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The author missed a major driver of this - which is that the hotels etc are not allowed to undercut the OTAs, or the OTA will boot them off. This is why you ca
by jamez1 10y ago
The author missed a major driver of this - which is that the hotels etc are not allowed to undercut the OTAs, or the OTA will boot them off.
This is why you can call and get a better deal, and why many hotels are aggressively trying to build loyalty programs
- einrealist 10y agoWell, if you are Hilton, you probably have a deal without that "undercut part" in the contracts. OTAs depend on the big chains. On the other hand, these undercut clauses are already in discussion for violating competition regulations. So even if there is such clause in a contract, the OTAs may not fight for it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- anjc 10y agoAs far as I know too the OTA can legitimately under-price the supplier's products down to their wholesale price right? Which I'm guessing would mean that the largest volume OTAs should have better deals due to lower wholesale prices, but could cause consolidation to continue, meaning higher prices eventually....which happened in car rental and seems to be happening now in travel
- tuananh 10y agoi dont think they can, unless they package it with something else eg: flight and hide the actual price.
- lotsofpulp 10y agoHotels are allowed to undercut the OTAs, you just need to be a hotel rewards member. If you're a Hilton Honors, Marriot Rewards, IHG Rewards, and all the other ones, then reserving directly on the hotel website or www.roomkey.com will get you a lower price than on any OTA. You also get treated like a second class citizen if you buy via OTA, so if you're a Rewards member, which is free, you can get early checkin/late checkout and all that stuff too. There's no reason hotels want to pay 15% to a website for no reason.