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| Hospitality Today | Summer 2017
They use their size and market power
to promote their brands extensively
online, on TV and in email marketing
campaigns to an extent that even the
large hotel groups like Hilton or IHG
cannot now compete with
They promote the idea that consumers
can easily cancel what they book
through an OTA, whereas this might
not be so easy directly (resulting in
vastly higher cancellation rates on
OTA bookings, and hidden costs to
hotels and B&Bs) even though in fact
cancellation fees may be due (and in
such cases, members tell us that OTAs
routinely pressure B&Bs to waive their
proper charges for the OTA’s ‘client’)
They create misleading urgency by
statements like “only 2 rooms left!”
(when there may be more, eg by booking
direct), “in high demand”, “booked 6
times in the last 24 hours”, or “3 people
are currently looking at this property”,
and by false discount statements like
“-41% TODAY!” when the OTA has no
discount on that room today.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds
Begrudging OTAs for being good at
what they do makes no sense.
by Christoph Klenner (above), secretary
general of the European Technology &
Travel Services Association (ETTSA), and
Stephen Shur, president of The Travel
Technology Association in the US.
A recent op-ed on Travel Weekly Europe
attacking online travel agencies (OTAs),
by David Weston, chairman of the UK
We have raised the bad and anti-competitive Bed & Breakfast Association, is peculiar
practices of OTAs with the EU and the UK
coming from an industry that is a direct
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA),
beneficiary of the existence of OTAs.
and are calling on them to take action now
To start with, by partnering with OTAs,
to ensure that OTAs are transparent, honest
the B&Bs that Mr Weston represents
and unbiased to consumers, and allow
benefit greatly from increased exposure
accommodation owners a fair measure of
on a global scale without the costs these
commercial freedom.
small businesses would ordinarily incur
We are also calling on OTAs to stop
if they had to advertise on their own.
promoting the idea of free and late
OTAs are a very cost-efficient and risk-free
cancellation. Booking.com’s current TV ad’s
channel that allows smaller properties to
central message is: book what you like –
compete with big chains for domestic and,
you can always cancel it later. Coping with
especially, foreign guests.
the resultant high rates of late cancellation
It is safe to assume that a good part of
can be financially devastating if you only
Mr Weston’s own association members
have a handful of rooms. Is this a fair way
are actively working with online travel
of treating the small businesses Booking
sites and generating additional business.
likes to call ‘partners’.