Originally Posted by
joakgarp
If every 3rd party and 1st offer the exact same rate all the time the competition will die and so will the 3rd party hotels in the end since it won't make any sense to book by a 3rd party anymore. The reason why a 3rd party exist is to offer rates lower than hotel chains back in the days when it all started. That's why hotel chains started a BRG program to bring back their customers. Rates should never be fixed.
Well, I wouldn't say that the 3rd party exists to offer lower rates - they exist because they want to make money selling tours hotels and flights to us!
And yes, that's why SPG and the others started the BRG programmes. To bring the $$$ back to themselves, and penalise the hotels for selling cheap rates to the 3rd parties.
Do the 3rd parties provide competition? Not really. I think the real competition still comes from other chains and hotels. If prices are low it's because another hotel is offering relatively the same product at a better price, not because a 3rd party is selling it for less. Your own experience in JP/KR shows how hard it is to BRG properties there. But the SPG hotel prices remain comparable to similar non-SPG properties, even though there is no "competition from 3rd parties".
Wishful thinking to hope that rates will not eventually be in line across the board, IMO.