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

Post by jonknee » Tue, May 30, 2017, 7:05 PM UTC

caw wrote: post #41

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…

A few months ago I booked a hotel for a trip. I checked the 3rd parties, found a hotel and then tried to go direct. HHonors claims the best prices online if you're logged in--it was the same as the booking third party (Groupon Getaways via Expedia), except Groupon gave 10% back in Groupon Bucks. I arrived at the hotel, they noted my HHonors basic membership and mentioned I wasn't receiving points due to booking with…

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, May 30, 2017, 7:09 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #58

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…

This would reduce the hotel's value proposition to a commodity. It would only work for the most impersonal of hotels, the hotel equivalent of McDonalds, competing on price and standardized features. The kinds of hotel you wouldn't want to stay at, if you had a choice.

Post by Helmet » Tue, May 30, 2017, 7:13 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #58

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…

This would reduce the hotel's value proposition to a commodity. It would only work for the most impersonal of hotels, the hotel equivalent of McDonalds, competing on price and standardized features. The kinds of hotel you wouldn't want to stay at, if you had a choice.

Post by GVIrish » Tue, May 30, 2017, 7:21 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #58

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…

This would reduce the hotel's value proposition to a commodity. It would only work for the most impersonal of hotels, the hotel equivalent of McDonalds, competing on price and standardized features. The kinds of hotel you wouldn't want to stay at, if you had a choice.

Post by Retric » Tue, May 30, 2017, 7:27 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #67

Helmet wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love staying at those hotels. In fact, I wish hotel rooms were commodities that competed on two factors: cleanliness and quietness. Everything else to me is frivolous, as I'm not interested at all in spending any time in a hotel outside of the time it takes me to get ready in the morning and sleep at night.

> In fact, I wish hotel rooms were commodities that competed on two factors: cleanliness and quietness. A commoditized market has products, by definition, that compete on one factor, price. If you care about cleanliness, quietness, or other qualitative features being areas of active competition, you don't want a commoditized market.