marketing by any OTA, they NEVER have the best rate. If you call a hotel direct, they will match the rate 100% of the time, simply because they then do not have to pay commission and make a few more bucks, but if you push I'm sure they would even beat the price by 5-10%. Just enough to still be above the net total they would have gotten from the OTA.

    • uniqualz on 29/08/2017 - 10:27

      Fantastic mate.. a coherent response from the other side! Many thanks.

  • crozza on 28/08/2017 - 19:40
    +2

    Hotelier, you are one of a million hotels [ask Trivago how many there are.] There is no one answer for worldwide, it is extremely variable.One personal example.

    Phuket 2016, walked into hotel [4.5* if relevant] They Refused to match OTA pricing, were +30%. Booked thru OTA while at their reception desk on my mobile, showed them the reference number, deal done at -30% on what they were prepared to do.

    This is NOT typical, it is bizarre.

    My usual is to book ahead by checking the ATO sites, then direct with the hotel website, and go with the best deal you can find.

    Then next week you discover if you were clever or could have done 20% better. It is a game.

    • uniqualz on 29/08/2017 - 10:25

      Haha. Yep.. an annoying game tbh. :-D

  • PVA on 28/08/2017 - 19:53
    +3

    I've never found the aggregators cheaper. They are good to sort hotels by price and then I go to the hotel directly and have always found the hotel cheaper, not by much but still cheaper.

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