Take a direct route to your city break

IT’S the prime time for city breaks, and many of us will use one of the big online agents to book accommodation.

This is hardly surprising. For many hotels, agents such as booking.com, laterooms.com, hotels.com and expedia.co.uk account for a large proportion of their business.

Type the name of a hotel into Google and the likelihood is that its listing on an agency website will appear at the top of the results.

Look at reviews on TripAdvisor and chances are there will be a prominent ‘best prices’ display of deals through various agents.

However, it’s still well worth considering going direct to a hotel or B&B to make a booking – or at least to see what deals they have.

Here’s an example of why. I recently stayed at a hotel in Bath and discovered that if you book direct, breakfast is included in the rate, but go through booking.com and the rate is room-only: if you want breakfast, it will cost you £12.50 a head each day.

Agents charge hotels commission of anything from 15 to 30 per cent, which is why direct bookings are much preferred by many hotels like the one just mentioned in Bath. (The owner didn’t want it named in this article for fear of annoying booking. com, which accounts for much of his business.) The obvious way for hotels to encourage us to book direct would be to offer lower prices than those available through agents.

But it’s not that straightforward: in its contract with a hotel, an agent usually insists the hotel offers the same rates on its own website as on the agency website. So many hotels resort to enticing people to book

direct with added-value perks, such as including the cost of breakfast.

In Amsterdam, the Hotel Estherea not only charges £4 per person less for breakfast but also offers a later checkout time, and a bottle of prosecco or a canal cruise for longer stays.

The other key reason to book direct is the ability to communicate with someone who has first-hand knowledge of the place, and request a specific room. You may also be able to negotiate a deal.

All that said, using online agents certainly has its advantages too.

The agents can be time-saving, one-stop shops, and the main players feature hundreds of places to stay in key cities.

For example, market leader booking.com has more than 230 available hotels and 120 available B&Bs in Venice for a couple of nights in late October. I can narrow down the selection to those within a particular price range, those that have wi-fi, a restaurant, or are in specific district.

Details provided on individual properties on booking.com are good. As well as photos and a list of facilities, there are usually reviews from previous guests. And on agency sites, cancellation terms are often more favourable than for a direct booking.

Price-comparison website trivago.co.uk is a good starting point for finding best deals through online hotel agents, though the prices vary little in my experience.

Make sure deals are properly comparable, with the same category of room, and check whether breakfast and other charges are included.

If you know which hotel you want to book, I’d turn first to TripAdvisor – it flags up which of the leading online agents can book the hotel and their rates. Sometimes it even shows the price of booking direct.