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He's not happy that aggregators are outranking the hotel's official website. I think this is a very valid complaint. The money aggregators take is used to fund

by AJ007 12y ago

He's not happy that aggregators are outranking the hotel's official website. I think this is a very valid complaint. The money aggregators take is used to fund Google visibility (paid or free) rather than for the hotels to use on other things. There have been times in the past were Google's listings definitely were bad, like the whole Demand Media/content "farm" fiasco. The model of writing low quality and outright false content has largely moved from the how to articles on to news now, for better or worse. The bigger issue is mobile means less results. A few ads and one or two visible organic listings. Google has to milk the hell out of desktop users to make up for lost revenue. If we move to voice search its going to really be different. You either dominate or get nothing, no in between. Google has a model that works and makes a lot of revenue. They will not and can not innovate because those innovations will destroy the model. It is the same for any entrenched legacy corporation. Search is a good area to do innovative work in today. Update: One other note. It was always clear to me that Google's business model was to provide huge volumes of free traffic, and then remove it. If you didn't buy traffic and you relied on that free organic stuff you were asking for trouble. Many companies have ranked organically for a term. Expanded, took on long term liabilities, and then lost their rankings and failed. Most of the business owner Google complaints we hear come from those type of people. You give someone a free drip of heroin, and then take it away and ask them to pay. They will not be happy.

Kalium 12y ago
Often, aggregators are more useful than any given hotel's website. If I am looking to fly somewhere, I probably don't want to be taken to United's or American's homepage. I probably want Orbitz or Hipmunk or some other site that will give me the comparison tools to make my own decisions. His mistake lies in assuming that a hotel's site offers more value to users than the aggregators.
- RichardDHH 12y ago
  You are quite correct on some points. If I book a cheap hotel for a few nights in a city even I use booking.com. If I book a weeks holiday for my family in a villa rental in far flung destination I want something else and I want to speak to the people with knowledge. Sad maybe but a lot of us like this!
  - Kalium 12y ago
    The prevalence of aggregators suggests that a great many people prefer a system that lets them compare many options at once. That may be followed up by researching a handful of likely-seeming options more deeply, but few people with total ignorance are going to want to go directly to that. It's too time-consuming to start there.
    - schucks 12y ago
      Well perhaps there's a bit of that, but perhaps the value add of a well researched and more personable site fits far better, but people are too often expecting choice as the number one driving force in their decision making process instead of being asked to make appropriate decisions on their own wishes. For those people I suggest they consider their fundamental reason for taking a vacation in the first place. I think the prevalence of aggregation on holiday sites is simply causality of these companies not having a clear direction for their business. After all, it's easy to aggregate everything with the money and time to do so. But where is the value add?
      - Kalium 12y ago
        Being able to compare a lot of options and filter down to just a handful that interest you is very valuable. It handles discovery and filtering steps in one go. There's your value-add. You're asking for consumers to make significant decisions in what to them will feel like a position of ignorance. And you're asking for it because you think it will be profitable for you. Do you understand why I'm skeptical of this?
        AJ007 12y ago
        I don't think anyone is saying aggregators should not show up. Do a search for a local hotel. I just did one. I counted 3 aggregator ads above organic results. 6 aggregator ads on the side, 2 other hotel ads on the side. Organic listing #1 is the hotel, that is good. 7 other results are aggregators. 1 is the hotel parent company, 1 is an unrelated hotel. What happens if you are a niche travel site, or a local blog? Your not going to rank. Your business model is now more or less dead.

by AJ007 12y ago

Kalium 12y ago

Often, aggregators are more useful than any given hotel's website. If I am looking to fly somewhere, I probably don't want to be taken to United's or American's homepage. I probably want Orbitz or Hipmunk or some other site that will give me the comparison tools to make my own decisions. His mistake lies in assuming that a hotel's site offers more value to users than the aggregators.

RichardDHH 12y ago
You are quite correct on some points. If I book a cheap hotel for a few nights in a city even I use booking.com. If I book a weeks holiday for my family in a villa rental in far flung destination I want something else and I want to speak to the people with knowledge. Sad maybe but a lot of us like this!
- Kalium 12y ago
  The prevalence of aggregators suggests that a great many people prefer a system that lets them compare many options at once. That may be followed up by researching a handful of likely-seeming options more deeply, but few people with total ignorance are going to want to go directly to that. It's too time-consuming to start there.
  - schucks 12y ago
    Well perhaps there's a bit of that, but perhaps the value add of a well researched and more personable site fits far better, but people are too often expecting choice as the number one driving force in their decision making process instead of being asked to make appropriate decisions on their own wishes. For those people I suggest they consider their fundamental reason for taking a vacation in the first place. I think the prevalence of aggregation on holiday sites is simply causality of these companies not having a clear direction for their business. After all, it's easy to aggregate everything with the money and time to do so. But where is the value add?
    - Kalium 12y ago
      Being able to compare a lot of options and filter down to just a handful that interest you is very valuable. It handles discovery and filtering steps in one go. There's your value-add. You're asking for consumers to make significant decisions in what to them will feel like a position of ignorance. And you're asking for it because you think it will be profitable for you. Do you understand why I'm skeptical of this?
      - AJ007 12y ago
        I don't think anyone is saying aggregators should not show up. Do a search for a local hotel. I just did one. I counted 3 aggregator ads above organic results. 6 aggregator ads on the side, 2 other hotel ads on the side. Organic listing #1 is the hotel, that is good. 7 other results are aggregators. 1 is the hotel parent company, 1 is an unrelated hotel. What happens if you are a niche travel site, or a local blog? Your not going to rank. Your business model is now more or less dead.