Re:Playa Los Arcos on the beach
North Star,
Booking with the hotel direct does not mean you will A.) get a better rate. B.) Get a better room C.) get a reservation at the time you want.
Right now, 99% of the hotels are not renting their Christmas/New Years weeks as they have not set the prices and because they sell blocks of rooms to places like this site, Travelocity, Expedia, and other travel agencies.
In all tourist areas, there are expos held each year where agents and hotels come together to buy and sell space. Say a hotel has 100 rooms, they try to sell blocks of rooms to as many different agencies as possible, maybe even as high as 80% of all their rooms. If the agency (cies) do not sell ALL of their rooms a couple of weeks out, they revert back to the hotel to sell.
Think of it this way. If you are a manufacturer of shoes, you do not just sell your shoes through your company, you look for people to sell your shoes for you. The more people placing orders and selling your shoes is what you want, same with hotels. They would rather pay companies a commission to sell their product than to pay staff, promote and do all their reservations in house.
I know some hotels that have certain rooms that they cannot even rent themselves as they have blocked them out for other companies that have been highly successful renting at them 100% year around.
Instead of dealing direct with a company, just do a good search onthe hotel name and see what other places/agencies are selling it for. You will see a difference in price, especially of one company sells a ton of rooms for them. The more an agency sells for a hotel, the better contract they get, this rates will be different for agencies, the hotels itself, and for last minute sell offs.
Oh, most Christmas?New Years rates are not out until summer, if not later.
