Hotels need to rethink their OTA strategy

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hotels_need_to_rething_their_ota_strategy/

I chose this article because it is a good representation of the issues found today in direct and indirect online sales.

Online, hotel customers can compare easily selling rates on their hotel websites and indirect selling rates on the OTAs. Quite often they are different because the hotel has given special discounts to the OTAs for volume purchasing and these ones have not followed the hotel’s recommended minimum selling price and are becoming their competitors.

OTAs are capable of doing that because they offer hotel rates as part of holiday packages that attract the customers because of the low cost and a large variety of choices. Customers go to OTA because they will be able to sort the travel packages by price, amenities or proximity to a city, penalizing that way some hotels.

What can a hotel do today to regain control on the selling rates? They can try to renegotiate lower discounts with OTAs (no sales less than their minimum rate-which is quite difficult). Hotels should instead become more competitive with better prices for their volume purchasing customers and for special occasions (like New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Christmas …). They could also start proposing themselves packages to the guests.