Marriott’s New Contract With Expedia Signals a Shift in the Direct Booking Wars
Skift Take
As the saying goes, keep your friends close and your rivals closer. Or in this case, that rival might turn out to be a friend, after all, once you've become the world's biggest hotel company.
With Marriott International and Expedia Group finally completing their contract negotiations, the deal they've struck could have an impact on the relationship between hotels and online travel agencies more broadly going forward.
The months-long contract negotiations, which began in November, have resulted in a new multi-year deal between the hotel and online travel agency behemoths that includes some key features that give Marriott and its hotel owners more control over their distribution relationship with Expedia, but also positions Expedia as more of a partner to Marriott and its owners.
Now that Marriott is the world's largest hotel company — it opened its 7,000th property this week — many industry observers expected Marriott's increased scale following its $13.3 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts would help the company obtain a much lower commission rate from Expedia.
While there is no specific information available about the much-discussed commission
