Hotels Struggle to Stop Resellers From Undercutting Their Rates
Photo Credit: The Marlin Hotel is a boutique property in Miami Beach, Florida. Consumers will use multiple websites to find deals at properties like this one, but that can cause a problem for hotel owners. Marlin Hotel
Skift Take
Consumers often wonder where they can find the lowest rate for a hotel room online. Oddly enough, a hotel's managers may not know the answer. Mysteriously discounted rates from small sites and apps are popping up more often online, even in markets like the U.S. where a few hotel groups dominate.
Hotels promise travelers they'll offer the best rates on their branded websites and mobile apps. But new data suggests that the rate guarantees often ring hollow.
Price-comparison services like Google, Trivago, Kayak, Skyscanner, and TripAdvisor often refer consumers to reseller companies offering rates discounted below what the hotels themselves are offering.
How often? One out of every five rates displayed for North America hotels online are from online travel agencies undercutting hotel brand.com rates, according to a survey by OTA Insight, a seller of business intelligence software services to hoteliers.
The study of hotel rates offered on brand.com sites, online travel sites, and metasearch sites between April and June of 2018, and published in December, found small online travel agencies displaying rogue discounts for rooms at major chains 24 percent of the time.
Independent hotels and local chains that have less market power saw tha
