Switzerland: Cartel probe against HRS, Booking, Expedia

Munich. Google and Facebook are lining up "to digitize" mankind. Search engines and Social Media are developing new business models from the internet euphoria and increasing mobility. The traveller is becoming a transparent commodity that will be paid for by the click in the future. What the four talks at the "eMarketing Day" by the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association and the Instituts Tourismuszukunft praised on Monday in Munich as a nearby, digital future sounds quite creepy. In contrast, the renewed discussion over the commission rise and the altered terms and conditions by the online mediator, HRS, looked like a medieval knight's tournament. Nevertheless, the latter was under heavier discussion. This subject gained a new dimension with the warning by the German Federal Anti-trust Commission toward HRS on last Friday. On Monday, Managing Directors, Tobias Ragge and Michael Simon, positioned themselves for the questions by HSMA members - and afterwards, took an opposing stand with hospitalityInside.com once again on the points that the hoteliers as well as the German Federal Anti-trust Commission hold as critical. After the interview with HRS, hospitalityInside.com asked the former Marriott distribution specialist and currently independent consultant, Bruno Wolf, from Frankfurt to comment on the answers by HRS.