[neoglow]

Booking at the venue itself will almost always be cheaper and provide more luxuries like a free drink in the bar or free breakfast.

The third party takes a cut of the cost. The hotel wants that cut badly, so just call them up, say you found a cheaper price at the third party and see what they do. They will likely give you a better offer and they themselves will have a better profit as well in the proces.

[bogota]

How much are you really saving? I value my time much more than I do saving $20. Booking.com does provide a really nice UI for finding great places as well.

[omnibrain]

That's ok if you book a single hotel from time to time. But if you book several hotels for a road trip (our last Scotland road trip would have been 12 different hotels/BnBs, and because it was during a holiday season and we intended to visit islands just doing the classical "BnB" strategy of driving into town in the afternoon and look for a BnB was not feasible) having everything on a single site is hard to beat.

And with Covid hitting in early 2020 it was even easier to cancel everything on one site with just a few clicks.

[Moru]

Some of those hotel third party sites demands that the hotel don't give any other price than what they have on the third party site. So you really have to call to have a chance at a better price.