Why your hotel room costs three different prices on different sites

A traveller searching for a room at the same London hotel this week could see a £65 difference between Booking.com, Expedia and the hotel’s own website. With commission structures, dynamic algorithms and private deals all at play, the gap is rarely random — and rarely in the customer’s favour.

How much do prices really differ?

In a non-scientific check on 15 March 2025, a standard double room at the four-star Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London was listed at:

The same room, same date, with no breakfast, free cancellation. That’s a £35 spread — and it’s far from unusual. Consumer group Which? analysed 70 hotel bookings in 2023 and found that prices for identical rooms varied by up to 52% across different platforms. In one case, a Manchester hotel cost £89 on one site and £155 on another.

The phenomenon is not limited to London. A random sample of 10 three- and four-star hotels in Edinburgh showed an average price difference of 28% between the cheapest and most expensive online listing on the same day.

Why do OTAs show such different prices?

Online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com negotiate their own commission rates with hotels, typically between 12% and 25% of the room rate. Those rates are confidential, so one OTA may accept a lower margin to undercut a rival, while another passes on its higher commission to the customer.

In addition, many hotels now sign “rate parity” agreements that forbid them from offering a lower price anywhere else. However, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has warned that such contracts can restrict competition. In a 2020 review, the CMA found that some large OTAs prohibited hotels from offering discounts on other platforms, even if the hotel absorbed the commission. This practice has been scrutinised by regulators across Europe, with Austria and Italy banning broad parity clauses in 2018.

Yet even without strict parity, OTAs can manipulate the price you see through “dynamic commission” systems. A hotel may pay a higher commission for higher placement in search results, and that cost filters down to the final guest price. The result: the same room can appear at three different numbers depending on which OTA the hotel wants to favour that day.

Dynamic pricing — and the ghost of your browsing history

Many OTAs and airlines use “personalised pricing” based on cookies, device type, location and browsing history. A Which? investigation in 2023 found that a researcher checking the same hotel from a mobile phone in central London saw a price 12% higher than a colleague searching from a desktop in Birmingham. This is not illegal, but the CMA has said it may be unfair if not clearly disclosed.

Some sites also show prices that include or exclude “service fees” or “resort fees” — particularly for hotels outside the UK. The CMA’s 2019 enforcement action forced Booking.com, Expedia and others to display total prices upfront after a two-year investigation found hidden charges were widespread. Yet a quick scan of European hotel pages today still reveals small-print exclusions for tourist taxes or wi-fi add-ons.

Even search engines like Google Hotels add another layer. They aggregate rates from multiple OTAs and the hotel itself, but the cheapest link is often an OTA that charges a different commission. The “Google price” is not a guarantee — it can change in seconds as algorithms re-rank.

Direct booking — the myth of the exclusive discount

Hotels encourage guests to book direct with promises of “best rate guaranteed” or perks like free breakfast. But a 2024 Which? survey found that direct rates were the cheapest in only 34% of cases. In the rest, one of the OTAs undercut the hotel’s own website — sometimes because the hotel ran a flash sale on a single platform, or because the OTA had negotiated a lower net rate in exchange for volume.

Loyalty programmes also skew the picture. Members of Booking.com’s Genius scheme or Expedia’s Rewards can see discounts of 10–20% that are invisible to other users. That means the same room can have three prices: the standard OTA price, the reduced member price, and the direct rate with added value (e.g., late checkout). The customer must weigh up which version saves them more. More detail on how hotel rates are set and compared across booking sites is set out in HotelsPedia’s guide to comparing hotel rates, compiled by hotel-reference site HotelsPedia.

Meanwhile, some hotels use “channel management” software that automatically adjusts rates across OTAs and their own website multiple times a day based on demand, occupancy and competitor pricing. A room rate at 9am can be £20 cheaper than the same room at 2pm, regardless of which site you use.

What can travellers do to navigate the confusion?

Consumer advocates offer a few practical steps. Citizens Advice recommends comparing at least three sites for the same hotel and date, clearing your browser cookies or using incognito mode to reduce personalised pricing, and checking the hotel’s own website before finalising the booking. If the price is identical, book direct — it makes cancellation and dispute resolution simpler.

Watch for hidden extras. The CMA requires OTAs to show the total price (including taxes and unavoidable fees) in the first price you see. If you spot a discrepancy, you can report it to the CMA via its website. ABTA – The Travel Association also advises members to clearly display all charges, but its code only covers ABTA members, not every OTA.

Finally, consider using independent price comparison tools that do not accept commission — though these are rare. The key is to treat any single price as a starting point, not a final truth. As the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations make clear, misleading price practices are illegal, but the line between “dynamic” and “deceptive” can be thin.

Sources and further reading

• CMA hotel online booking investigation (2020)
• Which? hotel booking site comparison (2024)
• Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (GOV.UK)
• Citizens Advice – checking prices online
• ABTA – booking with confidence

Sources checked 2026-06-29.