News & Stories

Amsterdam. New. Power. Distribution. This was the title of Simon Lehman's introduction speech during the last European Phocuswright event in Amsterdam. In a twenty-minute statement, the President of Phocuswright drew a portrait of the European travel market, which grew only by +2% in 2016. He also outlined the "revolutionary" changes of the airline and hospitality industry.

Amsterdam. OTAs are growing much faster than the US hotel market itself – for the first time in 2016. Phocuswright revealed this milestone at its European conference in Amsterdam some weeks ago. By the same token, hoteliers are now increasing the pressure on online agencies – from direct booking campaigns and loyalty program incentives to concerted lobbying efforts by the unions. Will Expedia and Priceline, which combined, share 90% of the American market, feel the heat? The tech giants play in a different league where hotels have become commodities. Hoteliers have only one chance and that is to increase their multi-channel presence and drive traffic via their own website.

Cologne. HRS wants to bring hotels and companies with business travel needs even closer together – via its "Market Place". Advertising for this new platform commenced last week and is intended to help individual hotels to secure their piece of the corporate business cake.

Paris. AccorHotels' mutation from a hotel group to an OTA is in progress. This week, the group launched a new service of pre-packaged trips on the French market including flights and is betting at the same time on the upscale catering group Noctis.

San Francisco. Enforcement of regulations by French authorities towards the Sharing Economy is getting tighter. Since May 1, 2017, a new decree published in the Official Journal allows major cities in France to obligate Airbnb's hosts to officially register. Only licensed units can now legally be listed online. It takes time and plenty of energy to fight against multi-billion dollar corporations, but French hotel unions are proving once again that sometimes, tenacity pays off. Amsterdam is also suffering: Research shows that 35% of rooms in the Airbnb Amsterdam section are offered by professional landlords. The city is reacting, too. And Airbnb is feeling the heat, but still not playing fair.

London. Attribution continues to be an issue for the travel and tourism industry as travelers hop across devices and sites during their journey. More than half of marketing professionals in a survey report that they have limited visibility of their customers as they move across devices and touchpoints.

Berlin/Cologne. HRS continues to work on its own profile. In Berlin, CEO Tobias Ragge provided insight into the current state of play. Three segments are currently driving HRS: corporate client business, multi-source and holiday homes. All tools serve merely to satisfy customers. For this reason, HRS is even prepared to cannibalise its own model. The decision-making power of the future rests with the customer. For this reason, the HRS boss has some critical words to say about the power of the mega chains.

Berlin. One in four hotel room nights in Germany was generated via online booking portals in 2016. Here, the three portals Priceline Group, HRS and Expedia dominate the OTA market with a combined market share of more than 95%. Especially Booking.com picked up drastically.

Brussels. Booking your holidays online: The European Commission and consumer protection authorities act on misleading travel booking websites. Both launched a coordinated screening of 352 price comparison and travel booking websites across the EU in October 2016.

Siders. Der Anteil an Buchungen in der Schweizer Hotellerie über Online-Buchungsplattformen verzeichnete im vergangenen Jahr einen Boom und machte 2016 mehr als 27% aller generierten Übernachtungen aus, gegenüber 20,6% im Jahr 2015. Die drei führenden OTAs booking.com, Expedia und HRS generieren zusammen 93% dieses Online-Geschäfts.