Trade secret that Booking Sites don't want you to know!

I'm going to let you in on a secret that big Booking Sites try very hard to disguise from you!

Did you realise that calling an accommodation establishment direct will almost certainly guarantee a significantly cheaper rate?

Booking sites such as Booking.com, Expedia and Agoda  (and the Search Engines that operate on their behalf to allow you to search and compare the best rates such as Wotif.com or HotelsCombined) are all provided rates by the individual accommodation establishment.

This means quite simply, a Hotel, Resort or Motel NEED to provide these entities with rates so they are actually able to sell roooms on our behalf.  

I'm sure this all makes sense, so I'll move to the next and most important point.  These entities charge a commission (and rightly so) for us to provide our rates on their site and gain exposure to a large amount of potential guests.  Now, stick with me here as I do have a point!

Selling rooms through our own website, we don't need to allow for a commission being taken from that price - however we do with these Booking Sites.  The majority of establishments will adjust rates to account for this commission and therefore increase the nightly rate (or tariff).  This would account for the rate being slightly higher than booking through the actual website - go ahead, test it out!

Jump onto www.wotif.com and search for a Villa at Amalfi Resort Busselton with, let's say 2 people to keep it simple.  Type in any amount of nights to stay at any time of the year, then write down the price.  Jump onto our direct website www.amalfiresort.com.au with exactly the same details and you will very quickly see a lower price for exactly the same thing.

These sites base their promotion around the fact that they can find you last minute and best available deals but in most cases this simply isn't true from the direct operator due to the fact that as mentioned above, we all account for the commission we need to pay by increasing the rates to them (third parties as we call them).

Bottom line is - always BOOK DIRECT TO SAVE! 

 I'm sure you have all seen that statement somewhere on your travels and it couldn't be more true!

This is just one more handy tip from us at Amalfi Resort Busselton - happy travels!

Jane