For years the OTAs have been bragging about their Big Data: gigantic amounts of data on the browsing and purchasing patterns of their website users. At the same time, the OTAs have relatively “small data” about hotel guests’ on-property behavior and activity purchasing habits while on property. Hoteliers have access to what we call “Real-Time” … More Beating OTAs with real-time data

As the dust settles from my first Airbnb experience, I have some time to reflect on what I have learned on this journey. For me, one of the ultimate goals that a constant traveller like myself tries to achieve is a home away from home. Traditional hotels have recognised this need and have implemented more … More My Airbnb journey: Arriving home

The Google Hotel Knowledge Panel is now showing TrustYou review summaries. The summaries show granular detail about rooms, location and facilities and replace the Google review snippets that were shown previously. TrustYou, Google’s data source for this granular data, is a reputation management product that tracks review content, helps Hotels get reviews and provides what … More Google turns to TrustYou for hotel review data

Consumers stay on OTA sites, new research data finds. The incidence of consumers going back to the brand site has diminished dramatically. And the continuing dominance and growing sales by OTAs lead to a loss of control of content by hotels, and rising distribution costs. Source: The hotel billboard effect is dead

Being active on social media has very little impact on an independent hotel’s bottom line, latest research claims. The likes of Facebook are responsible for just 3.3% of the web traffic to hotels’ websites, according to an new study. Source: Social media has negligible impact on bookings for independent hotels

Each property in Hilton’s newest brand will have a different look and feel depending on what city it is in. Hilton’s 12th brand will debut early next year in Iceland. Here’s a sneak peek on what its rooms will look like. Guests staying at a Canopy by Hilton hotel will receive a welcome gift upon … More Sneak peek at Hilton’s stylish Canopy hotel rooms

Recent negotiations with online travel agencies produced several victories for Hilton Worldwide. Concessions he cited include the right to charge loyalty customers lower rates than it pays to OTAs and elimination of last-room availability clauses. Hilton Worldwide completed a series of negotiations with major online travel agencies over the last quarter and wrangled important economic … More Hilton yields concessions in talks with OTAs

Industry analysts believe consolidation is the wave of the future in the hotel industry in wake of the planned merger of Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. But that consolidation could take many forms. Christopher Agnew, managing director for MKM Partners, described Marriott’s plans to buy Starwood as designed to combat online travel … More Is hotel brand consolidation the answer to OTAs?

Speaking at the Credit Suisse Technology Conference in Phoneix, Expedia’s CFO however said that Airbnb wouldn’t find entering the hotel booking space an easy thing because of the strong presence of Booking.com and Expedia. Mark Okerstrom, Expedia’s CFO, said. “The industry structure is different. The business practices of the existing hoteliers are different. Connectivity is … More Expedia serious about Airbnb entering hotel booking business

More than 3 million people in the UK used Airbnb accommodation for their travels this year in a boost to the sharing economy, the site has revealed. There were 2.2 million travellers who used Airbnb to visit the UK in the year to November. Source: Airbnb’s UK data reveals impact of the sharing economy