Do not book any accommodation with an Online Travel Agent

"Why you should support your independant hotels and "bed and breakfast" operators
and not book any accommodation with an Online Travel Agent"

Sure, they provide a small service, but you and everyone else, are paying up to 30% more for that.

What are Internet/Online Travel Agents?

"Examples of the Beasts are: Booking.com, Trivago, Expedia. Agoda, Whatif
and a host of other sites that have jumped on the bandwagon of easy money.

It is a con.

  1. You book with them because their slick advertiseing has conditioned you into thinking that you will get the best hotel for the best price.
This is false. Their business model is to insinuated themselves between you and the hotel and to take their sizeable commission.
You may not mind them taking something for relieving you of the task of finding a hotel room but what would you consider reasonable.
Would you pay 15-30% of the booking??
Because in reality you are paying their commission, the hotel is not.


  2. Once their system is set up, they do none of the work but collect sometimes, up to 30% of the money that you pay for a hotel stay.
It is literally billions of dollars worth of income worldwide, for just keeping their programs on line and promoting themselves.
In 2015, 84 % of hotel bookings, world wide, were made through these Agencies.
That is a huge amount of money. That is why so many players have tried to enter the field. They have no real running costs, no shopfront and very few staff. for the amount of income generated.
Their only major cost is the self serving promotion of themselves to keep themselves between the customer and the actual service provider.
That is why they are constantly elbowing their way onto your television screen and bombarding you with popups on your PC.

It is money for jam.


  3. The business that actually does the work and provides a real service in the real world has to add that cost to their tariff.
And so the overall cost of hotel stays worldwide increases. The cost must be passed on to the customers,
because hotels are not going to work for nothing. And all grown ups know that in this world there ain't nuffin for nuffin, unless it is a con.

And so the big picture is that these OTAs promote themselves as getting each individual customer a better deal
but because all hotel costs go up, the better deal is where it would have been if the OTAs got out of the way.
But by dealing with the hotel itself you can often get a better deal.
What the OTAs work on is the advertised internet price of  a hotel room but you should talk to the hotel itself and ask for their best price.


  4. Hotels are now trapped into staying with their parasites.
Initially, because they gained some advantage over their competitors they were happy to feed the beast;
and after all it is the customers money. But now that nearly all hotels have their beasts, the competitive advantage is gone.
The hotels are trapped, sometimes fully dependent on their parasites for bookings and so cannot leave them.
The parasites now have all the power and dictate the terms and the commission. It is a brave hotel that steps outside of the system.

But if all the parasites were magically removed all at once, (which is not going to happen)
the system would still work, but 30% of the money would not be needed.
Your money.

a. Sure. Use the parasite's website to find the hotel that you want.

b. But then find that hotel's own website and book directly with that hotel.

c. Or do that little bit extra and search the internet for those brave and independent hotels that have never succumbed. That is where the gems and the true best deals are.

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