Flash Sales Sector Heats Up – Product Pulled, Deal Dispute

[oz_mark]

An interesting article about hotels and flash sales (and how Accor doesn't like them!)

THE fight for suppliers and heavily discounted product among flash sales sites is intensifying with two recent incidents highlighting not only the cut-throat nature of this new online sales channel but also the fact that many major hotel brands want nothing to with it. Earlier this week Accor’s corporate office pulled a deal from sector heavyweight Groupon that had been negotiated direct with the property, a Mercure in Sydney, because it flouted company policy.

Flash Sales Sector Heats Up - Product Pulled, Deal Dispute | Travel Trends

 

[thewinchester]

There's a whole lot of issues around these deal a day websites, and I was reading a good piece about it on The Age online this evening.

In the case of that Mecure property, they should have known better. Chain hotels who's inventories are available by GDS can't just go off and do this on a whim. This is not withstanding all the other problems it creates up the line, say for national or trans-national call centres who don't know about the promotion and get calls from customers (potentially giving them bung information and making everyone look bad).