Correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it, many of those online aggregates don’t just provide info, the reason they can offer the prices they do is because they’ve bought blocks of rooms at discount far in advance and are in effect re-sellers. They make their money by selling those highly discounted rooms as slightly discounted rooms, pocketing the difference. That’s why the price is often not that much less than what you can get if you call the hotel directly and ask for a discount. And you’ll get the less-desirable rooms in each category if you don’t book with the hotel, with virtually no chance of a complimentary upgrade if they’re overbooked in your category.
Nowadays, the only way to get decent tickets for a popular, non-classical concert is to go through a re-seller, since they buy up the vast majority of tickets before any schmoe standing in line could do. But getting the right hotel room at the right price isn’t quite so constrained.
