According to some expert hoteliers, your hotel room fate can be sealed from the moment you make your booking, meaning you’ll end up with a disappointing spot if you’re not careful
Many holidaygoers make one big mistake that seriously raises their chances of a bad room long before they arrive at their destination.
There are plenty of tip guides online explaining how you can increase your odds of scoring a free upgrade, whether to business class on a plane or to a nicer hotel room. Tips range from slipping the check-in agent some chocolate to putting on a suit.
However, according to some expert hoteliers, your hotel room fate can be sealed from the moment you make your booking. Paul Scott, travel expert and founder of My Budget Break, told me: “Booking through a third-party website could lead to getting a worse room than if you had booked direct, but this isn’t necessarily a deliberate act.”
According to Paul, third-party websites can charge up to 25% in commission fees, so hotels prefer that you book direct. As a result, they offer incentives like discounts, extras, and room choices for those who do go straight to them.
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“For example, Hilton Hotels allows you to choose your room when you book directly as a Hilton Honors member. This means that if you book through a third party like Booking.com or Hotels.com, some of the better rooms (like being further away from the lifts or having better views) may already be taken, leaving you with the ‘not-so-nice’ room locations,” Paul added.
Ben Firth, senior account director at Gold79, reiterated the point and the value of booking directly. “Booking with third parties doesn’t mean you’ll be automatically assigned the worst room, but it means that you aren’t usually able to benefit from the perks that come with booking directly with the hotel itself,” he said.
“Booking direct also gives guests access to things that aren’t listed on third parties, such as packages that can include late check-out or a welcome drink, or room categories that are limited in number so are only sold on a direct basis. On top of that, booking direct also means you’ll get a better room rate.”
One analysis of 500 hotel stays booked through third-party sites showed that guests were five times more likely to be assigned rooms near elevators or ice machines, according to Mighty Travels.
A 2023 survey of hotel managers found that 62% prioritize direct bookings when assigning rooms, Mews reports.
One study conducted last year suggested that customers who booked through third-party sites spend an average of 18 minutes longer at check-in resolving room preference compared to those who booked direct. 78% of 1,000 surveyed travelers claimed they were unable to secure their preferred room type when booking through a third party—compared to only 23% who booked directly with hotels.
Tim Hentschel, who runs third-party booking website HotelPlanner.com, has pushed back against these suggestions.
“Speculation around customers landing the worst rooms when booking via third-party websites instead of directly through the hotel website are wide of the mark. I’ve tested this countless times and never found a difference in room or service depending on how I booked,” he told the Mirror.
“The room you get is more often a reflection of availability, not the website you booked on. Hotels rely heavily on third-party bookings to fill their rooms, with approximately 36% of hotel room bookings made via OTAs and third-party websites, compared to 21% booked directly through the hotel’s own online system.
“This means hotels around the world simply couldn’t afford to treat third-party bookings poorly as it would be very bad for business. If these guests were systematically handed the worst rooms, those hotels would quickly disappear from search results as reviews are so important in the hospitality industry.”