Is it cheaper to book a room by calling the hotel direct rather than booking online?

IS IT POSSIBLE TO CALL A HOTEL DIRECT TO GET A LOWER PRICE THAN THAT ADVERTISED ON THE WEBSITE?

It is, at least if you're booking a hotel in Australia.

Until recently, hotels that signed up with online travel agents such as Hotels.com, Wotif, Venere or Booking.com were prohibited under the terms of the OTA contract from offering a lower price to guests who book direct with them.

This is known as parity pricing and it protects the OTAs from guests who might otherwise use their website as a research tool and contact the hotel to ask for a cheaper price.

However, online travel agents take a big cut, typically between 15 and 25 per cent, and this is passed on in the room rate that a hotel charges its guests.

In September the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled that hotels can now offer a lower price to guests than that advertised on the OTA's website, but only to those who call the hotel direct, to walk-in customers and to members of its loyalty programs.

Hotels are not allowed to undercut the rate advertised on the OTA's website on their own website.

Many hoteliers are adamant that the decision did not go far enough and that they should be allowed to also advertise a lower rate on their own websites.

Since this would suck all the oxygen from the OTAs, they would no longer see any reason to exist and hotels would cease to benefit from the vast market penetration that a listing with an OTA presents.