It would be fair to say that the conversation around instant booking on travel search sites has been broadly supportive of the concept so far.
Ever since March 2011, when Kayak piloted a direct booking service for hotels on the Travelocity platform, metasearch engines have talked up the idea that they can handle the booking end of the process (but not be responsible for the trip as the merchant of record).
The meta-booking model went up a gear in 2014 when TripAdvisor announced that it would start introducing Instant Booking for hotels in the US, with the program gradually rolling out across all its markets (scheduled for completion by the end of this year).
The meta-booking model went up a gear in 2014 when TripAdvisor announced that it would start introducing Instant Booking for hotels in the US, with the program gradually rolling out across all its markets (scheduled for completion by the end of this year).
Almost a year ago, Skyscanner began a test of its own for instant bookings of air tickets.
It seems like there is no end to the push by metasearch engines to incorporate this kind of facility – a concept that was originally touted as a way of keeping the user experience consistent for travellers, not least when for a long time the mobile booking tools on many supplier websites were substandard, to say the least.
But there are certainly some wrinkles emerging in the idea that instant booking is a logical next step for metasearch engines, perhaps the most high-profile coming from TripAdvisor after it conceded a few weeks ago during in its Q1 2016 earnings call that the instant booking model would continue to hit its financial performance.
TripAdvisor says there’s less money coming in as the value of a click is lower on instant booking than the existing model, plus many of those participating in instant booking are not collecting the guest revenue until the stay takes place, long after its involvement in the shopping process.
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