AccorHotels Finds Competing With Expedia Is Harder Than Expected
Photo Credit: Pictured is Accorhotels' Pullman Bangkok King Power hotel. Separately, Accor's CFO said an effort to add independent hotels to Accord websites has struggled to attract Web traffic. AccorHotels
Skift Take
The candid comments of the Accor CFO show just how difficult it is for hotel companies to compete with the big online travel agencies. You can't do it half-heartedly and AccorHotels will have to decide how much effort it is willing to put in to the initiative.
AccorHotels plan to take on the likes of Expedia and Booking.com by opening up its booking platform to independent hotels appears to have suffered a setback.
Accor CEO Sébastien Bazin announced the “marketplace” initiative in 2015, saying: “We need to stop having the perception that the lowest price is on the online travel agent sites. We need to disseminate this truth.”
Marketplace brings independent hotels onto the AccorHotels platform and not only adds extra revenue through commission but also in theory would attract additional customers.
However, two years later and it appears as though AccorHotels is still searching for a winn
