Whether you're travelling for work or leisure – picking a hotel room ultimately comes down to price. For many years, many travellers were under the impression that the best deal would be found on online travel agencies (or OTA’s) like booking.com or Expedia – however, now hotels are fighting back.

We discuss the top 5 benefits of booking directly with a hotel as opposed to an OTA. 

1. Skip out on indirectly paying for fees and commission

When receiving bookings through OTA sites, hotels need to pay commission between 10% to 25% of the total booking value at times, which means that the price you see on an OTA is likely inflated. 

Our tip? If you find a lower price on an OTA compared to the actual hotel website – it’s worth it to give the hotel a call as the chances of them happily offering you a better discount are extremely high!

2. It may be easier to change or amend your booking when booking directly 

There could be an instance where you would need to either postpone or even prepone your stay. However, if you made use of an online travel agency to make your booking, then the hotel may not be as flexible towards these kinds of requests (as they've already had to pay the OTA their commission). You’ll be asked to make this change directly through the original booking site where you may need to pay exorbitant prices to change your booking dates.

However, if your booking is made directly via the hotel then it’s likely that they'll be happier to make such amendments should they have the availability – and it’ll cost you less too!

3. Hotels are more accommodating than OTA's towards special occasion requests 

Whether it’s a birthday, wedding night or anniversary – most hotels will be more than happy to try and incorporate something special to your stay, whether its rose petals on your bed or two glasses of complimentary champagne.

The same can’t be said about bookings made through third-party websites as they have no personal connection to you or the hotel. 

4. More likely to be accommodated into seemingly fully booked or sold-out hotels 

Even though a hotel may seem completely “sold out” on an OTA – it’s worth your time to give the hotel a call directly because many hotels only list a portion of their room on OTA’s and keep some exclusively for direct bookings. 

Give them a call or send an email to be accommodated for your preferred dates. 

5. Enjoy additional benefits when booking directly

To encourage an increase in direct bookings, hotels offer many advantages like free Wi-Fi, breakfast or even exclusive discount codes available to guests to choose to book directly through the hotel website.

Want to enjoy all the perks that come with booking through a hotel directly over through an OTA then book your next stay directly through us here.