Expedia, go to hell.

[smileyeagle1021]

(I stick 3rd parties in the former smoking rooms and back near the train tracks. I'm not putting a guest who paid us far more in a crappy room.)

Yeah, I would give people who were paying less a better room than the 3rd party (because after we paid the fees to the 3rd party we'd still make more off the direct pay guest). It is amazing the difference there is in the exact same room type... gee, should I assign you in the standard king with a view of the foothills or a standard king with a view of the decommissioned pool... and if we oversell standard rooms, the 3rd parties will be the last ones upgraded to a deluxe room.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I was looking for a hotel room this weekend for our area Comic-Con, and I absolutely adore the Howard Johnson in that town, stayed there three times and had a blast every one of them. But I was looking for the cheapest rate, so out of curiosity, I nosed around nearly every third party booking site I knew of.

Got a 15% discount direct from the HoJo website for booking a week early and the whole bill for a two-night stay came to less than $75, and for a HoJo this place is pretty freaking swank, so I'm incredibly excited. Best any third party site offered me was $85 for the weekend. NYOPE. That ten dollars will be going straight to the Waffle House that shares their parking lot

(Seriously you guys their free breakfast bar has pancakes on it. PANCAKES.)

[Skittles88]

I was looking for a hotel room this weekend for our area Comic-Con, and I absolutely adore the Howard Johnson in that town, stayed there three times and had a blast every one of them. But I was looking for the cheapest rate, so out of curiosity, I nosed around nearly every third party booking site I knew of.

Got a 15% discount direct from the HoJo website for booking a week early and the whole bill for a two-night stay came to less than $75, and for a HoJo this place is pretty freaking swank, so I'm incredibly excited. Best any third party site offered me was $85 for the weekend. NYOPE. That ten dollars will be going straight to the Waffle House that shares their parking lot

(Seriously you guys their free breakfast bar has pancakes on it. PANCAKES.)

Best Western and Comfort Inn have make-your-own waffles :P

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I will admit, at first I drank the kool-aid and just thought that, by default, the 3rd party sites had better rates than going direct. It was only after I did some digging that I realized the reverse was usually the case.

D'oh!

[mathnerd]

I've used third party sites to book large vacations. If I was just booking the hotel, the hotel's sites always give a better rate, but when you add airfare and rental car, I've never been able to do better using the individual sites combined. That said, I'm a pretty laid back customer. I've only once asked to have my room changed, and that was because even though I paid extra to guarantee a certain room type, that's not what I was put in. The room type I requested was accessible. I have a kid who uses a wheelchair. I paid extra to make sure I got a room with grab bars in the shower, and I did expect to get that much, at least.

I've never used Expedia though. I've never found any real benefit to using them, and their website is annoying to use.

[Ironclad Alibi]

You know what would be best? If EVERY single hotel dropped Expedia. Maybe then they'd get the point.

That won't happen because the people contracting with Expedia never have to deal with them, just like in all other stupid corporate decisions.