On my way to find the best deal (air & accomodation) for ITB PhoCusWright in Berlin, I discover some interesting fact about hotel distribution.

Where do you think you can find the Best Deal (Best Rate, Best Price Garantee, Or whatever the name, etc) for this request:

3 nights in the Gates Hotel in Berlin
Arrival march 4
Departure march 7
Single room without breakfast

I made 3 simple search:
>> Trying with the World leading Online Travel Agency (OTA) : Expedia
>> Trying in direct at the Gates Hotel website
>> Trying at the Berlin Tourism Board

Well, look at this results, for the same product we have a gap of 44,40 %

Voyages SNCF and Expedia (same booking engine)
Houra, I find the Best OTA Price : 602,14 €

-

Hotel Gates website
He, on the hotel website, "THE" direct channel, I find : 495,00 €

-

Berlin Tourism Board hotel booking engine
Dear Berlin Tourism Board, thanks you, you give me the real Best Rate at : 417,00 €

-

OK, what can we learn with this real exemple:

>> OTA don't have the best prices (specialy during events and congress dates)
>> Hotel don't know how to manage rate parity and distribution channel
>> Tourism Board have good prices and rooms stock (and better maping information)

What can be interesting for the customers side:

>> Travel Meta-Search engine could scann Tourism board hotels booking engine

What can be interesting for the hotel side:

>> Better distribution management (in this case, easy to have the same price parity between Hotel website, "the direct channel" and Tourism Board web site)
>> Improve hotel web site visibility in search engine
>> Improve stocks management in the Tourism Board hotel booking engine (the cheapest way after hotel web site)

Conclusion:

Hotel distribution channels is a "nightmare", but with expension of hotel booking engine in the main City Tourism Board, it could be interesting to look at this interesting channel.

Both for customers and hotels >>>>> and for travel search engine

If you have a similar experience, give a comment.

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1. Vicky Says:
   January 16th, 2008 at 7:39 am

   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

2. Claude Says:
   January 16th, 2008 at 10:25 am

   You welcome Vicky

   Se you in Berlin at ITB Phocuswright bloggers summit

   cheers

   Claude

3. Andy Says:
   January 28th, 2008 at 2:06 am

   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.

4. Joe Buhler Says:
   January 28th, 2008 at 10:48 am

   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.

5. Don Says:
   January 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

   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!

6. Claude Says:
   January 28th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

   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 !!!

7. Andy Says:
   January 31st, 2008 at 1:11 pm

   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.

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