First Look at the Exclusive Rates Hilton Wrested From Expedia
Skift Take
Rate parity and most-favored nation provisions are slowly fading as Marriott and Hilton offer lower rates to new and existing loyalty program members on their own sites than Expedia and Booking.com can. Don't underplay the power of a several-dollar discount in the race toward bolstering loyalty-program rosters through the lure of bottom-of-the-heap pricing.
Hilton Worldwide is making good on the concessions it won in negotiations last year with online travel agencies, including Expedia, and in so doing the chain has a potentially powerful tool for attracting direct bookings as it chips away at rate parity and most favored nation clauses.
What Hilton is doing at various times for some properties in a particular destination, including Chicago, New York and Miami, for brands such as Hilton, Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, Homewood Suites, Doubletree and possibly others is to offer on its own websites exclusive HHonors discounts of up to 10 percent off published rates.
The rates, which guests can change without penalty up to the usual cancellation deadlines and are fully refundable, may be 10 percent lower for the same property and dates on Expedia or Booking.com but at times the discounts are only $2 or $3 lower.
Hilton is aggressive about marketing these deals in terms of the messaging that accompany them online: "EXCLUSIVE LOWER RATE NOWHERE ELSE ONLINE. CHANGEABLE & REFUNDABLE."
Despite the mere several-dollar differential in what Hilton is openly offering HHonors members online versus the rates that are available on online travel agency partner sites, rest assured that this is a major development because it diminishes the rate parity and most-favored-na
