Each Friday, the HotelNewsNow.com editorial staff picks the most compelling (or downright gutsy) quote and reader comment from the previous week.
Quote of the week
Expedia is making significant investments to better its relationships with supplier partners—including a new-found attitude check—but don’t expect a narrowing of commission margins, executives said last week during Expedia’s Global Partner Services convention, writes HotelNewsNow.com editor Jason Q. Freed.
Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide, told HotelNewsNow.com the online travel giant is doing “a few different things” to close the gap between Expedia and its hotel suppliers.
“One is acting with humility, which I’ve been told maybe we didn’t always do in the past. And I think it’s understanding that dialogue is a two-way street, and we have as much to learn as to teach.”
Read “Expedia: Commissions are ‘absolutely’ fair.”
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Comment of the week
Mystery trips are one of the latest travel trends to hit North America, and hoteliers around the globe are capitalizing on the opportunity to sell their inventory in an opaque manner, writes HotelNewsNow.com reporter Stephanie Wharton.
While the contents of the various companies’ mystery packages vary, the concept is the same: The consumer purchases a travel package before knowing the exact details of the destination.
Janelle Cornett, corporate director of revenue management for Seattle-based hotel management company Coastal Hotel Group, said it’s easy for hoteliers to lose control of inventory and more difficult to recover from diluted rates when consistently selling inventory at discounted rates.
And HotelNewsNow.com commenter WA agrees:
“Hoteliers need to monitor their usage of these types of sites. If they play a little with this opaque site and a little with that opaque site, they can quickly find themselves diluting their ADR, and running out of cash to spend on more important marketing opportunities that can help drive ADR.”
What are your thoughts? Join the conversation in the comments section of “Mystery travel: A new distribution channel.”
