Expedia Acknowledges a New Balance of Power With Hotels in Direct Booking Challenge
Photo Credit: An image from Hilton's "Stop Clicking Around" campaign. Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom said hotels and online travel agencies have reached a new equilibrium. Hilton Worldwide
Skift Take
A year from now — or perhaps sooner — we wouldn't be at all surprised to hear Expedia executives admit that hotels' direct-booking campaigns were having more of an adverse impact than the company initially articulated. Hotels have taken back some control from Expedia, and its shift toward independent hotels has far-reaching implications.
The hotel direct-booking campaigns over the last couple of years have succeeded in resetting the online travel agency-hotel chain balance of power.
Expedia Inc. CEO Mark Okerstrom conceded as much Thursday, although not explicitly, as he said his company has felt no financial impact from these campaigns. In the direct-booking campaigns, chains such as Hilton and Marriott have advertised on TV and online, urging travelers to book directly on their own websites, where loyalty program members can find room rates lower than they'll find on online travel agency sites.
But what Okerstrom did say is that Expedia's customers — half of whom aren't searching for a specific brand because cheap room rates are more important — are booking independent hotels more frequently than they did in the past instead of booking household name hotel brands. One reason is because chain hotels often appear lower in Expedia's search results than they did in the past.
A New Equilibrium — Or Balance of
