Thoughts? That was complicated and beyond my frame of reference.

I think you seem to have made up your mind! I would caution that you probably won’t get an upgrade with the Hotels.com reservation.

I haven’t stayed at the Ritz, so can’t comment. But bhrubin posted something not too long ago about some site visits.

I would book Virtuoso for a higher category, therby maximizing likely upgrade results to yield even greater value.

I was just having a conversation with management of a good hotel that would kill for Virtuoso membership. They know those TAs bring in high quality guests, and to say they take note of that is an understatement. So there are intangible factors. You could luck into a huge upgrade if the stars aligned and they happened to need to do so for availability reasons. With Virtuoso your booking is prioritzed for that. With an OTA booking, you’re likely at or near the bottom of the hotel’s list for upgrade priority. Frankly, even within a category there can be huge differences. Some hotels have Deluxe rooms that are, for example, connecting rooms to large suites and have privileged views. They might also have Deluxe rooms of similar size that are next to the lifts and overlook garbage bins, HVAC units, or the wall of an adjacent building. Indeed, room allocation makes a tremendous difference at most hotels, even within category booked.

I don’t see the point of staying at The Ritz and leaving value on the table just to save a few hundred dollars. Penny wise, pound foolish in my view.

OTA bookings are viewed by the hotels and management as a way to simply fill any left over rooms (including last sell rooms). With Virtuoso you have a sales manager within the hotel who has a strong incentive to make you and your TA happy, to keep you coming back and your TA bringing them more business. There is no comparison.

Another negative about OTAs are the often inflexible cancellation and change policies. Stuff happens, and if you’re booking Virtuoso you have much more flexibility, and someone advocating for you to get a favorable outcome and rebook or change dates for you.

Compare being treated that way with being on hold with OTA customer service in the Philippines.... press one for English, press two for Espanol...

OTAs are basically tolerated as necessary evils by high end hotels. They don’t like forking over huge commissions to websites that often bring in the least valuable customers. They do it because it’s their last resort to fill empty rooms which otherwise would go unsold.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, use fewer excalamation points in your posts.

I actually enjoy this iteration!!

My favorite is Le Bristol. Virtuoso and Pearl Partner upgrades are confirmed at the time of booking.