Booking get 15% of the transaction so it makes sense to ask for 10% off when calling the hotel directly (which increases the profit of the hotel by and saves you some).

Eccept that is breach of contract with the booking service and can cost them the contract[1]. Since everyone is using booking.com or hotels.com, they will quickly shut down due to no customers. Hostage situation.

[1] At least last time I looked into it. Haven't had a change to travel since a few years.

I just tell them that I saw a better deal on gestures broadly the Internet and they give me some discounted rate.

This happens all the time with every single type of service provider, why would some shitty service like Booking.com get to mandate no one can offer any other discounts?

What, just because there's some sort of aggregator service out there that you've partnered with you are not allowed to offer coupons, discounts, or your own booking services yourself? I would find that VERY difficult to believe.

Plus, based on what we're hearing everywhere, potentially losing your contract w/Booking.com seems like a blessing.

The hotels are required to have the same price on direct contact as they post on hotels.com so no. But I can be certain that there is actually a room waiting for me when I arrive. I have been standing there enough times with a booking confirmation in hand but the hotel not finding any booking and out of rooms. So far they managed to get me somewhere to sleep even though they have had to pay to house me at another hotel a couple of times.

If I'm not remembering wrong, since a while back, in EU the hotels are free to set their prices lower even if they are on Booking.com.

I'm very happy to hear that

They have to have the same price for “non members”. You can sign up for free to the hotels loyalty program and book a lower price.

You also get points if it is a chain hotel that can be used for future stays. The points can be worth from 7% to 20% of the cost based on what combination of base points, credit cards, and status you have.

I guess that’s why grubhub faked restaurants’ websites. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20321260

And heavily implied they were the restaurant with fake phone numbers too.

You'd call a number, "I can take your order for XYZ whenever you're ready!"

"Is this XYZ restaurant?"

No yes or no answer, just "What's your order for XYZ restaurant?"

I get worse deals calling the hotel, usually, as Booking gives better discounts and they buy room inventory at bulk prices to resell.

This varies, some inventory is bought "wholesale", other inventory is on-demand reselling. Booking has a range of terms and systems for different regions, types, volumes, etc.