Book Directly to Hotel or OTA?

How do you book your accommodation for your trip?

Nowadays most travellers prefer online booking because of a reason:convenient, you can either go to the hotel website and book directly with hotel or went to some online travel website like Expedia ,Booking.com (we call them OTA:online travel agency).Do you ever wondering which method will let you get the best offer for your trip?

Let us help you to choose the one most suitable for you.

Direct Booking
Booking Directly to Hotel only possible when you already know which hotel you want to stay.
After decided which hotel you want, search for their website or app to make booking.
Many traveller does not notice the advantage of direct booking because most of the benefit require you to be a member of the hotel loyalty program.Do not hesitate to sign up especially if it is free to enjoy the greatest benefit they offer.

1. Existence of Loyalty Program
   To encourage return guest, more and more hotel started membership program.Direct booking means hotel doesn't have to pay commission to OTA. By rewarding their guest using money they saved guest can gain more benefit while hotel loss nothing,a win-win situation. 
2. Special Privilege
   While OTA offer discount and promotion, they cannot offer privilege for their user without the hotel consent since they don't own any of the hotel.Being a member let you enjoy privilege like free upgrade room,free late C/out, free room service, is depend on what the hotel offer for their members.
3. Member Discount & Reward
   Theoretically hotel can offer you a lower price for room since they don't have to pay commission to third party. Especially when you book a large quantity of room,you can actually contact directly to hotel to get a quotation price with more discount.
4.  Know who to findBooking through OTA can be complicated when sudden issue happen,you might wonder who is the right person for you issue,the hotel?or the OTA? It's frustrating especially when it involve both party and both pushing responsibility to other.

Online Travel Agency
They don't really own any hotel,so basically they just help their client(hotel owner) to sell rooms and take part of the payment you made as commission.
Below are some of the advantages of OTA:

1. Variety of ChoiceYou just have to search a location at their website and they will provide a list of hotel for you to choose.
2. Convenient for survey
   Since OTA provide a list of hotel for you to choose, you can compare price and review between a few hotel that suit you.Especially when you didn't travel to that place before and need some information to help you decide your hotel.
3. Offer and Promotion
   OTA something offer some voucher or discount for any booking you make, if you notice only a certain hotel have discount,most probably the discount is offer by hotel to boost sales.
4. Reward
   Most of the OTA in the market right now offer reward for their user.The reward can be come in many form like rebate, points or discount.

Both ways of booking had their own merit and demerit.If you are a going to a new place for the 1st time, it is better to survey through OTA and choose the hotel suitable for you.However if you are a frequent traveller to a certain places, it will be wise to sign up as member for you regular visit hotel, hotel will not mind to be generous in exchange for a regular guest.