If its a car or hotel we only book via there own website or call the 800 number , never via third party etc bookings.com Expedia. If we ever have a issue we can go back to them directly without having involve someone else. Much quicker plus you can often get a better rate by going direct as the hotel or car rental pays a pretty big commission. I agree sometimes you find slow response or lack of urgency to reply or answer that darn phone! We have booked already for the winter at Marys Boon and glad we do as already our preferred room was booked and the hotel they said was about 75% sold out for January 2020.