Skift Take
Apple doesn't let Best Buy discount iPhones, and hoteliers don't want online travel agencies like Agoda to undercut their rates. A win for the hotel industry would be a loss for travelers.
Dennis' Online Travel Briefing
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.
You see it everyday on hotel price comparison platforms such as Google: There's the hotel's official price on its website, and in swoops Singapore-based online travel agency Agoda with a lower rate, that's $20 or $30 lower.
That sets up a seemingly ever-present clash of hotel industry rules, where online travel agencies aren't supposed to undercut the rates posted on official hotel websites, versus some metasearch sites and online travel agencies that want to offer the lowest rates possible.
Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern recently called out rival Agoda at Expedia's partner conference in Seattle as "one of the worst when it comes to this sort of rate abuse."
"You're in a marketplace where one competitor [Expedia] spends every day trying to do the right thing, not perfectly, but is trying, but then another competitor [Agoda] actively tries to do the opposite," Kern said in a Skift interview at the conference.
Here's what's