Not only that, hotels.com often has rooms when the hotel is “fully booked.” Twice last month in London, I wanted to extend my stay. The staff said the hotel was full. I went online and booked. Then asked them to keep me in the same room. I think it’s because they reserve a block for online sales.
The staff/management must have been incompetent, or there was a discrepancy in the inventory and they overbooked. There’s no reason a hotel owner would want a person in the hotel to buy on hotels.com and end up with 15% less money due to having to paying commission to Expedia.