Réponse de: Vicky    (16.01.08 7:39)

Thanks for the tip - I just saved about 150 euro by following your advice!

I really like their best buy button and rates - once you see how true it is for one or two examples you trust the rest.

I have personally found the OTAs more expensive for this UK Berlin hop more than for the Orlando conference. Ended up self booking with Easyjet for the flight and Berlin Tourism for the hotel, whereas I'm usually an Expedia/Opodo girl.

Thanks again for saving me money ;-)

Réponse de: Claude    (16.01.08 10:25)

You welcome Vicky

Se you in Berlin at ITB Phocuswright bloggers summit

cheers

Claude

Réponse de: Andy    (28.01.08 2:06)

An interesting piece, it certainly pays to shop around and some of the bigger, more well known companies arent always the best price.

At our site footballhotels.co.uk we looked at lots of suppliers as we wanted to try and find a supplier with a good selection and good rates.

We actually signed up with British company Active Hotels - part of Booking.com

Our users are football fans that travel to matches, we decided on our current supplier because they also allow pay on departure, ie book it now, guarantee with the card and pay when you leave.

We have carried out surveys of our users and they love this because they often travel in groups or it means they can save up and stay at a better hotel as they dont need to pay up immediately.

Réponse de: Joe Buhler    (28.01.08 10:48)

I've had the same experience shopping for my hotel for the ITB. Interesting that you mention The Gates. I'm holding a booking for the same rate you got directly from them, only I used Booking.com to get it. All the major sites were more expensive. Too bade I didn't check the tourist board (bad mistake as a former tourist board director!!) as now the Gates is no longer available through them.

Rate consistency across channels and distributors still not a reality.

Réponse de: Don    (28.01.08 14:50)

I hope you realize that with regard to OTAs, sometimes the price is out of the hotel's control. For example, a hotel will provide the OTA with a net rate, which the OTA then decides how much to mark up the price (be it a percentage or a specific dollar/Euro/spice exchange) amount. Demand for the rooms allocated to the OTA may differ from one third-party site to another, giving one OTA plenty of reason to increase their "take" on the sale of the room (I'm assuming we're not talking about straight commissionable hotel rates, here). My experience has been to find the lowest OTA rate, then compare to the rates actually offered by the hotel. More often than not, the hotel has offered the better price.

Your post is a good "heads up" for consumers. Nice job!

Réponse de: Claude    (28.01.08 22:38)

Don,
I agree, the rate management with Expedia is not so easy for hotelier (net rate structure, lost of control by hotel, etc), but in this case, we see a big big GAP !!!

Réponse de: Andy    (31.01.08 13:11)

I think net rate is dying out now. Hotels are much savvier now than before. I mean a Hotel that reads up on Google Adwords can effectively market themselves without losing control of their rate to the likes of Expedia, Octopustravel, Hotels.com etc

The model that the likes of Booking.com is use is far more sustainable. let the hotel control their own rate, what they put into the system is what the guest sees. They are charged a commission on each booking rather than letting the big guys decide how much to whack onto the room rate.

Interesting times.