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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