News & Stories
Geneva. Google is trying to enhance its Hotel Finder by way of a license agreement with Room77 in order to catch-up with other metasearch engines. Apparently, the aim is to allow individual hotels direct bookings via the search engine as well – which is already offered by the large metasearch platforms. Now, the giant is vigorously attracting the little ones and promoting target group-oriented advertisements instead of fees.
Cologne. For as long as hotels don't have their online distribution channels under control, online travel agents will continue to play on rates - Tobias Ragge, Managing Director of HRS Group, told hospitalityInside.com in an interview in Cologne. Eight weeks after the fall of the rate parity, he continues to see HRS in a good position as partner to the hotel industry with fair value-for-money. With HRS's new profile, he also sees a positive future for the company alongside global OTAs such as Expedia and Booking.com. As ever, the 37-year-old wasn't giving any company figures away, but he did say something about cost developments in online distribution as well as how HRS would like to sharpen its profile in future – or not.
San Francisco. The last-minute hotel reservation App, HotelTonight, has introduced an additional overnight category with "CrashPad" – accepting hostels.
Hamburg. The TripAdvisor travel website wants to remain as a pure review portal and not – like HolidayCheck – mutate into a booking engine. Is this intention still realistic? With its latest product "TripConnect", TripAdvisor is offering hotels a new calculation model for the "Business Listings". Which model will most appeal to the hotel industry in the future? Tom Breckwoldt, Territory Manager Business Listings in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland regions, regarding TripAdvisor – with comments by eCommerce Specialist, Michael Pütter.
Cologne. HRS had lodged a complaint in February against the decision by the German Federal Cartel Office for which the hotel reservation platform may no longer require rate parity in Germany.
Berlin/Minneapolis. At ITB Berlin starting next Wednesday, about 30 new exhibitors will be represented and make the travel technology segment grow further and move on to the next hall. Accordingly, IT and software provider offer more. IDeaS Revenue Solutions now announced the first mobile revenue management App.
Rome. At their meeting in Milan at the tourism fair BIT, the board of directors of the Italian hotel association Federalberghi unanimously decided to appeal to the national Antitrust Authority against online travel agencies.
Bonn. As reported, the German Federal Cartel Office had definitively prohibited the online mediator, HRS, from the Best Price guarantee on the 20th of December, 2013. The authority has now made their explanatory statement public. Those interested can find the full text here. Austrian hoteliers are protesting violently in the meantime – the judgment is valid only for Germany.
Berlin/Vienna. Celebrations in both the German and Austrian hotel sector following a decision on the "best price guarantee" at the end of last year have now become somewhat quieter. On December 20, 2013, the German Cartel Office stopped the online travel agent HRS from using the best price guarantee - but only for the German market. The discussion now continues cautiously in Germany as the sector now faces the challenge of following its criticism of HRS resp. OTAs with acts. In Austria, information from EU circles has come to light which again leaves a question mark above the change. It is expected that HRS will appeal the decision by the end of March 2014.
Geneva. Expedia and Booking are engaged in a marketing battle about millions and billions; therefore, many small OTAs are no longer present in the perception of the customers. However, they also have to compete with other market participants increasingly, e.g. evaluation platforms like TripAdvisor, which have turned into meta search engines. On the other hand, the question arises whether the search engine Google Hotel Finder is becoming an Online Travel Agent. Author Macy Marvel investigated these facts in the last edition of hospitalityInside.com, and in today's second part, he analyses how mobile will change the market, how many bookings are already carried out on mobile devices, and how much power providers like HotelTonight have in the meantime. Moreover, the first hotel group has enabled bookings in the US via Twitter.