Why do hotels use hotel aggregators?
Hotels list themselves on Expedia et al, but hate when you actually use those sites and treat you horribly if you book through such a site (no points, no perks, worse room, extra fees, etc). And of course that leaves a bad impression of the hotel too, that they must be ok with. What is the calculus that causes them to still use the aggregators when they obviously don't value customers that use them?
An empty bed = Zero $$
Aggregators troll for people and the hotel gets at least something, but the aggregator gets a large cut, so they skim away the freebies