It’s time to bring hoteliers and OTAs to the table. Long has the war raged over rates, commissions and availability. And in the middle of it all, the guest has been left behind. Oneupmanship is not good for business. It is certainly not driving profit or garnering loyalty amongst the world’s travellers.
Michael McCartan, managing director EMEA for Duetto Research, aims to make peace between the OTAs and hoteliers at this year’s Annual Hotel Conference in Manchester. Here’s a sneak preview of some of the issues he hopes to bring to the table for candid discussion during his Day 2 panel discussion.
At this year’s Annual Hotel Conference I’ll be talking to Thomas Magnuson of Magnuson Hotels, James Osmond of Triptease, Ryan Pearson of Booking.com and David Taylor of glh Hotels in a panel discussion that aims to bring some accord between the parties.
Some of the questions I hope to put to the panel are:
- What practices from OTAs do hotels consider not conducive to a wholesome partnership?
- What are the OTAs looking for from hotels?
- If hotels begin to drive a little more of their business direct, what changes in the hotel-OTA relationship? What stays the same?
- How should an OTA and hotel share data and collaborate to deliver the best guest experience?
- With rate parity rules weakening in many markets, in what ways can hotels and OTAs cooperate for their mutual benefit?
OTAS – Friend of Foe?
Hoteliers need to recognise that the OTAs are not the enemy, even though historically there may have been some practices and fee structures that were not as balanced as they should have been.
The OTAs have massive marketing reach. They can tap into markets that hotels can’t reach. They offer huge choice and convenience to the consumer and for that reason customers will continue to use them. For hoteliers to continue to class them as the villain is wrong; they have to recognise the value and opportunities they do bring and work with them more in partnership rather than an adversarial fashion.
Hotels can spend every waking hour trying to compete with the OTAs and they will never see the same ROI, whether through discounting or competing on marketing spend. That is also a detrimental zero-end game for the hotels. They need to recognise the middle ground is the right approach.
