Third Party Bookings
Hilton’s website lists the best rate guarantee clearly
For miles and points aficionados, the first question that pops out about third party bookings is whether they’ll earn points/miles and elite credit. Given the often tense relations between third party sites and hotel chain, one tends to believe that booking direct may always be the best option.
Hyatt clearly prefers that you book direct
When you book through a third party site, hotel chains pay a commission to that website or travel agent that helps you book that particular hotel. Hotels would rather keep that money with themselves. We’ve seen most of the major hotel chains roll out ‘Best Rate Guarantees’ in order to encourage customers to book directly with them.
Since I use points for most of my hotel bookings, I usually don’t run into a situation where I have to make a choice between a direct or a third party booking.
The Exception
However, there’s one hotel chain which just made waves about having no qualms with regards to third party bookings. In fact, they say that they love it!
As per Skift’s recently published report:
While many of IHG’s competitors, including Hilton and Marriott, have been running campaigns and emphasizing direct-bookings, where guests find the lowest rates for loyalty program members on the chains’ websites. Garnier in Cancun said IHG recognizes that not everyone prefers or is able to book its properties direct.
“We love third-party bookings,” Garnier told around 600 attendees at the convention center at the Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres resort. “Shock. Surprise.”
One area of concern, however, is there needs to be more of “reconciliation” between third-party bookings and the needs of IHG’s loyalty program. “We are thinking about it,” Garnier said, adding that the chain doesn’t have a magic wand to address the problem and the relationship between the two needs to evolve.
Analysis
I find the line about reconciliation between third-party booking and the needs of IHG’s loyalty program quite interesting. What I’m interested in seeing is what decisions they take when it comes to keeping a pool of customers out of the IHG ecosystem. By encouraging third party bookings, they may keep getting business. However, that also means that fewer people stay within the IHG ecosystem to earn points, elite night credits or use the IHG credit card.
The Pundit’s Mantra
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IHG?…you must be kidding. There is no points/stay earned for any 3rd party booking and you won’t feel the love for sure.
Agree. It’s difficult to develop a pool brand loyalists when you’re making public statements about how you love third party booking sites.
I will never book with an OTA, as theyre great when things are going well. The second there is some type of problem, there ends up being a back and forth with the hotel, with each party shoving responsibility on the other. The fact that most OTAs have sparsely populated call centers, staffed by individuals with no empowerment, only serves to make things worse.
Passing the buck is common when you book thru an OTA. Booking direct is always helpful. Whenever I’ve had an issue, I’ve taken it up with the right channels directly with the hotel chain and have had issues fixed to my satisfaction.
My problem is that most of the time, I have no choice but to book through Expedia because my work won’t give me my own work credit card, so I have to use Expedia to prepay for my room. If I know I’m going to be staying somewhere for an extended time, I can get an email confirmation through my office to pay for the stay, but most of my stays are last minute.
I have earned the most points staying at Hilton properties and I tend to try to book mostly at Hilton properties when traveling. I also have earned points with Marriott and Red Roof Inn, which is good especially if you are on a budget. Alot of my bookings were also done through Concur Travel through my previous job and I was able to earn points and for the past few years, I used Hotels.com for personal travel and was able to also earn points through both the hotel and the app. However, this new policy of not allowing you to… Read more »
I agree, if only the hotels start truly honoring their best rate guarantees!
very informative thanks for sharing this blog