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For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

foxbusiness.com

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Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#31

Post by usrusr »

kbart wrote: post #9
flexie wrote: post #5

It has become ridiculous with these booking sites. When you google a small hotel, often the first many results are hotels.com, bookings.com, tripadvisor.com etc. and the hotel itself is down to spot 3, 4, 5 or even lower. There is a place for the booking sites, especially for exploring several hotels at a time. And they do offer some reviews and comparisons that can be useful. Sometimes, they also offer the cheapest…

And it really feels good to pay the hotel that offers the services, instead of some tech company in the US." Most of the times I booked through booking.com it was "cash on arrival", so these sites are nothing more than ads. I think the problem is travel agencies, that book bulk of rooms to rent them later (just a guess, can't read the article itself due to paywall).

> Most of the times I booked through booking.com it was "cash on arrival", so these sites are nothing more than ads.

Expensive ads. Cash on arrival does not mean that the hotel does not pay a sizable commission. Roughly in the range as the cut iTunes, Play, Steam take for transactions that, unlike hotel service, create zero cost beyond the initial investment. Occasionally, hotels might even offer you a cheaper room if you cancel your reservation, to get out of that obligation. Maybe some sites are much cheaper, but the big ones like booking.com take everything they can, and they can take a lot.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#32

Post by falsedan »

git-pull wrote: post #28

These types of news articles about prospects often are driven by an ulterior motive. When the job market is saturated: There's a desperate shortage / skill gap of programmers, truckers and pharmacists. Go join this trade school for 16k! The economy is going to hell in a hand basket if we don't churn out 1000 new Javascript programmers every 12 weeks! When travel agencies want cement their dominance and pour cold wate…

> Lol

Who is this comment addressed to? The article doesn't make these claims, and you didn't reply to another comment.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#33

Post by tallanvor »

“There had been this perception that to get the best price, you book through a different channel than going direct,” he said. “That’s never actually been the case.”

Yeah, that's a load of crap. I always start with an aggregator, and if I find a place that I like, I check their website as well. Unless they're cheaper or offer some major perks, I book through the 3rd party site. Of the last 5 hotels I've booked, going through a 3rd party site has been a better deal 4 of those times.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#34

Post by falsedan »

stupidcar wrote: post #21

If hotel chains were managed by sensible, tech-aware people, they wouldn't bother with these expensive, rearguard marketing campaigns. Instead, they'd get together and form an industry working group, and design simple, standard data formats and querying/booking APIs, and then make all their data available through them. This would make it far easier to build a hotel search engine, which would cause an explosion of com…

> they'd get together and form an industry working group, and design simple, standard data formats and querying/booking APIs, and then make all their data available through them

Are you familiar with SABRE/AMEDEUS? The flight industry did exactly this and it's been a disaster for them. Heck, they even handle hotel bookings as well.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#35

Post by falsedan »

kbart wrote: post #9
flexie wrote: post #5

It has become ridiculous with these booking sites. When you google a small hotel, often the first many results are hotels.com, bookings.com, tripadvisor.com etc. and the hotel itself is down to spot 3, 4, 5 or even lower. There is a place for the booking sites, especially for exploring several hotels at a time. And they do offer some reviews and comparisons that can be useful. Sometimes, they also offer the cheapest…

And it really feels good to pay the hotel that offers the services, instead of some tech company in the US." Most of the times I booked through booking.com it was "cash on arrival", so these sites are nothing more than ads. I think the problem is travel agencies, that book bulk of rooms to rent them later (just a guess, can't read the article itself due to paywall).

