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| Bed & Breakfast News | Summer 2017
Consumers believe they offer an unbiased search of the full range of accommodation according to their needs ; in reality , what might be more suitable accommodation is not offered because the OTA cannot take its cut , and the search results are manipulated to make the OTA most money , not to best meet the consumer ’ s search requirements ( see p13 )
They are easy to use - the OTAs have deep pockets to develop compelling and userfriendly websites and phone apps
They use their size and market power to promote their brands extensively online , on TV and in email marketing campaigns to an extent that even the large hotel groups like Hilton or IHG cannot now compete with - and of course a B & B has no chance
They promote the idea that consumers can easily cancel what they book through an OTA , whereas this might not be so easy directly ( resulting in vastly higher cancellation rates on OTA bookings , and hidden costs to B & Bs ) even though in fact cancellation fees may be due to your B & B ( and in such cases , you tell us that OTAs routinely pressure B & Bs to waive their proper charges for the OTA ’ s ‘ client ’)
They create misleading urgency by statements like “ only 2 rooms left !” ( when there may be more , eg by booking direct ), “ in high demand ”, “ booked 6 times in the last 24 hours ”, or “ 3 people are currently looking at this property ”, and by false discount statements like ‘ -41 % TODAY !’ when the OTA has no discount on that room today .
We have raised these issues with the EU and the UK Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA ), and will keep members informed of our progress . Meanwhile the CMA is encouraging hotels & B & Bs to increase competition by varying deals on different OTA partners . It states :
“ Hotels can choose to offer a lower price on other OTAs than they offer on Expedia and / or booking . com . Hotels can also decide to offer other OTAs better availability or conditions ( such as extras or ‘ breakfast included ’) than on Expedia and / or booking . com .”
“ Expedia and Booking . com have also committed to allow hotels to offer lower prices in ‘ offline ’ marketing channels than their prices on OTAs ( provided that such ‘ offline ’ rates are not published or marketed online by hotels ).”
In other words , B & Bs can offer any price they wish to customers in person , by telephone , direct email or through private closed-user groups ( e . g . hotel loyalty groups or past clients ).
However , the CMA currently still allows OTAs to have ‘ rate parity ’ clauses in their contracts which stop you charging lower prices on your own website than you offer through OTAs - even though such clauses have been banned in some other EU countries . We are campaigning for such restrictive practices to be banned in the UK too .
What do you think ? Do tell us at : comment @ bandbassociation . org