1. Hotels and OTA’s a Love-Hate
Relationship
By Charlotte Humnicki

2. I. Literary Review
• OTA’s are increasingly influential because :
– The number of online users is increasing
– The crisis has made many hotels cut their
marketing costs (OTAs prevailed)
– They increase the information availability and thus
increase buyer negotiating power
– Tend to harmonize prices due to the previous sub
point
– OTA’s are less popular for upper luxury segments

3. I. Literary Review
• Social media such as facebook and social booker
which integrates the latter are interesting
because:
– Distribution costs are lower
– Hotels delegate marketing to fans who spread the
word
– Bookings are facilitated
– Gives another marketing channel on the web which is
more dynamic, interactive, and perhaps reassuring to
the consumer (other than the website)

4. I. Literary Review
• Benefits of skyscanner:
– Perhaps hotels could use the interface to monitor
prices of flights and develop pricing strategies
accordingly
– Lower flight prices increase customers
– Perhaps hotels could have a link with the
skyscanner ?

5. I. Literature Review
• On the other hand, hotels now have tools to
adequately manage their online reputations
(market intelligence):
– See their current positioning
– Know information about competitors’ pricing
strategies
– General consumer views

6. II. Additional Articles and Research
• Online reputation is important because the
customer is not only booking more online, but
also undergoes increasingly more research.
• The importance of the hotel website is
decreasing due to the latter.
• Some hotels use social interface booking
integrated systems to:
– Adequate way to limit 3rd party sites by convincing
through social media sites (The Grand Wilshire Hotel
in West Orange, NJ)
– Manage reviews more adequately

7. II. Additional Articles and Research
• Due to the crisis hotels have increasingly turned
to the internet channels and have made them
more competitive.
• With the evolution of digital marketing new
challenges have appeared.
– Black mail: Anonymous reviews on OTA’s have lured
some guests into threatening hotels of writing
damaging reviews in exchange for discount prices
– Insufficient in laws and regulations in the authenticity
of guest reviews and guest IDs
– Accusations by 3rd parties that hotels are writing false
‘idealized’ reviews

8. III. The Effects on Costs
• Hotel prices are inelastic and thus a reduction
in costs does not generate an increase in sales
large enough to be beneficial on the ADR
• Increasing information availability due to
OTA’s and 3rd parties drives prices down and
buyer power up.
• Prices of rooms are lower within the presence
of resellers.

9. IV. Examples (Paris)
• Le Bristol
– No.2 on tripadvisor.com, rate for 750€
– Only positive reviews but no management
comments
– On website, room for 800€
– Links to facebook and twitter
– Page takes a long time to load, not easy to
navigate

10. IV. Examples (Paris)
• Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere
– Trip advisor.com: 4.5 stars rating, 12th in
Paris, 730€
– Review: “Un sejour parfait”  manager’s
thankyou and detailed response to each review
– User-friendly website, easy to make reservations

11. V. Sources
• 1.Travel Companies Must Take Online Reputation Management Seriously
NOVEMBER 23, 2011 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1008706&R=1008706
• 2.Hotels collect guest reviews from Facebook
November 18, 2011 | Hotel Marketing
http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/hotels_collect_guest_reviews_fro
m_facebook
• 3. TripAdvisor reviews used by travelers to blackmail hotels
November 23, 2011 | Hotel Marketing
http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/tripadvisor_reviews_used_by_tra
velers_to_blackmail_hotels
• 4.The holidaymakers' blackmail: Hotel guests using threat of poor TripAdvisor reviews
to demand free upgrades and refunds
More than 80 hotel and B&B owners believe travel website was used as 'weapon'
against them
By Keith Gladdis http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064616/TripAdvisor-
reviews-used-holidaymakers-blackmail-hotels.html?ito=feeds-newsxml