12/09/2025
A man drives in to a fuel station to buy petrol. He pulls up next to the pump and as he is attempting to get out of the car a young gentleman taps on the window and asks “ would you like me to add your fuel sir?”
Why thank you, that is very kind of you young man. They agree that £50 worth of fuel is what is required and the young man removes the nozzle from the holder and starts to put fuel in the car. He stops after £42.50 and promptly pours the remainder into a Jerry can and takes it away.
Confused by this the man asks “why did I not get my full £50 worth of fuel?
Oh, sorry, did I not explain that for the service I take 15% for myself.
That’s outrageous says the man, I drove right up to the pump I required fuel from and you interrupted me getting out of my car. I could quite easily have fuelled my own car and saved this extortionate cost.
Well said the young man, you were free to do just that but chose to take my offer.
Would you do this again people?, probably not. But when it comes to booking a room you do exactly that, and what’s more, you do ALL the time.
As a B&B owner I have become more and more frustrated with the multiple sites on line that want to book a room on your behalf.
Let me explain how these parasites work and educate you in the process, save you some money and the small B&B owners up and down the country can hopefully earn a decent wage without having to hand thousands of pounds a year of YOUR money to these companies.
Firstly, just like the pump attendant, they interrupt the on-line link that under normal circumstances would take you, as a prospective guest directly to our own web site.
While standing in my own guest house dining room and searching for my own B&B I find a “bookings” service pop up on the screen and would need to scroll through several of these before finding the B&B that I am actually standing in. MADNESS!!
So, needless to say, very little of our business is generated from searches as these companies grab your attention and make it so easy for you to book a room while pickpocketing you without your knowledge.
Like many small guest houses and B&B’s up and down the country we find ourselves registering with one of these multi billion pound companies to get business.
This is where is gets “cute” on there behalf. Your site has to be linked to their site so that bookings can be updated, rooms are not double booked. The pricing is taken from the B&B website so you can’t even offer a cheaper price if your guest books direct.
Furthermore, the bookings site is “future proof”. Any cost of living price increase by the B&B generates additional revenue for the bookings site. These companies just can’t lose!!
So, who’s paying too much for their stay? YOU ARE. Small businesses can’t absorb this cost so it’s included in the price.
Here’s an example:
Cost per double room £95 per night
Stay duration 3 nights
Total cost £285
As a guest you paid the booking service a fee of £42.75 for the privilege of using them and you didn’t even know it.
Meanwhile you're thinking that the room is a little on the expensive side, completely unaware how much you have just given away to the bookings service provider.
If a B&B turns over £30k through a booking provider they will be handing over £4500 of your money to them.
If the Guest house or B&B owner is giving thousands of pounds a year away to these monsters why can’t we do a deal?
YES WE CAN!!
The answer is simple, find the place you want to stay on the bookings service providers website and then scroll on to find the website of the place you want to stay. Give them a call, drop them an email or even reserve on line.
The majority of Guest house and B&B owners have their own web site and it is as easy to book with them as it is through the bookings website with all the same cancellation and payment policies.
I guarantee that you will get at least a 7.5% reduction. You win, the B&B win and the multi billion pound bookings service doesn’t.
So you want a cheaper room? Then GO DIRECTLY TO THE OWNERS. It’s as simple as that!!
If enough people do this then we can dump the booking service and emend our prices accordingly.
Happy travels everyone
