18
| Hospitality Today | Summer 2017
OTAs: an ‘abusive
relationship’ or
‘the hand that feeds’?
“The UK Bed & Breakfast Association is taking on
the might of the big American online travel agents”
wrote The Times on 7th August, under the headline
“B&Bs try to make online travel giants do it by book”.
This followed the filing by the B&B Association
(representing the 25,000 small businesses in the
B&B and guesthouse sector) of five complaints of
misleading and anti-competitive behaviour by OTAs.
Here we reproduce the Travel Weekly op-ed piece by
B&B Association Chairman (and proprietor of Special
Publishing, HT’s publisher) David Weston, outlining
the Association’s stance - and also the response by
Christophe Klenner on behalf of the OTAs:
Are OTAs abusing their power?
The two global giants are not being fair, either
to the consumer or the accommodation owner.
by David Weston (far right)
Chairman of the B&B Association.
What comes between a hotel or B&B,
and its client? Not so long ago, it could
be a travel agent, who added value with
their knowledge, and took their 10%.
Then online travel ‘agents’ (OTAs)
appeared – initially to do a similar job.
Now, though, OTAs are nobody’s
‘agent’ – they don’t give the consumer
the unbiased choice and transparent
information they think they are getting,
and they certainly don’t act as ‘agent’ of
the accommodation owner. This is now
an unequal and unfair relationship, at
times verging on the abusive.
The imbalance of power is extraordinary
between a B&B or independent hotel and
the two giant American OTA groups who
have some 80% of the market (Priceline
group, who own Booking.com, Kayak
and many others; and Expedia, who own
Hotels.com, Trivago and many others).
Our members as B&Bs have no
negotiation of terms with these global
giants – it is “take it or leave it”. And what
we have to “take” often seems unfair.
How have these giant platforms carved
out such a dominant position in our
industry, extracting such a significant
and growing ‘cut’ from the prices paid
by consumers, and driving up prices?