After all, you or rather the hotels get what you pay
for!
People wonder why they can book a hotel room for less via an agent
then they can direct with the hotel. We will explain why in logical
order;
1) Many tour group hotels only maintain direct reservation rates
to make it look like agent / tour group rates provide substantial
discounts when they do not.
2) Many hotels cheat on taxes and service charges. For example,
when they deal with a foreign agent / tour operator, hotels will
use so called "collection" bank accounts which are actually
offshore accounts which they do not declare to the tax man (in
places like Indonesia this is the norm and there is even a name
for it; the "Twin book system" with one set of accounts
for the management, another for the tax man).
3) Many hotels assign guests from agents / tour operators to older
/ less desirable rooms.
4) By selling rooms in bulk to agents / tour operators, hotels
reduce their administration costs.
