Sometimes we are asked why we talk so much about Booking.com and that we make them out to be the “enemy”. That is not the case and we do not share that point of view. This post will explain why.
The Positive Sides of Booking.com
During these last few years, Booking.com has done a splendid job providing a lot of value to hotels and accompanying them in the necessary change of distribution model that every hotel should follow with the arrival of the Internet. The main novelties and positive sides were:
- Direct payment at the hotel. Immediate availability and price update.
- Gradual elimination of quotas (it seems that they have been completely eliminated).
- More transparency. They brought us closer to the client, who was a long way away back then (we only knew something about them on arrival).
- More profitability thanks to a “reasonable” cost that Booking.com insists on -in self-interest- of 15%, although we know that Booking.com applies the commission to prices with taxes (taxes are 10% in France and Spain) increasing the final commission to 16.5% for non-preferred hotels and 18.7% for preferred ones.
- Control of the retail price (since it’s direct payment). From having no idea of how much our hotel sold we now control the price the client pays. Sadly, not many intermediaries can guarantee the same thing (or rather, none of them).
Booking.com also has an almost-perfect platform that deals with the hoteliers’ most pressing needs at just one click away, without having to send emails or make phone calls. On top of this technology, it has also added a service layer (its team of account managers) to accompany hoteliers in its use and to solve all of their queries as well as proposing new changes in a proactive manner. This combination of product and service has meant that hotels have, rightly so, fallen for them and ended up being bookingised.
