Sisters debate whether to book hotel through a 3rd party or direct, busy front desk proves who's right: ‘Sometimes big sis DOES know what she is talking about.’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
May 4, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

If you have a sibling, you know how the rivalry works. The second your lives were joined together forever, the competitions never ended. Some fun, some getting a little too carried away. It doesn't matter if you're the older sibling, middler, or youngest, you want to be treated the same way by your parents. So you fight over who gets the last bit of cereal, you have to make sure you are all getting an equal amount of orange juice, and you race to get the front seat the remote to the TV. That's just classic sibling behavior. You would do anything for them, but god forbid they borrow your phone charger. 

 

You'd like we'd all grow out of this, but not, it just evolves with age. Take, for instance, these sisters who were traveling together with their family. 

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  • The trip was with the parents, the oldest sister, the youngest, her two kids. They had almost made it to their destination when there was a snag and they had to book a hotel room. The youngest suggested using a 3rd party booker like Orbit or Hotels.com, but the eldest sister knew better. There were more snags on the way, but eventually, it was clear that the eldest sister made the right choice to book directly through the hotel. She even got to hear her little sister tell her that she was right. If you're a sibling, you know how shocking and satisfying that is! 

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    MOTEL
    via Unsplash+ (and Giorgio Trovato)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    "Sister wanted to book a hotel room thru 3rd party. I said NO. Good thing I did."

    My sister, her 2 kids, my parents & I were driving from NY to FL last week. Dad was driving the truck pulling the camper & sis & I were in my moms jeep following behind.
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    We made it to SC & the wheel bering on the camper broke about 11am, so instead of getting to our friends house by 4pm with time to set up the camper & tents for the night, we were going to roll in at about 10pm.
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    Sis & I decide that it would be easier if we get a hotel room for us & the kids. This way dad & mom could just go to bed and not have to set up everything in the dark.
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  • 05
    Last year we stayed at this great hotel near the Jax airport & decided to stay there again. Only problem this year is it was smack in the middle of spring break, so availability was iffy.
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    Sis wanted to use a 3rd party app to book like she did last year. I told her this was a really bad idea, especially since it was almost 8pm & we wouldn't get to the hotel until 10:30 - 11:00. She gave me pushback and said it would be ok. I said
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    since I was paying for the room I was going to book with the hotel and it would only be a few dollars difference.
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    I looked up the hotel website & called their reservation line to set up the room. They were great and even put a note on file that we may not arrive until midnight. Perfect.... I think everything is all set.
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    Get to the hotel and am standing in line with my ID and 2 credit cards in hand... one for the incidentals & the other for payment, along with the rez email open on my phone.
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    That's when things started to go sideways. The couple ahead of me in line had booked 3rd. party. The FD agent was trying to find them a room but didn't have any of their room type - a double queen - which is what I had reserved.
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    Cheezburger Image 10500092416
    via Unsplash+ (and Tristan Ruark)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Unfortunately for that couple they didn't get a room & had to deal with the 3rd party. I was mentally patting myself on the back for not using 3rd party, but may have been a bit premature in my celebration.
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    It's finally my turn at the desk, after waiting a few minutes for the FD agent to remake cards for another guest that couldn't get into their room. They were really ride & gave him a hard time.
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    I show the rez email to the agent and he states they don't have any of our room type available. He showed me his screen where it shows 10 available, but when he goes to assign a room it shows none available due to guests & upcoming reservations.
    via Dru-baskAdam
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    I asked if the rez that I had made was one of the ones that was causing a room to show as unavailable but he said all the prior reservations were made before mine and the rez line shouldn't have been able to create the rez in the first place.
    via Dru-baskAdam
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    He tried to offer a single king, but that wasn't going to work for us. While he was looking for a solution for us, I had told him how crazy our trip down had been and commiserated with him on how hard his night had been.
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    After a couple of minutes he said "Ah screw it, it will be someone else's problem" and said he had a room for us. He even managed to find one on the ground floor for us (this was a combo hotel/motel & the entrance to our room was on the outside) that I had
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    requested, although when he said he was having an issue finding a room I told him I would take any room he had. Then he asked for payment, and I think a lot of people had given him grief that day because he was kinda apologetic when he said that even
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    though I had given my cc. number to the rez line it didn't apply the payment. I let him know that was what I expected and that I had a separate card for incidentals before he even said anything about the deposit. He looked a
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    bit shell shocked at that point & I got a laugh out of him when I said that every other hotel I had stayed at always asked for a deposit & photo ID.
    via Dru-baskAdam
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    Cheezburger Image 10500092672
    via Unsplash+ (and Nikolay Loubet)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    We finished up and headed out to our room. My sis had looked really worried while we were in line when the first couple was told there was no room at the inn even with a rez thru the 3rd party. She was asking me if we were going to get a room.
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    She was starting to get upset when he was telling us he couldn't find a room, but I told her to let me handle it & to keep quiet. She is the type to get upset and yell. I just kept my cool and I knew it wasn't the FD agents fault & he was doing everything he could. I get
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    the feeling he decided to check us in because I was so understanding & didn't get mad. The next morning when I went to check out I let the manager know how great he handled everything & how he kept his cool with a lobby full of people that weren't exactly being
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    polite. Turns out he had only been there about a month and it was his first week alone on 2nd shift. I let her know what a great agent he was & hope she passed it along to him. He really made the end to a really crappy day a lot better.
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    The icing on the cake is when I got to tell my sis "I told you so!" when we finally got settled into our room. She said she never had a problem in the past booking 3rd party. I
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    pointed out that we wouldn't have gotten a room there tonight if we had used 3rd party & got to hear the best words from her.... "You were right!" Sometimes big sis does know what she is talking about.
    via Dru-baskAdam

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