Direct booking needs to make a come back. Middleman platforms got too comfortable charging increasingly large fees to both seller and buyers while providing less and less value. I personally started booking direct from hotels and airfares unless I'm forced otherwise or direct is pricier.
My first job as a SWD was at a company that built a reservation system, they had integrations with AirBnB even though our product did everything they offered. The only difference was that AirBnB had more/different traffic, so it was beneficial to also have a subscription there.
Little did they know, if AirBnB never existed that traffic would still find way through search engines or ads
I was happy to use booking.com for that reason for many years. When there was a issue booking would fix and discuss it for me. 7 years ago.
I've had 2 interactions with booking in the last year and both went horrible. One booking literally broke several booking rules, and asked for a lot more money after already paying $300 a night. And still I had to make a drama to get my right and the hotel is still online without anything. They lost $15 and I lost hours of painfully calling around.
I bought a camper that year and haven't used anything but the hotel site itself ever since.
Downside of direct booking is that you need accounts dedicated for each hotel that can be hacked.
Of course the "middlemen" can be hacked as well, but the likelihood of someone exfiltrating credit card data from the shitty fossil wordpress installation of the hotel is much more real.
