News & Stories

Beijing. The pressure is rising. After years of global expansion overriding local regulations, rental platforms of the Sharing Economy are now facing global opposition: States like New York are restricting rentals; cities like San Francisco are removing non-registered units from online listings. Heavy fines will hit operators and hosts. At the same time, 10 international mega-cities are now working together to establish common regulations P2P platforms will have to follow. And: 60 French unions representing hotels but also real estate agencies are officially suing Airbnb, Homeaway and even Booking.com for unfair competition and illegal activity. The global battle has started.

Vienna. Understanding on the part of the Austrian federal government came late, but the hotel industry is happy that the form of best rate guarantee, as used by the OTAs, has to be altered. In 2017, the best rate clause will be overturned by law.

Beijing. In the western world, Airbnb presents itself as the OTA giant par excellence. Now, powerful competition is coming from the Far East: Tujia.com. The company wants to expand its offer of private accommodations within the next half year, especially overseas. And Tujia is not only supported by well-known and financially sound real estate and investment companies but also by the government. Today, the platform offers 400,000 apartments at 294 destinations in China and 353 destinations outside of China.

The Hague. The new Dutch startup bidroom.com wants to disrupt Booking.com's and Expedia's "stranglehold" by connecting hotels directly with guests. But despite its fresh concept which leads hoteliers into a bidding competition to win over the future guest, its chances to actually harm the giant OTAs seem to be unrealistic.

Cologne. The global hotel solutions provider HRS has invested in the Australian company The Lido Group through a strategic partnership, thus continuing its global expansion in the corporate business.

Amsterdam. Though the first quarter 2016 was okay, Online Travel Agents share less enthusiasm for the next coming months. From Priceline and TripAdvisor to Expedia, all three leaders have reasons to believe that Q2 will not be as exciting financially. Their CEOs find a lot of reasons to blame the market and justify declining figures in the groups' own reports.

London. On Wednesday Booking.com announced the release of its new Booking Messages interface, a chat-inspired communication platform that enables customers and accommodation providers to effortlessly connect with each other from the moment a booking is made.

Paris. While Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton are spending millions on TV campaigns inviting future guests to book direct, AccorHotels has chosen to play the OTA game and launched its own booking platform. That was almost a year ago. Today, just like a "boutique OTA", the marketplace has recruited a thousand new independent partners who have agreed to co-exist along with AccorHotels' own brands and luxury apartments from Onefinestay’s portfolio, which will soon be joining the platform. After a slow start, Accor's unusual proposal to open up its booking platform to competition, seems to finally be tempting a certain profile of hoteliers eager to multiply distribution channels in total transparency, while keeping control over customer data. During ITB, Sarah Douag met with Guillaume de Marcillac and Jean-Luc Chrétien, co-CEOs of Fastbooking, the entity in charge of the marketplace. How it works, what's in the contract, commission rate, loyalty program, data protection, digital innovations…they explained all the details and gave us a hint about future developments.

Vienna. A start-up in Vienna is launching a new booking platform for hoteliers in Austria and Germany. Entry provision: nine euros per booking, but the guests need to find the lowest price on their own.

London. SiteMinder just published its top ten revenue-generating booking sites of 2015. And is ranked at three itself.