HOTELMARKETING.COM

Hotel chains join best-rate-guarantee club

May 20, 2004 |

The chains adopted best-rate guarantees after becoming fed up with seeing their rates undercut by the outside Web sites like Expedia and Travelocity.

Much like car dealers and mattress salesmen, the big hotel chains now are vowing that they won’t be undersold. In the past six months, Hilton and Marriott joined other big chains like Starwood and Cendant in guaranteeing that the best room rates on their Web sites will match or beat the best rates on popular travel sites.

InterContinental, owner of the Holiday Inn brand, pioneered the concept in 2002.

The chains adopted these best-rate guarantees after becoming fed up with seeing their rates undercut by the outside Web sites like Expedia and Travelocity. They relied on the outside sites to help fill their rooms following the travel downturn brought by terrorism and recession in 2001. But now the hotels want to take back control of their rooms and prices as the travel business improves and Internet bookings grow.

To get away from the old way of doing business, the hoteliers promised the travel sites better access to their room inventories. So now there’s a better chance that rooms in chain hotels will be available on the travel sites - but at a rate equal to or higher than what the chains offer on their own sites.

Henry Harteveldt, a Forrester Research analyst who tracks online travel, says he expects the best-rate guarantees to stay in place for some time, possibly until hotels decide to expand their Web sites to include rival hotels.

Get the full story at USAToday

Visit our sponsors: