Originally Posted by
Kagehitokiri
with hotel offers, im assuming its fine to book direct with hotel, rather than through central reservations? considering the way they run the credit card charge is the same?
for example some corporate/contract rates have to be booked direct right?
I don't know if there's one answer across all hotel programs. It also depends what you're after.
If you all you care about is the Amex Offer, then any way of booking that ends up charged by the hotel would work. But if you also want to earn points, bonuses, elite status credit, etc, at that hotel program at the same time, you have to book in a way that qualifies for that.
And thus for each hotel program, it can vary what kind of booking methods they allow for counting towards hotel points, hotel promos, etc.
I've use the hotel program website for Hilton, SPG, and La Quinta Amex offers, and in each of those cases the Amex offer worked fine. But then I always book cancellable rates, which are indeed charged by the hotel. It's advance purchase rates which have a danger of being charges by the hotel program itself, but cancellable rates (that involve no deposit), I don't see why those would be a problem booking the through the hotel program central reservations.
But which corporate/contract rates have to be booked direct with the hotel and which can booked through the hotel program central reservations depends very much on the specifics (both the hotel program and the specific rate).