Online companies beat hotels on price too often

Hoteliers are losing out on direct hotel bookings to online travel companies because of their failure to manage their own bedroom inventories.

That was the finding of a survey by accountants KPMG published at the Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin today (Thursday).

According to the Global Hotel Distribution Survey, booking a hotel room via a third-party online company, such as Expedia.com or Lastminute.com, resulted in the cheapest price in more than a third of cases.

But hotel groups are starting to respond to the challenge with a number of companies launching best-rate guarantees.

Nick Pattie, director of hotels at KPMG's travel, leisure and tourism practice, said: "Most major hotel chains are announcing best-price guarantees to woo back customers from online agencies; but their booking or distribution management process needs to be more effectively managed and controlled because our survey finds the guarantees are rarely fulfilled."

According to the report, only 28% of the hotel groups offering best-rate guarantees actually delivered on their promise.

The survey concludes that hotel groups still have "some way to go" to demonstrate that their distribution channels are effectively controlled and managed.

For more news on the Hotel Investment Forum, see next week's Caterer.