* search hotel at booking.com
* find that hotel at google
* call them directly, by actual phone
You will get a lower price always. Of course, you need to actually manually call them, which people don't want to do; but it always worked for me.
1) you will talk to a human
2) you will be able to talk about particular requests (like - say - higher or lower floor, an additional bed for your child, room with balcony, non standard breakfast, etc.)
3) the dates/times of your arrival and departure will be double checked interactively with the hotel clerk [0]
4) the rate will be double checked and confirmed [1] (besides very likely being lower, particularly if you are going to stay mmore than one or two days)
[0] it is not extremely rare that people make mistakes with the dates, when/if you arrive one day earlier it is usually not a problem (unless the hotel has no vacancies) but if you arrive one day later, that is a "no show", your money cannot be recovered
[1] it happens often enough that people books a double room ( but for one person) by mistake and then is surprised that the hotel asks for a supplement for the second person
* Find them at Google
* Call them directly
* Get a super expensive price and a tip to book online
I had a gf who was able to get a different experience but it always seemed she had to get the manager on the line to do so.
I am aware of booking's dirty tools to make you feel you have to book NOW! However, after around 100+ booking.com booking all around the world (including small villages in Amazonia or Laos) I am eternally grateful that for that extra 1$/night or so I get instant support with whatever probleem I had.
Obviously as middle man you take some part of the pie - though idea is that it's worth for everyone.
BTW - it's not that common to meet customer with 100+ reservations. So excuse me for asking - what do you think of the changes in the account area (My Trips)?
Currently I only have the android app (well, traveling again) and I am mostly satisfied with it.
However the web version I always found a disaster. Especially since I had a linked business account too, and the SSO just craps itself into a redirect loop when I try to logout from it.
Everything else seems to be very user-oriented and I am satisfied in general.
(ha, I also happen to know the storage system behind the backend ;-) )
When speaking Vietnamese, you get an extra discount.
Quite often I get a lower price or free goodies (ie. a bottle of wine) because I skipped booking.com