BELLEVUE, Wash - - September 7, 2011 - - Expedia’s Melissa Maher shared perspectives on hotel marketing and distribution, and called for greater dialogue about optimal channel mix in a posting on the Expedia, Inc. corporate website today.

Maher, vice president of lodging strategic accounts and industry relations for Expedia Partner Services Group, wrote in anticipation of the upcoming Hotel Distribution Channel analysis, a forthcoming report from the AH&LA and STR that will look at the costs of various hotel distribution channels.

In the post, Maher addresses the potential benefits of the study, and the questions and opportunities it may create for the hotel industry.  Her full comments are posted at http://press.expediainc.com/index.php?s=43&item=434 and are excerpted here:

We are keenly interested to see the methodology and variables used to determine the true costs of every channel across the broad spectrum of marketing and distribution channels.  Some of the obvious variables that contribute to overall cost include:

• Sales staff salaries, benefits and expenses
• Customer support
• Marketing, including brand building, online and offline advertising, search marketing and loyalty programs
• Franchise fees
• IT and ecommerce infrastructure for Brand.com
• Credit card transaction fees and related costs

And….
It is likely that the study will raise additional questions and point to the need for further research to expand on the baseline information of this pioneering effort.  We look forward to subsequent studies that will seek out data from the vast population of hotels that were not invited to participate or that do not currently have the capabilities to submit data to the study.

For additional information, interview requests, etc., please contact Lauralee Dobbins ([email protected]) or Chris Daly ([email protected]) via email or at 703-435-6293.