New Research Suggests It Doesn’t Always Pay to Book Direct for a Hotel
Photo Credit: A new report from Piper Jaffray suggests the lowest hotel room rate isn't always on a hotel's own website (assuming you aren't a member of that hotel's loyalty program), and it may be cheaper on an online travel agency site like Expedia. PlaceIt by Breezi
Skift Take
Maybe it really is better to keep clicking around if you're hoping to save money (and you don't want to be a member of a hotel loyalty program).
A new report published by research firm Piper Jaffray suggests it doesn't necessarily pay to book direct with hotels instead of with an online travel agency (OTA) such as Expedia or Booking.com, or a metasearch site such as Kayak or Trivago.
Analysts looked at hotels from the top four hotel chains (InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Hilton, and Wyndham Hotel Group) in the largest 25 cities worldwide and found that booking direct on a hotel's website was a less expensive booking option for only 14 percent of the hotels in the sample.
There were more instances (21 percent) in which an OTA or metasearch site had a lower price for a room. The majority of hotels in the sample (66 percent) had the same listed price on OTA, metasearch, and brand.com websites. This means that 34 percent of hotels included in the sample had inconsistent pricing across different channels. In cases when an OTA/metasearch website offered cheaper prices, the price was less expensive by
