Dick Smith on Foreign Booking Sites

[GliderM]

So you are one of the very few that is cheaper. My point was that most people will compare direct prices versus booking sites a few times and use the cheaper method into the future. It was only this thread that prompted me to check the hotel I wanted in Paris and my previous experiences were repeated. I won't bother checking next time.

Channel managers allow percentages to be added on to the OTA's prices, therefore those OTA tariffs ARE more expensive than using a direct website.

 

[GliderM]

Then you are part of the problem. You get few direct bookings from bricks & mortar agents because you expect us to do your work for you, without any recompense from you. As for charging corporates a fee, by adding that fee suddenly our price becomes higher than available elsewhere or direct so we lose business. And for govt bookings, you give them a lower rate than the public gets anyway. So I book my corporates through Expedia as I don't need to charge a fee and I get paid a commission. Last year I earned over $10K in local commissions through Expedia for doing bookings that in the past I wouldn't handle because there was no money it in. The corporate client gets a lower rate and I get a commission, and you get stuck with paying 15-20% to Expedia. As per my original email, if hotels and motels had paid us the flat 10% they promised years ago, and not expected us to work for free, then you would have been getting heaps of bookings from bricks & mortar agents and it would have cost you less.

Channel managers allow percentages to be added on to the OTA's prices, therefore those OTA tariffs ARE more expensive than using a direct website. We used to quote non-commissionable rates and tell the agent to add on their own commission. If you are using the same property all the time you would make a separate arrangement for payment I guess. But honestly, being an agent, why not charge your own commission, especially when you're getting the best price. It just creates more paperwork for everybody, as does using the OTAs. I see the OTAs as being useful for making out-of-hours bookings, certainly from a regional property pov.