In today’s Tnooz release “Expedia and Priceline stretch lead – Top US travel sites – August 6, 2011” these two brands were sited as to have extended their dominance of US travel websites by securing almost a quarter of all traffic from agency sites.
If I were an agency site I’d be rolling my eyes, again, because this isn’t the first time that these two OTAs have dominated their one/two rankings and won’t be the last.
Now I don’t belittle these giants for what they have achieved but I wonder what it feels like when a Director of e-Commerce or Revenue Manager has to meet with their owners and explain why some of their distribution channels are achieving strategic dominance over the hotel?
That said, in the category of “Destinations and Accommodations” (kind of a confusing combination) only three of 10 were major hotel brands namely Marriott, InterCon and Hilton. So where were Choice, Wyndham, Best Western, Starwood, Hyatt, and Carlson?
If you click on the link that I’ve provide above, scroll down a bit until you get to the Airlines category. Do you see any OTAs included as distributors in the list of top sites?
Well then how can these OTAs dominate travel sites and “destinations and accommodations” sites and have no influence in airline distribution?
Tom Costello is the CEO, Partner & Co-Founder of Groups International, a company that provides marketing, consultative services, and technology solutions to the group and leisure travel markets. Connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook or contact him by email.
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