> these sites are nothing more than ads

You got it: they're traffic funnels that you pay per conversion.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#36

Post by tallanvor »

a_humean wrote: post #16
flexie wrote: post #5

It has become ridiculous with these booking sites. When you google a small hotel, often the first many results are hotels.com, bookings.com, tripadvisor.com etc. and the hotel itself is down to spot 3, 4, 5 or even lower. There is a place for the booking sites, especially for exploring several hotels at a time. And they do offer some reviews and comparisons that can be useful. Sometimes, they also offer the cheapest…

I used to work a part time job doing hotel reservations for a small hotel a few years ago. Back then about 35-40% of their bookings were made through booking.com, and although I didn't know the actual cut booking.com took, I know it wasn't small. The hotel was always keen on trying to convert their booking.com or other third party customers into direct customers. We were always instructed, depending upon predicted or…

Honestly, that's great if you're in the US and trying to book within the country, but once you start thinking internationally, calling becomes a headache, especially if you're traveling to countries where not everyone speaks English very well.

And when I'm on a trip, the last thing I want to do is hope for the best at finding a hotel the day I arrive!

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#37

Post by tallanvor »

gt2 wrote: post #26

What is the best priced 3rd party service currently? I use hotels.com because I find it has the lowest price usually, plus you effectively get 10% off since every 10 bookings you receive a credit worth the average of your previous 10 night stays. But I wonder if theres a better booking service out there than this for someone who books a lot of hotels.

I pretty much just use them as well now, and for the same reason as you.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#38

Post by netcan »

stupidcar wrote: post #21

If hotel chains were managed by sensible, tech-aware people, they wouldn't bother with these expensive, rearguard marketing campaigns. Instead, they'd get together and form an industry working group, and design simple, standard data formats and querying/booking APIs, and then make all their data available through them. This would make it far easier to build a hotel search engine, which would cause an explosion of com…

I can see counterarguments... First, standardization & data sharing across a very decentralized industry is hard. How many industries have something like that?

Second, messing around with price & doing complicated, on the fly pricing helps them cut a little extra margin (price differentiation). One price for a regular business customer. Another price for last minute online booking engines. A whopper of a price for the couple deciding to take a date from the bar to a room. This is a low margin industry, largely. These things matter.

Third, they're afraid of commodification. Standardization & informational liquidity are the path to commodification. They like the idea of a travel agent recommendation, not a spreadsheet with a "book now" button.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#39

Post by falsedan »

usrusr wrote: post #31
kbart wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it really feels good to pay the hotel that offers the services, instead of some tech company in the US." Most of the times I booked through booking.com it was "cash on arrival", so these sites are nothing more than ads. I think the problem is travel agencies, that book bulk of rooms to rent them later (just a guess, can't read the article itself due to paywall).

> Most of the times I booked through booking.com it was "cash on arrival", so these sites are nothing more than ads. Expensive ads. Cash on arrival does not mean that the hotel does not pay a sizable commission. Roughly in the range as the cut iTunes, Play, Steam take for transactions that, unlike hotel service, create zero cost beyond the initial investment. Occasionally, hotels might even offer you a cheaper room i…

> but the big ones like booking.com take everything they can, and they can take a lot.

You mean, take as much as is offered? The hotels are free to let the rooms sit idle & refuse the bookings; they wouldn't pay these commissions if they didn't make business sense.

A $100/night room that's empty generates $0 and costs $10-20 (amortised staffing and maintenance costs, insurance, permits, etc.)

A $100/night room filled with a 30% commission generates $70 & nets ~$50.

I think that most hotel managers would not list their preferences as: direct booking & ~$80 > empty & $0 > booking site & ~$50.

Re: For Hotels, There’s No Room Left for Online Travel Agencies

#40

Post by tinus_hn »

tallanvor wrote: post #33

“There had been this perception that to get the best price, you book through a different channel than going direct,” he said. “That’s never actually been the case.” Yeah, that's a load of crap. I always start with an aggregator, and if I find a place that I like, I check their website as well. Unless they're cheaper or offer some major perks, I book through the 3rd party site. Of the last 5 hotels I've booked, going…

It's because a hotel will charge you as much as they think you'll want to pay. So the price changes if you look twice or through a different channel.

Try checking from your phone while it is disconnected from your personal network.

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