Hilton’s New Ad Campaign and the Push for More Direct Hotel Bookings

For the 24.95 million people who tuned in to watch the Grammy Awards on CBS last week, an advertisement from Hilton may have stood out — especially if they were travel agents. In the ad, Hilton Worldwide made it clear to potential guests to "stop clicking around," explicitly saying that the lowest guaranteed rate at a Hilton can only be found in one place: Hilton.com. The spot marked the launch of the McLean, Virginia-based hospitality company's largest-ever marketing campaign, and was another firing shot in Hilton's battle to reclaim its market share from third-party distribution channels. By touting the benefits of booking direct and bypassing sites like Expedia and Booking.com, Hilton is going after rate parity and most-favored nation clauses, and attempting to collect revenue that would otherwise go toward commissions paid to third-party sites and travel agents. Those commission rates paid by hotels to online travel agencies can range widely from 10 to 30 percent, and ho