Why is it so hard to find hotels without a third party booking site?

I recently tried to go to the hotel’s website to book a room. But I could’t find the hotel’s website on Google. I had to go through Google maps to search and then click on the booking link which took me to the hotel’s website. (Eventually, I found the hotel’s website. I didn’t expect it to be this ….. But I digress.)<br><br>I then went to look for other hotels because I wasn’t happy with the initial price I was quoted. Same experience over and over and over. I stumbled on 4 hotels that I never would have seen had I been restricted to booking or hotels.com. I got a better deal than I initially got because I looked at multiple hotels. <br><br>I know it’s common knowledge that if you go directly to the website you’ll probably get a better rate. But I see more people booking hotels from third party sites than hotels all the time. I don’t know why. There’s this whole argument that you can’t cancel trips at the last minute. That’s not true. I booked a room in February and cancelled it in April without any repercussions. I just cancelled a trip for June that I also booked in February and there were no repercussions. <br><br>There’s no excuse to not book directly with the hotel’s website.