Skift Take
Red Lion Hotels is bucking the direct bookings push adopted by the likes of Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental Hotel Group, Choice Hotels, Wyndham, and other big hotel players. Here's why.
If you listened to just about any major hotel CEO during his first quarter earnings calls this year, the phrase "direct bookings" was bound to come up. The so-called "direct booking wars" as they've been referred to — this battle of epic proportions being played out among the hotels and the online travel agencies (the Expedias and Pricelines of the world) — are a hot topic in the hospitality world.
And nearly every major hotel CEO has the same strategy for winning that war: pushing more direct bookings to consumers with discounted rates for loyalty members. They reiterated that strategy at this week's NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, as well.
Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson told Skift, "Each company obviously has to make its own decision on this. To some extent, other hotel companies have similar channels in this space, so it's not surprising that other hotel companies are doing similar variations on this plan. I think we all want to make sure we have good direct relationships with our customers and cost-effective reservation strategies."
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta, speaking to a group of journalists at the conference, said, "Our attitude is really simple. We want to have, as much as we can, a direct relationship with our customers. We want to them to know they can have the best value and best experience and know that they get that from us."
InterContinental Hotels Group CEO Richard Solomons, added, "We've had direct booking for an awfully long time. The hotel industry has alwa
