this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
271 points (100.0% liked)

Buy European

6173 readers
600 users here now

Overview:

The community to discuss buying European goods and services.


Matrix Chat


Rules:

  • Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.

  • Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:

  • Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.

  • No russian suggestions.

Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:

  • No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia
  • No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies
  • No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users
  • Do not share intentionally false or misleading information
  • Do not spam or abuse network features.
  • Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
  • No generative AI content

Benefits of Buying Local:

local investment, job creation, innovation, increased competition, more redundancy.

European Instances

Lemmy:

Matrix:


Related Communities:

Buy Local:

Continents:

European:

Buying and Selling:

Boycott:

Countries:

Companies:

Stop Publisher Kill Switch in Games Practice:


Banner credits: BYTEAlliance


founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
 
top 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Booking directly with the hotel usually also makes it easier to resolve problems when things go wrong, rather than the hotel telling you (correctly) that you have to contact booking.com about it, and then booking.com trying to refuse any liability while you get bounced from pillar to post.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

This is why I stopped using sites like Agoda for over a decade. Only time I don't book direct is when its through my credit card rewards portal, redeeming points for nights.

[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My wife has a friend who works as a hotel receptionist. She said they often give guests free upgrades when they book directly through the hotel website. I still use booking.com to get an overview of available hotels in an area. But once I've decided on a hotel, I'll try to go to their own website.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I was going to say, it's more of a discovery tool

[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Hotel? Trivago (it's a travel agency from Dรผsseldorf, Germany)

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago

This ad became such a good meme

[โ€“] chilburn06 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Trivago is owned by Expedia Group which is a US company

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Nooooooooooooo~

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My experience has been the opposite. I find a place on booking/priceline/$whatever, then I go to the hotel's website, and it's ~30% more expensive. I'd prefer to go directly through the hotel, but they keep charging me more, which never made sense to me.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

sounds like they're trying to be a loss leader? entice everyone in with artificially low prices, become a monopoly, and jack prices up.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

That sounds possible, but I'd probably attribute it to hotels being bad at managing their pricing

[โ€“] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

I normally use booking.com for about 3 times a year or so. Now just using it to browse and will book directly.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

I travel a lot and it's extremely rare to find a better rate directly through the hotel than using booking, priceline or expedia. This websites usually get rooms in bulk to re sell

Booking is my least favorite and priceline is becoming my go-to. I do try to cross check the reviews and pictures from different websites. Sometimes a 9.5 on booking is a 3 stars on google

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Try getting a refund from this company, even if you depart the most ghetto, moldy place in existence and directly purchase another stay. I took pictures of the filth and it did not matter. You also canโ€™t photograph a moldy smell.

We went in circles with these guys for 2 weeks. Basically, they called the place, the place said it was fine, therefore, itโ€™s fine.

Pay direct. Pictures and reviews lie and Booking did not honor cancellation with 15% penalty. They kept it all. Iโ€™m still annoyed.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I went to Oslo once and when I checked I found a cheap stay like 25โ‚ฌ/night. But apparently it was a scam and the listing doesn't exists, and many have fall for it and reported it and wrote about it in the reviews. Booking still keeps it and refuse to refund.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Stuff like that is infuriating and will cause me to actively avoid Booking.scam and other services. When users report something and biting is done... Like what is the point of even using your site!?

[โ€“] Tiger 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The commissions Booking.com and AirBnB take from the hotels are about 15-20%, fyi.