Online Travel Booking Sites

Australiaans should call a hotel instead of relying on booking sites to get better fares | travel

Australiaers who reserve online via websites such as Expedia, Booking.com and Hotels.com will miss out on less expensive offers than if they just took the telephone. They are also discouraged from avoiding online booking sites because they drive a "wrecking ball" through the community business and harm the Australia hospitality sector.

Mr Rod Sims, Chair of the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission, has recommended that all Australia consumer calls directly to a hotel to get better offers. Consumer may not know, but a 2016 deal mediated by the ACCC allows locals to call a hotel for a discount that they can't offer online.

A Guardian Australia poll of four capitals found that in some countries, booking.com and hotels.com saved up to 18% on calls. Similar campaigns, led by businessman Dick Smith, also call on consumer to boyscott the sites because their high fees "blackmail" small Aussie hotel owners.

Online booking sites have grown in popularity since their inception in the 2000s and, according to the Accommodation Association of Australia, make an estimate of 80% of all Australia's hotels booked. Some of the most beloved websites are held by two companies: The Expedia and the price list. The Expedia site includes Expedia, Hotels.com, Wotif.com and the Trivago site, which provides comparisons across booking sites.

The Priceline has Booking.com and the HotelsCombined.com and Kayak engines. According to the 2017 AAA, these two firms hold 85% of all online reservations in Australia, according to a 2017 Senate investigation into online tournament activity. Previously, Australia's banks had to subscribe to exchange rate terms that kept them from quoting lower rates than those on the booking pages.

However, in 2016 an ACCC-led healthcare reforms permitted hotel operators to provide lower fares by telephone, in-person and to loyal members - but they could not promote these fares online. "100% of the consumer will get a better viewing and a better quote by directly phoning the property," he said. Guardian Australia on Wednesday carried out its own hotel poll across the nation and found that telephone fares were lower - but not in all towns.

Compare four in each of the four capitals (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth) with a distribution of molecules, properties and service flats. Of 16 all over the country, seven were cheap, seven were equal and two were more costly. At Perth a 18% cheap rate was available on the telephone, with a $74 rebate of $400 overall on Booking.com and Hotels.com.

Also in Melbourne two were 18% less expensive, while two had the same rate. At Brisbane, two Brisbane resorts had telephone rebates of 5%, and the remainder was the same or higher. In Sydney, only one cheap dollar was left for two night stays. There was a newspaper that said it did not believe it was permitted to "undercut" the booking, even on the telephone.

By and large, the hotel bills in Sydney were the same or more costly on the telephone. Bookings pages receive a 25% fee for each booking made on them. AAA' Dick Smith, along with Richard Munro, calls on consumer to boyscott booking sites for "blackmailing" small companies.

"Several of them will loose 50% of their reservations. I' ve talked to a motel that gets 70% of its reservations through these US pages. Munro says that off-shore travel agents are "demolition bullets for Australia's hotels". The Sims agreed and said on Wednesday that online books "probably harm Australia's businesses".

AAA Senate investigation said fee levels have risen as booking sites have become more sought after, with some fee levels now between 20% and 25%. Mr Sims affirmed that the ACCC would examine the possibility of hotel companies being able to promote lower fares online. "We' re checking whether the remainder of the deal is anti-competitive in online parity," he said.

The Munro also demands that the ACCC ban fully pricing parities, which has happened in Europe such as France and Germany. However, Carol Giuseppi, managing director of another hotel operator, Tourist Accommodation Australia, did not go so far as to take action against online booking. "Most importantly, we have to say that online travel agencies have been around for many years, and they really do have an important place in the tourist industry," she said.

"While we value online travel agents as an important sales opportunity, we are encouraging customers to make bookings directly and to take advantage of special bonus programmes. However, Smith said that the TAA was representing large chain hotels, and smaller hotels suffered more from the commission.