Articles tagged “direct booking”

American Airlines's top boss Robert Isom feels confident in the carrier's evolving distribution strategy, the most assertive of all the carriers in the Americas. But some travel agents still feel bullied.

Premier Inn says it has gained pricing power as 10% of all UK independent hotels have closed in the past few years. More remarkably, it says repeat guests made 86% of its bookings this year. It's a direct booking champ other hoteliers could learn from.

Google is constantly tweaking its hotels platform and we see its latest iteration contributing directly to the democratization of the online travel industry.

We web scraped 5,000 hotels across Google to understand the current state of the wider distribution landscape. We found that Google's actions are allowing small OTAs, new entrants and direct sites to compete head-on with the legacy players. Could this mean the end of the duopolistic power long-held by Booking and Expedia?

Hotel companies pay billions a year to online travel agencies and other distributors. Our estimate of how much is eye-opening. So is hoteliers' naiveté about how sustainable their level of spending is.

Reliable, accessible guest data is like gold for hotels interested in the next generation of customer service. More deals that can capitalize on that are likely on the way.

Arlo Hotels, a U.S.-based independent brand, first bet on micro hotels, which pack in more guests per property. But now it favors larger rooms. It's betting that creating "experiences" and charging extra may prove more reliably profitable.

Business travel spending is unlikely to reach 2019 levels in the near future as corporations are implementing stringent travel policies and the availability of video conferencing options is expected to displace a share of business traffic.

With a growing share of hotel bookings made online, many hoteliers are reliant on third-party travel websites for booking volumes, and global visibility. Booking engines, website builders, and direct-booking tools can help these hotels find a better balance between first- and third-party bookings.

Although Choice Hotels may not see celebrities as mandatory in marketing campaigns, it didn't hesitate to turn to star power to sell the benefits of using its website.