Bed & Breakfast News Sept-Oct 2016 (#42) | Page 15

nd OTAs:
partnership

We have totally lost control in the bookings,
our Booking Manager system, iBex
CaterBook, now Cloud-based, cannot cope
with the power of the Booking.com channel
management (I am not sure if the language
is correct), and we have had no choice
but to put up our rates. Our cancellations
have gone up well over a hundred-fold,
and our no-shows are all down to Booking.
com errors. We never had so many double
bookings, no-shows or invalid credit/
debit cards. With the partnership with
TripAdvisor and Trivago, it is now rare to
get a Google/website based direct booking,
free of commission other than from
regular guests.

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Granted we are getting well booked up, but
somehow, the ‘type’ of guest we get are
not what we are used to. There seems to be
the idea that booking through Booking.com
or Late Rooms is free: departing guests are
mostly surprised when we say that we are
charged 15% or 17% of their total booking.
But it just takes a minute, possibly less, to
book through an OTA account, whereas it
will take more than 2 to 3 minutes to book
direct. The accepted laziness of the booking
public and ‘convenience’ has done it again.
Like supermarkets, these huge companies
have tapped into our natural lethargy and
have tapped the accommodation market.
Unfortunately, we have no control in how
these people spend our money other than
to remove ourselves from the OTA systems
– and then get no bookings at all, because
every search now goes to them!
The frightening thing is that soon, all
bookings: theatre tickets, restaurant
bookings, small events at small venues, will
go the same way. Travel tickets are already
only bookable through an agent as far
as I can see. Even when I booked on Easy
Jet yesterday, the first three places on a
Google search for “easyJet” were OTA sites.
easyJet itself was fourth (and cheapest).
There will be a time – soon - we will never
know what the provider’s best price is.
We plan to retire next year. It will be very
sad for us as we enjoy this business so
much. But since all control of our bookings
are now in the hands of OTAs and Booking
Manager systems – systems we hardly
understand – we are looking forward
to handing it over to someone younger
who understands these things. OTAs are
parasites, like ivy growing over your house:
it’s pretty and guests like looking at it, but
it’s damaging, and you can’t get rid of it.
HW