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Hotel price fixing



 
 
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  #21  
Old August 5th, 2012, 07:19 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Andreas H. Zappel
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Posts: 171
Default Hotel price fixing

Martin wrote:

That's my experience too. Even in a hotel with 50 odd rooms which had
only 4 rooms occupied.


And how did you know, that there were only 4 rooms occupied?

Greetings from Cologne

Andreas
  #22  
Old August 5th, 2012, 07:22 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Andreas H. Zappel
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 171
Default Hotel price fixing

Bill wrote:

Now walk into a hotel at 6:00pm and ask for a room and see what they
ask for it.

Anyone who walks in off the street for a room gets charged the top
rate.


NACK
Some travel journalist tried it in several cities in Germany and the
countries around Germany. In 5% they got a higher rate, in 45% the
same rate and in 50% a lower rate.

Greetings from Cologne

Andreas
  #23  
Old August 5th, 2012, 07:28 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Andreas H. Zappel
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Posts: 171
Default Hotel price fixing

Erilar wrote:

Sometimes it seems to be impossible to reserve a room directly, at least on
line.


Yes, the hotel can choose a cutoff in the systems. So if they say 1
day, you cannot reserve the room for the same day or last minute.

Greetings from Cologne

Andreas
  #24  
Old August 5th, 2012, 07:33 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Andreas H. Zappel
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Posts: 171
Default Hotel price fixing

wrote:

Yes, it's much cheaper to book accomodation online. Moreover, I have never booked a hotel room or a flight without having compared prices before. There are a lot of travel search engines that can do this for free. I often use
http://bookinghunter.com .

Which makes a lot of sence, because of the rate parity part in the
contracts of the hotel reservation systems.
And with flights it is only the question which booking class will be
shown in the system and if the system is directly connected to the
airline (and is up to date) or if the system is checking the rates
once a day or every x hours.

Greetings from Cologne

Andreas
  #25  
Old August 5th, 2012, 07:46 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Andreas H. Zappel
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Posts: 171
Default Hotel price fixing

"tim....." wrote:

And what's that got to do with banning "no discounting" clauses in internet
reseller contracts.


The OFT are tackling what is basically a cartel/monopoly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can't see how it is a monopoly

There are at least a dozen hotel resellers advertising their service in the
marketplace.


Which has no differences in the rates because of the rate parity.
And some of these systems are taking a big volume in the market of one
country (p.e. HRS and hotel.de are one company together and they have
50% of the german market). That means if they say we want 35%
commission from the hotels most hotels will be afraid to throw them
out because of these 50% in the german market.
Hello, did you ever hear about Anti Trust Laws?

As a consumer, I'm not interested in how to get the beat price for e.g. the
Marriott at wherever. I'm interested in the best value for say, 60 Euro pn.


But you don't get the best rate if in all systems the rates are the
same.
If System A only takes 10% commission and system B 18% and system C
25%, and the hotel can make the decision the sell the room in system A
for 60 EUR in system B for 65 EUR and in system C for 70 EUR, than
you can search for the best rate. And only than any price compare
system would make sence - if they will list the system A, because with
this system they make less money.

Greetings from Cologne

Andreas
  #26  
Old August 5th, 2012, 10:21 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
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Posts: 1,591
Default Hotel price fixing

"Andreas H. Zappel" wrote in message
...

wrote:

Yes, it's much cheaper to book accomodation online. Moreover, I have never
booked a hotel room or a flight without having compared prices before.
There are a lot of travel search engines that can do this for free. I often
use
http://bookinghunter.com .

Which makes a lot of sence, because of the rate parity part in the
contracts of the hotel reservation systems.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rubbish "the rate parity part in the contracts" does nothing at all to
encourage hotels to want to sell rooms at discount through internet booking
sites.

They do this for the reasons that I have already indicated. You could argue
that without this clause they wouldn't be prepared to sell this way. And I
would counter with, "they would soon find that they lost so much trade to
competitors who weren't so strict, that (with a few exceptions) they have no
choice".

tim



  #27  
Old August 5th, 2012, 10:26 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
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Posts: 1,591
Default Hotel price fixing

"Andreas H. Zappel" wrote in message
...

Martin wrote:

The hotel reception get the rates from the local managment. The rates
in reservation systems are made from a regional or national sales
office.
Choose a individual hotel and the rate at the reception is the same or
better, because they don't need to pay the commission, than in the
reservation systems.


In UK & France I know from experience that the reception charges the
maximum price. Of course there may be places that don't.


Very easy solutrion: I tell the reception, that I saw the room for a
lower rate online, so I will book the room online and let them pay the
commission.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But the reason that I am "knocking" on the door of the hotel is because I
don't have the means to book online and therefore don't have the means to
find out what that online price is, if I did In would have done so!. And I
can't use the price from two weeks ago because most hotels don't offer the
same online price for today, as they do for a booking on two or three weeks
notice.

OK, so I'm a luddite who doesn't travel the world with a 3G phone, but
that's my choice, but this doesn't negate the principle.

tim




  #28  
Old August 5th, 2012, 10:30 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,591
Default Hotel price fixing

"Andreas H. Zappel" wrote in message
...

"tim....." wrote:

And what's that got to do with banning "no discounting" clauses in
internet
reseller contracts.


The OFT are tackling what is basically a cartel/monopoly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can't see how it is a monopoly

There are at least a dozen hotel resellers advertising their service in the
marketplace.


Which has no differences in the rates because of the rate parity.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yep. The whole point of this discussion is that this practice appears
illegal. So I'm considering the situation once it is removed from the
contract.

But even with it, you can still find different rates for the same hotel on
different sites. They just have different booking conditions.

tim


  #29  
Old August 5th, 2012, 10:35 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,591
Default Hotel price fixing

"Andreas H. Zappel" wrote in message
news
Bill wrote:

Now walk into a hotel at 6:00pm and ask for a room and see what they
ask for it.

Anyone who walks in off the street for a room gets charged the top
rate.


NACK
Some travel journalist tried it in several cities in Germany and the
countries around Germany. In 5% they got a higher rate, in 45% the
same rate and in 50% a lower rate.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I should like to know the basis of this test. It is not my experience!

1) Are they comparing walk up price with a "booked today" internet price or
a booked three weeks ago internet price. Quite often internet booked today
rates are rack. The discount come from booking in advance, not from using
the net to make the booking. So a comparison with a booked on the net today
rate, is IMHO a worthless test.

2) Did they they haggle for a better price - Brits don't like haggling so
I'd only considering a comparison with "opening offer" as a valid test.

tim


  #30  
Old August 5th, 2012, 10:42 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,591
Default Hotel price fixing

"Andreas H. Zappel" wrote in message
...

"tim....." wrote:

And what's that got to do with banning "no discounting" clauses in
internet
reseller contracts.


The OFT are tackling what is basically a cartel/monopoly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can't see how it is a monopoly

There are at least a dozen hotel resellers advertising their service in the
marketplace.


Which has no differences in the rates because of the rate parity.
And some of these systems are taking a big volume in the market of one
country (p.e. HRS and hotel.de are one company together and they have
50% of the german market). That means if they say we want 35%
commission from the hotels most hotels will be afraid to throw them
out because of these 50% in the german market.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't agree. There are plenty of other resellers that they could use.

IME it's always the hotel that sets the base rate. Some hotels offer 50 or
even 70% discount through resellers. Others offer 5-10% at most. So if a
reseller wants a bigger cut, you just offer them a higher basic price. You
just need to be on the list at the price which the punter likes to get
enough business.

tim




 




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