Elise Green

In 2017, I had a two-week trip to Italy and England planned. Everything was paid for, and non-refundable. Of course, I didn’t purchase travel insurance for this trip (I do now), and I learned my lesson the hard way. 

Hurricane Irma developed in the Atlantic, came barreling through the Caribbean, and then made landfall in Florida. At the time, I lived on Sanibel Island, which is a barrier island off of Florida’s west coast in the Gulf of Mexico. We were evacuated from our homes on the island, and were relocated to a hotel on the mainland. The day that Irma made landfall in Florida was the day I was supposed to be flying to Italy. Instead of going on this amazing vacation, I was stuck in a hotel room with my 4 pets, all of my belongings that I evacuated with (everything I couldn’t replace), and the hurricane had wiped out power for all of Southwest Florida. 

Before the storm hit, as I was prepping my home to be hit by a Category 3 hurricane, packing my valuables, and evacuating my pets off of the island, I was also frantically trying to rearrange and salvage my trip to Europe. Because I had used 3rd party booking sites to save a bit of money on the trip, the only way I could try to change dates or get refunds was to contact these third-party booking companies, which proved to be an absolute nightmare. 

They are Difficult to Contact

I had booked through known sites, like Expedia and booking.com and even then, I was on hold forever, I had to do online chats to get someone to call me back, and I had to contact them several times to get the proper service. When I finally did get to speak to someone, they weren’t sympathetic to my situation, and they said that their booking policies had to be followed, and there was no flexibility in rebooking me or giving me refunds. I actually contacted one of my hotels directly, and they said they couldn’t speak with me about my reservation, because I had booked through a third-party site. They told me that if I had booked directly through them, they would be able to accommodate me, no problem. I was so frustrated, and decided that from that point forward, I would only book direct with airlines, hotels, etc. 

Booking Direct Gives More Options

Booking direct with whatever airline or hotel you will be using is always the better option, even if it isn’t the cheapest option. With hotels or tours, I’ve actually found that many of them will match any third-party websites’ advertised prices. It’s in the hotel’s best interest for you to book directly with them as well, so I’ve found that they are willing to work with me when I find a cheaper rate online. 

Being able to speak with someone directly at the airline or hotel that you’ve booked with is priceless when you have an issue that you need help with. They value you as a customer and they generally have options available to help you reschedule you or give you a credit if you need to rearrange your travel plans. 

COVID Horror Stories

When COVID hit the world, travel was obviously completely disrupted. I heard horror story after horror story of people not being able to get in touch with third-party travel websites at all. There were endless conversations on social media about the difficulties of getting help from the third-party websites that they booked with. Even those of us who booked direct (thank goodness) had to wait hours to speak with airlines in order to arrange future flight credits for lost flights. I saw posts of people who were never able to speak with companies like Expedia or Priceline, and they lost out on thousands of dollars. I felt so bad for them, because I know how frustrating it was for me in 2017.  

In 2020, I had trips to Portugal, Hawaii, Turks & Caicos, Japan, Argentina, and Boston booked. It was going to be the best travel year of my life. I am so thankful that I had booked everything direct with the airlines and hotels. Most of my flights were all with Delta, and they are notorious for amazing customer service. Even with having to wait to speak with them for a few hours, all of my flights were fully credited to my account, no problem whatsoever. 

After my experience with Hurricane Irma in 2017, I only book hotel rooms that are fully-refundable, and this rule of mine proved crucial in 2020. I didn’t lose any money on the travel I had booked for 2020. I’m so thankful that I had learned my lesson in 2017, and that I had only booked direct. It was so easy to cancel or get credits for what I had booked. 

2017 and 2020 have absolutely proved to me that booking direct is unquestionably the only way to go when planning my travel.