The Boost Hospitality Podcast is back for another season! In this episode, I talk about what’s actually in the contract you signed with the Online Travel Agents.
Hospitality owners often complain about high commission rates, brand hijacking in Google AdWords, and lack of control in marketing. However, when looking at the contract between OTAs and hotels, OTAs have much more rights than you would believe.
In the episode, I share a few snippets explaining just how little control you have when working with an OTA.
Aside from that, I also share with you a few other things. Firstly, if OTAs have the right to use your name, logo, and anything else they want, then why are you not allowed to use a meta-pricing comparison tool on your website, proving that your price will always be lower than any OTA? Secondly, why are you not allowed to promise always to offer the best price, when OTAs do that all the time? And finally, independent hotels should be requiring transparency checks from their OTA. They should insist on API access to the OTA so they can monitor rate parity. The API should allow inspections by channel, device, length of stay, and geography. Sadly, these things are a huge problem. The result is a massive quarrel between hotel owners and OTAs.
Click here to read the full blog post.