Skift Take
Room Key, the joint venture by Choice Hotels, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott and Wyndham, hasn't set the world on fire, and doesn't appear to have had much of an impact on the chains' businesses.
Nearly three years since six major hotel chains got together and launched Room Key, the hotel search site with the unique marketing model is looking for relevance.
Room Key's entire marketing strategy is serving pop-under ads for Room Key to consumers when they leave the websites of the founders, namely Choice Hotels, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott and Wyndham, without booking a room.
With 70,000 properties from the founders and other hotels in 159 countries on Room Key, the theory is that hotels shouldn't lose the customers to big online travel agencies such as Booking.com or Expedia when travelers don't book on the chains' sites, but the idea is to bring these travelers to Room Key where they can continue searching for a room from multiple brands.
Living Up to Expectations
The talk in the hotel industry is that Room Key so far hasn't lived up to revenue expectations, although Room Key and its owners don't divulge financials about the site, which debuted in January 2012.
It speaks volumes, though, that Room Key hardly gets a mention in annual financial filings from the public companies among the six founders. If Room Key actually ha
