As someone who travels for leisure quite a bit, I never fully trust commission-driven booking sites to show me the full selection, the real quality ranking, etc. I can't really imagine ever using a single site and trusting that I'm getting the best options (as one well-known example, Southwest flights not showing up in searches on third-party booking sites). When I am spending thousands of dollars on a trip, I need to know that I'm seeing the full picture before I make my decisions.
I invariably end up searching for options across several sites, manually checking directly with specific airlines and hotel groups I know, reading reviews from across the web, etc. Once I've done all of that legwork to find the absolute best flights and hotels for my needs, why would I go back to some aggregator site to book? I'll just book directly.
This of course takes me a LOT of time, and if there were a way to reduce the time consumed, I'd do it. But only if it got me the exact same result, and I can't see how a commission-based travel planning site could effectively replicate that process.
I felt the same way as you and I built a site that aggregates accommodations, including absolutely everything, not just companies paying commmissions. We have couchsurfing, Airbnb, all the main hotel sites, Groupon, Hotwire, and most other sites you might ever bother checking. It's called http://AllTheRooms.com.
+1 for alltherooms.com being a good service, it's my go-to for accommodation booking. Seriously, being able compare even couchsurfing options is a godsend.
I invariably end up searching for options across several sites, manually checking directly with specific airlines and hotel groups I know, reading reviews from across the web, etc. Once I've done all of that legwork to find the absolute best flights and hotels for my needs, why would I go back to some aggregator site to book? I'll just book directly.
This of course takes me a LOT of time, and if there were a way to reduce the time consumed, I'd do it. But only if it got me the exact same result, and I can't see how a commission-based travel planning site could effectively replicate that process.