OTAs VS Brand | A love and hate relationship

OTAs vs brand.com website; A love and hate relationship

The controversial relationship of hotelier’s brand.com website and OTAs, was always critical. OTAs do understand very well that the real threat as regards price parity comes not from the other OTAs but from brand.com websites.

Analytics show that guests who find a hotel on OTAs websites, then also visit the hotel’s direct website for comparing rates. If cheaper prices are available there, the guest would most likely book on this, leaving the OTA out of the game to pay marketing costs. After all they have the right to say that it is difficult to sell exactly the same room at a certain price, when it is available for a cheaper price elsewhere.

However, having a price disparity up to 10 euros off hotelier’s brand.com website than on what advertised on OTAs websites, was really ok.

But, what has now changed?

OTAs are practicing something new.

They are offering random discounts from the channeled hotel rates and they display the following message “You’re getting a reduced rate as X is paying part of the price” when the discount is applied.

Due to this practice, discrepancies may appear in some cases on what you see on OTAs website, this because the discounts are done in a random way. However, this can always be checked on your channel manager’s parity check report, if applicable for your information and only.  After all, as previous said it is a love and hate thing.