First-party websites to book directly + better aggregators/search like ChatGPT are eroding this value pretty rapidly though. If they leaned into comprehensive trip planning they might have a shot of staying relevant.
I see this in a bunch of the responses, that these sites are great for "discovery". I don't have a preference one way or another, but I'm wondering... why not, say, Google Maps? Go to the locale you want, search for hotels, voila. There's your discovery.
Booking is the only site I've ever found that allows you to search by "has bathtub". It's not always correct - they might have some rooms with tubs, but not all - but it's a damned sight better than random chance or visiting every single hotel website.
Similar to the other responder, I think Booking.com had the best dataset for some random features like a hot tub (specifically big hot tub, not bathtub). The problem is that it only searches for hotels with the big hot tub, if you want that actual room you usually need to book direct.
It also yielded some good results for Japanese ryokan (traditional spa hotel), more so than the other search engines. Google is fine as well but tends to lean more towards big hotel chains IME.
Not saying its perfect (nobody does ryokan well at all), and the more familiar I get the more I'll tend to book direct, its just one search tool out of many. If it went away tomorrow I wouldn't miss it terribly.
To put it another way: the hotels are the customer, not the guests. Expedia/booking.com are helping the hotels with inventory management. A guest is just the way these sites offset their costs.
Also many small guesthouses and hotels do not have online booking, although often they have enquiry forms.
If something goes wrong, and I book through booking.com I'm protected. So, unless I'm getting a big discount to use the hotel's own booking system, exactly why shouldn't I use booking.com?
If you book a hotel directly and something gets screwed up, the hotel is able to change your reservation or refund you directly.
If you book through a third party, the hotel can't help you since they don't have your money, nor can they change the reservation since they didn't make it, the third party did. You have to talk to the third party, and then the third party has to talk to the hotel. It adds additional steps for all interactions.
"If something goes wrong with the hotel own booking system..." - the third party is using an interface into the hotel's own booking system, and that can introduce problems of its own.
You don't see them, because they don't have a website.
bn-l•6mo ago
Interesting angle