Better price booking direct with hotel or through Hotels.com / Expedia?

Hotels.com's 10-nights-for-9 deal is genuinely good if you use it regularly. For Wildwood specifically I've found Expedia tends to have better inventory in peak season.

OTAs are often cheaper because of their scale and promotional pricing, but hotels will sometimes match or beat the price if you call. Also: OTAs give you better cancellation protection and rewards points. My strategy — find the best OTA rate, then call the hotel and ask if they can do better. Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.