The proportion of bookings made through online tools continues to increase

Date : 19/07/2018
Author : Forum Business Travel

Hotels' reliance on the distribution channel of online platforms continues to increase, while the proportion of direct bookings is decreasing, according to a study by HOTREC and the Swiss University of Applied Sciences Valais. The three leading operators in Europe share 92% of the intermediary market.

According to the report powered by the Hotels, Restaurants and Cafós Association of Europe (HOTREC), the proportion of bookings through online platforms has increased from 23.1% to 26.1% between 2015 and 2017. Between the three leading platforms in the European market —Booking, Expedia and HRS— control more than 92% of the intermediary market.

More than 50% of the hoteliers interviewed feel pressured to accept the terms and conditions of the platforms, such as the terms and conditions of the platforms;parity clauses, the cancellation policy or the special discounts .

Also, the study shows that small, independent hotels are under more pressure than large hotel chains, and more than 70% of the hotels surveyed believe there is no fair and effective solution to disagreements.

Although the sales argument of the OTAs is the lowest price guarantee, it is found that the abusive clauses that they apply to the hotels, in practice, represent a upward equalization of all online sales channels, since the parity clauses they impose prevent hotels from offering better conditions in their own sales channels. Consequently, these impositions end up making the price of hotel accommodation more expensive for the end consumer.

In view of this situation, the hotel sector warns of the damage that the abusive clauses in the contracts of the OTAs entail, both for the sector itself and for the end consumer. In fact, this is one of the priorities of the CEHAT working group currently led by the general manager of the Gremi d’Hotels de Barcelona, Manel Casals.

The head of this association is establishing contacts with the different political parties at the state level with the aim of getting the Congress to approve a Spanish mercantile law that declares illegal the parity clauses included in the clauses included in the contracts;The company has already done the same in countries such as France, Italy, Switzerland or Austria, as it has already done in the past.