rate parity
Why Rate Parity Still Has To Be “The Law of the Land” in Hospitality?
HFTP | July 22, 2024
By Max Starkov, Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant Just to clarify for the non-revenue management folks here, Rate Parity traditionally means maintaining the same publicly available rate for the same room/same stay across all public distribution channels i.e. channels available to any member of the public that is not a loyalty member or member of some guest appreciation or reward program. Rate Parity is not a new online policy specifically designed for the OTAs. It existed long before the “commercial internet" came into being and there was only one reason for its existence: it made revenue management and management of di...
Why Rate Parity Still Has To Be “The Law of the Land” in Hospitality?
Max Starkov | November 14, 2023
By Max Starkov There was a recent discussion on LinkedIn about the need for maintaining rate parity in hospitality and its implications. Just to clarify for the non-revenue management folks here, Rate Parity traditionally means maintaining the same publicly available rate for the same room/same stay across all public distribution channels i.e. channels available to any member of the public that is not a loyalty member or member of some guest appreciation or reward program. Rate Parity is not a new online policy specifically designed for the OTAs. It existed long before the “commercial internet" came into being and there was only ...
A Hotel Guide for Avoiding OTA Panic and Rate Parity Games
Vikram Singh | January 24, 2023
By Vikram Singh OTAs are a fact of life in our industry. But there are so many negative feelings about them, constantly being stoked by hotel media, that it becomes difficult for hotels to form calm, cohesive OTA and rate-setting strategies. OTA-bashing articles surface every few months, no matter what cycle the travel business is in. These articles usually involve screenshots of OTA rates being lower than the hotel’s direct rates, leading to complete disgust and a ton of hate reading. Other times, these feelings of fear and loathing towards OTAs are triggered at conferences by speakers going for some cheap applause. I would like t...
Content Is Critical for the Coming Travel Surge
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | March 31, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky It’s the night before the storm for the start of a solid recovery in hospitality. It will happen first at the domestic level, then internationally. For the latter, all eyes are on IATA to open some bubbles amongst the most vaccinated countries, with our particular interest on an EU-US reopening. But there are some issues associated with this reopening of flight routes in that customers have changed where and how they are booking their hotels since the pandemic started early last year. You have to be ready, and this means ensuring that your content is fully up to date on all the channels where potential gue...
Why Now Is the Time for Hoteliers to Leverage Channel Manager?
Ahmed Mahmoud | January 23, 2020
By Ahmed Mahmoud Choosing the correct hotel Channel Manager is always a critical decision for hotels. There are many factors can be taken into consideration when you decide which channel manager to select for your hotel, it could be your hotel size, cost, time-saving, ……..etc. If you do not have the right channel manager that distributes your rooms in an organized way, you run the risk of double booking your rooms - resulting in unhappy customers, lost revenue, and even more wasted time trying to rectify the situation. In looking for the right channel manager for your hotel, hoteliers may start to ask themselves the below: ››...
What’s Happening with Rate Parity in the Hotel Industry?
trivago Hotel Manager Blog | October 24, 2017
Recent developments in legislation throughout the world have made rate parity an important topic in the hospitality industry. But despite its frequent appearance in the news, rate parity remains a complicated issue, and one that takes a different form from one market to the next. To understand what exactly is happening with rate parity in the greater hotel industry, our researchers examined it on a global scale. Presented here, their findings offer a comprehensive look at rate parity from its origins to its current legal status in countries around the world. What is rate parity? Rate parity is a legal agreement between hotels and online...
The European Rate Conundrum: To Be (in Parity) or Not to Be?
Jean Francois Mourier | January 26, 2016
By Jean Francois Mourier First, I'd like to start this article by saying "Felicitations!" and "Gratuliere!" to hoteliers in France and Germany. It is an exciting time to be a European hotelier because the laws relating to rate parity are being amended as we speak/write. In July 2015, the French National Assembly completed the process to ban rate parity clauses in contracts between online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotels. Germany's courts have decreed that OTAs cannot have a "best price" clause in their contracts with German hotels – and that all OTA contracts must be amended by January 31, 2016. As many European properties obtain...
As OTA Giants Rise, Google & Amazon Wait Their Turn
Sarah Harkness | September 9, 2015
By Sarah Harkness In the never ending battle between hotels and online travel agents, the first quarter of 2015 saw OTAs gaining valuable ground. Already, the distribution channel which includes players like Expedia, Hotels.com, et al experienced the largest jump in bookings ever. While Brand.com sites saw 7.1% year-on-year gains, OTAs more than doubled that number with a 15.1% increase according to Eye for Travel. As these monsters continue eating up smaller competitors through mergers and acquisitions, hotel brand.com marketing efforts are struggling to keep up with the spend afforded to the Expedias of the world. As a matter of fact,...
