Which Online Booking Site Will Be First to Get Hotels' Direct Rates?
Skift Take
On hotels' direct-booking rates, one of the major chains is already talking to traditional travel agencies about handing them over. In addition, Choice Hotels, for one, is signaling that better deals from online travel agencies could go a long way toward ending its boycott in distributing loyalty-member rates. If every person has a price, then so indeed do hotel chains.
It’s going to happen – eventually.
As many of the major hotel chains have begun to offer loyalty program members who book directly on their own websites lower rates than they distribute to online travel agency and metasearch sites, as well as traditional travel agencies, the pleas for change are already mounting.
Among them, Expedia officials have been the most outspoken, warning hotels that they will be shooting themselves in the foot if they persist in their OTA-stingy and direct strategies.
And on Thursday TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer gave notice that he would like those special hotel rates and can envision a model where he can get them.
Why A Few Bucks or Euros Here and There Is So Important
These direct-booking rates from hotels for loyalty program members usually amount to a mere few dollars in savings – perhaps a $208 nightly rate for two double beds instead of $212 – but it’s apparent from the history of online travel and distribution that such discounts can be very meaningful in triggering share shift.
That’s why online tra
