Expedia CEO Peter Kern pled his case to hotel owners Monday: Take seriously the billion-dollar issue of wholesale rates being misused online.
As COVID-19 roiled the globe, hoteliers, like 9/11 and the Global Recession before it, found online travel agencies (OTAs) throwing them a lifeline. Through extensive TV and online advertising, booking engines pull in heaps of business, but at typically high commission costs that eat into profit margins.
In the future, in Germany, contract hotels will be allowed to offer overnight stays at lower prices than those listed on Booking.com.
Hotels might finally be wresting back some control from OTAs.
Hoteliers face a challenge in 2019: Creating and managing a robust digital presence in an increasingly mobile-first environment. This means investing in mobile technology and marketing that enables the best user experience while achieving maximum engagement, regardless of device.
Around 270 hotel-owners in Ahmedabad, capital of the state of Gujarat, are refusing to take bookings from major OTAs like MakeMyTrip and Goibibo, opposing the heavy commissions they charge and the hefty discounts they offer consumers.
Two recent events in hotel distribution created a mild media buzz, but unfortunately were ignored by some hoteliers and quickly forgotten by the industry: Expedia’s Add-On Advantage and Booking.basic. In this article we will discuss the issues with these two new initiatives by Expedia and Booking.com, reminiscent of the old Wild West times of hotel distribution and the early years of unruly OTAs, before rate parity and best rate guarantees.
A common complaint from hotels is that they can't compete with keyword buying against the likes of Expedia Group and Booking Holdings (between them spent upwards of $10 billion during 2017) but research has shown just how dominant the same intermediaries are in organic search, too.
Giant global online travel agencies are having a corrosive impact on Australia’s accommodation businesses, according to the results of a new industry survey.
I’m still surprised to find large parts of the hospitality sector who continue to stick out their bottom lip, stamp their feet and sulk their way through OTA relationships, while thinking nothing of continuing to buy their own airline tickets, hire cars or insurance using online consolidators.