For anyone trying to establish any sort of presence online, the importance of Google cannot be denied. Few travelers now plan their trip without consulting the global search giant, so where you are positioned, and how you are represented has become a critical success factors for anyone in the travel sector. Recent Google initiatives focused on travel mean that the company will become even more important in the future. Is this good or bad for hotels and other travel suppliers?
Tag Archive for OTAs
RoomKey.com – a really bad idea?
Writing for Hotel Analyst Distribution & Technology, I recently questioned the decision by five of the world’s smartest hotel companies to invest in developing their own web portal. The article has received incredible feedback and support from the industry. You can read it here.
Who’s afraid of the big bad merchant model?
Who’s afraid of the big bad merchant model?
Since the beginning of online distribution, hoteliers have only begrudgingly accepted the role that OTAs play in delivering business to their properties. Most of their complaints focus on the use of the so called ‘merchant model’, and typically highlight how its high transaction cost coupled with the hotel’s loss of control over both rate and availability make it one sided and unfair.
While undoubtedly this was true post 9/11, when certain companies used the merchant model to exploit hotels hurting deeply from the recession. But, in the rapidly developing online world, things have now changed. Despite this, many hotels remain fundamentally opposed to the merchant model, perhaps without really understanding why, and perhaps without truly understanding what alternatives are out there.
