ota
Maximizing Your Relationship With OTAs
Tim Lee | January 13, 2020
By Tim Lee The relationship between hotels (particularly major international brands) and Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) may sometimes seem an uneasy alliance. Major hotel companies, such as Hilton, Marriott and IHG, are adding policies on price match guarantees to encourage direct bookings and detract from the perceived value of OTAs. Meanwhile, OTAs push even harder for competitive pricing and invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to increase their market share. Due to acquisitions and mergers over the last two decades, most OTA brands are a part of, or work with the two largest players in the space: Bo...
Redefining The Value Chain in Tourism: Lessons From Thomas Cook’s Demise
Achim Schmitt | October 25, 2019
By Achim Schmitt Thomas Cook: An Industry Perspective On September 23rd, 2019, Thomas Cook – one of the world’s oldest travel companies – declared bankruptcy. The 178-year old travel firm was forced to indefinitely suspend its operations after failing to secure £200 million in emergency funding, despite having already reached an agreement for a £900 million rescue deal. But this wasn’t the first time that Thomas Cook rifled with financial struggles. The company almost went under in 2011 when its debt reached £1.24 billion – but narrowly avoided it by securing an emergency loan of £100 million. Now, 8 years later,...
New Research Shows Fraudulent, Misleading Hotel Bookings Rob Consumers of $5.7 Billion Annually
AHLA | October 7, 2019
WASHINGTON (October 7, 2019) – The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) released new research that reveals online booking scams and dishonest marketing practices by fraudulent and misleading travel websites continue to deceive and confuse consumers. In fact, 23 percent of consumers report being misled by third-party traveler resellers on the phone or online, which amounted to $5.7 billion in fraudulent and misleading hotel booking transactions in 2018 alone. “The numbers we saw in this research are completely unacceptable. Consumers are being robbed of billions of dollars every year by bad actors,” said Chip Rogers,...
5 Reasons Why Agoda’s Mix and Save Feature Could Be Disastrous for Hotel Operations
HotStats | October 2, 2019
By Laura Resco Online travel agencies are digging their fingers further into the hotel industry. One of the latest disrupting features comes from Booking Holdings-owned Agoda and its Mix and Save option, which it hails as a win for budget-conscious travelers. It could also be a loss for hotel operators. The premise is simple: Customers can split their reservation into multiple bookings, across multiple room types, in order to secure the best overall deal. In other words, a guest can book, for instance, a weeklong stay at a hotel, but move their room once, twice or more to optimize the best rate available. It’s a novel idea to be sure ...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Why OTA’s Are Uber Successful
David Lund | November 5, 2018
By David Lund Have you ever wondered why we all hear so much complaining and downright all-around annoyance being expressed from hotels about the on-line travel agents? You would naturally think that because there is so much protest being made that hotels would simply not use the service and opt for something else? Right? Well – not so fast as hotels are reportedly using OTA's more than ever. There are three key reasons why OTA's are so successful and, in turn, why hotels and customers all flock to use them. One. Hotels, brands and franchisers all benefit from using OTA's and they do so without making a single dollar of investment...
Hospitality Financial Leadership: Why Your Average Joe Should Never Use an OTA – And… Why He Will Never Stop Using Them!
David Lund | August 13, 2018
With two large shortcomings I can't see why the average person who has a basic understanding of how the travel world works would ever use an online travel agency. In making this statement it occurs to me that—obviously—most people don't know the basics. If they did know the two things I'm going to talk about here, the OTA world would be dead on its feet. The real question is why hoteliers do not get together and create a presence in the online world and inform people so many more customers can make a favorable decision. Then hotels in turn could increase their own traffic and reduce commission costs. This is the $64,000 ques...
Can I Book My Next Trip on Amazon? An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos
Alan E. Young | June 6, 2018
By Alan E. Young Dear Mr. Bezos, Amazon has long-since established itself as the fabric that holds together a world of consumers looking for an easy, effective and value-oriented environment to purchase almost anything - except for travel. As a veteran of the hospitality and travel technology industry, I believe Amazon should extend its footprint and offer travel and hotel products to deepen its relationship with customers and position itself as the ultimate end-to-end travel ecosystem. Though Amazon has offered flash deals and travel-related services in the past and Amazon Destinations tested the waters briefly, you have never really t...
The OTA’s Attempt at Discrediting the Value of the Hotel’s Direct Channel
HEBS Digital | May 10, 2018
By Max Starkov Background: Earlier this week, the European Technology and Travel Services Association (ETTSA) released a report called "Hotel Distribution Costs," examining the costs associated with direct and indirect distribution channels for hotels, together with the impact of channel shift. ETTSA is an organization "representing and promoting the interests of global distribution systems (GDSs) and travel distributors (read: OTAs), towards the industry, policy-makers, opinion formers, consumer groups and all other relevant European stakeholders." The report, prepared by a consultancy called Infrata, concluded that hotels that attempt...
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