Expedia Wants to Help Hotels’ Direct Booking Efforts
Jennifer Billock April 25, 2016
Expedia looks to partner with hotel brands, allowing customers to book direct through its website.
Since the beginning of 2016, Expedia has been testing ways to help hotels with direct booking instead of the website always being a third-party service. Major hotel brands have recently launched a cyber war against third-party sites, saying that customers booking there are costing the brands revenue; but according to research done by Expedia, hotels doing this are taking a revenue hit of about 8 percent. The reduction in revenue, according to Expedia and reported in an exclusive with Skift, is because “despite property owners saving money on distribution costs from direct bookings, the lower rates they are offering on brand.com sites, their reduced exposure on Expedia sites, a diminished billboard effect and higher loyalty program costs lead to reduced revenue per available room for owners of about 8 percent.”
Rather than try to convince hotels not to do that, Expedia wants to partner with them. The goal is to offer white label services and technology services to hotel partners, allowing them to assist with revenue management, increase hotel marketing efforts, and get more detailed data about demand for each property.
But some hotel companies aren’t making it easy — Cyril Ranque, Expedia Inc.’s president of lodging services, told Skift that negotiations with at least one major hotel chain had to be put on hold because the hotel refused to share its lowest rates with Expedia.
Expedia is not the only one attempting to make this type of business effort—others include Booking.com and TripAdvisor, as well as Expedia-owned Trivago.
[Photo: Elaine Thompson, AP]
