Exclusive: First Look at Amazon Travel's New Hotel Contract
Skift Take
Amazon is meeting with hotels and hotel middlemen to ramp up its hotel supply, but is taking a deliberate approach and is currently conducting A/B testing of its new hotel-shopping experience. But, this is obviously just the opening shot.
Skift exclusively obtained a copy of the new Amazon Travel contract with hotels and learned new details about the online retail giant's strategy, implementation, and meetings with suppliers.
Under the terms of the Amazon Local Travel Booking Program contract, Amazon would collect the payment from the traveler at the time of the hotel booking, take a 15% "marketing fee," and compensate the hotel in two electronic payments, one for 70% and the other for 30% of the merchant payment. In some cases, Amazon Travel would invoice the hotel for Amazon's commission.
The eight-page contract's fine print states Amazon would wire the payments in two installments to the hotels on the next business day after the 5th and 20th of each month.
In an indication of some of the marketing power that Amazon might exert to grow its ambitious and newly expanded hotel program, the hotels would agree to accept Amazon Local vouchers from guests whether they be print vouchers, "in digital form on a mobile device at your location" or a redemption code.
"If the price of your products and services is $200 and a purchaser buying your products and services pays $150 in cash and applies a $50 Amazon Local Discount, you will receive your merchant payment as if the purchaser had paid all $200 in cash," the Amazon Travel contract states.
The Amazon Travel Strategy
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