Hotel 3rd party booking

Had to go to a funeral this weekend – on Easter we learned where everyone was staying and I booked a room on my phone at what I thought was the Hilton site and prepaid for a room. At the hotel they had my reservation and I gave them a card etc. Things were busy, and I wasn’t paying attention when I checked out today. When I got home I saw that I had been charged again at checkout. I had to call the hotel, then whatever reservations.com is to get the process rolling to sort it out. I am confident that they will cancel the second charge, but two things stuck out:

#1 The site I booked through looked exactly like a Hilton.com site. I am usually pretty aware of those type things, but I guess I consented to book through reservations.com

#2 The booking through reservations.com cost $80.61 more (2 nights) than the Hilton itself charged. I consented to the higher cost, so whatever, but I was under the impression that the 3rd party sites got rooms at a discount so they could charge a tiny bit less and fill the rooms.

I will just be calling the places in person in the future to double check (I have done this in the past and found the prices the same).

I stay in hotels all the time. 130+ nights a year. I use Priceline. I’ve had good luck with them. Usually when you get charged twice, it’s because someone working the hotel desk was lazy and didn’t see it was a prepaid reservation. It is hit or miss on which is cheaper. Usually a 3rd party is cheaper. But some hotels will run a managers special and it’ll be $20 cheaper then their own website lists. So if your really playing the game. Call the hotel first. And the try every where else

FYI, if you are going to use your phone for booking, then get the hotel’s app and install that. It makes booking much easier and you know you are booking directly with the hotel when using the app.

I travel all the time for work and I have found that most of the time, you get the best rates from the hotel itself as long as you have AAA, AARP, or are willing to prepay.

Mikkel Broas wrote:

FYI, if you are going to use your phone for booking, then get the hotel’s app and install that. It makes booking much easier and you know you are booking directly with the hotel when using the app.

I travel all the time for work and I have found that most of the time, you get the best rates from the hotel itself as long as you have AAA, AARP, or are willing to prepay.

I’d agree with this statement as well, especially with one-off travel plans. I always check out the discount sites first then go directly to the hotel site and book through them but never follow links – type out the hotel name and city in your search engine and go from there.

The discount sites are fine, no problems with them, but I’ve also heard of double charging plus if your travel plans change you’re SOL vs. if you booked directly with the hotel, they can rebook/refund/give credits depending on what rate you purchased. Hope this helps, good luck.

My wife has been bit by this twice. Getting charged twice, then having to spend half a day disputing charges and usually having to pay the greater charge of the 2.
I’ve always called direct to make reservations. I’ve never had a problem.

If you reserved with a credit card, I would contact them and explore if this charge was made through a fraudulent link to a web site and if they agree, the charge may be cancelled and a flag go to server. At least relate your story to them.
If not, lesson learned.

Oh, I never book third party Call (Telephone) the hotel directly, book through the desk, and beat everbodies’ price.

That’s a bad deal Tindall. Good thing you caught it, I’d bet a lot of people never look closely at the statements and catch the double-up.

David Blais wrote:

I use Priceline. I’ve had good luck with them.

I have too, but the thing I’ve noticed recently is that with some hotel chains and rate categories you don’t get the “frequent flyer” points with that chain’s loyalty program for that stay. I noticed this with Hyatt last year, but now it appears others are doing it as well.

So just a “read the fine print” caution there because IMO if you’re really racking up the points with a chain, it’s worth paying the extra $5-10 a night to be sure you get the points, especially on a long stay.

It looks to me like the hotel chains are really working hard to cut the consolidators out of the equation. Except for cut-rate sites where you don’t see the hotel name like Priceline and Booking.com, I haven’t found a cheaper rate on a consolidation site in a couple of years now. The best rate on all the booking sites is the same as the hotel’s website or it’s even cheaper on the chain’s own site.

Grouse.

I travel for work about 180+ days a year. I don’t do the booking sites anymore for that very reason. I’ve been double charged quite a few times and the rooms are usually cheaper through their own site. I’ve also gotten to a hotel and either the hotel or the booking site lost my reservation

I have a rewards card through Hilton which is my preferred hotel and the Marriott which is for when there isn’t a Hilton(Juarez Mexico). I have always gotten as good or better prices through the hotel itself. Those sites are good if your going spur of the moment they seem to be cheaper, but when it’s a planned trip it’s easier to do the old fashioned way.

I only caught this because I have the app for our primary daily use credit card set to ding whenever a charge is made. My wife hates it that I see everything immediately, but I would otherwise not pay attention.