Hotel offering lower price than OTA - problem?

saintscouple

Strange one, but after seeing Martin's article on finding the best hotel price, particularly where he says "...Once you've found the best comparison site price, call the hotel to see if it'll beat it – sometimes they offer direct bookers early booking promos or three-for-two night deals that comparison sites miss...." i thought i would give it a go, and had success in the hotel not only matching the OTA's quote which included a voucher code, but they went and beat it by 3% and included free transfers.
So i shared my success on a facebook group which is about the resort where we shall be staying and amongst the thanks i got, someone left a hostile message or 2, so thought i would share here to see if there was any truth in what they are saying, and is it wrong in what i did... here goes....
So all i post is about finding a voucher code for lastminute.com taking a screen print on the page where it shows final price, hotel, board, and dates and i email that to the hotel and they reply with the 3% discount and free transfer offer.... the persons reply to that was.....
"...That's a terrible way for the hotelier to act and indeed, it could lead them into trouble by posting it on here. The name in tourism for that is known as "dumping", as when you sign any contracts you are legally obliged to offer any direct clients or OTA's an obligatory mark-up of "x" %. I'm pleased if it worked for you, but it is definitely not something to be applauded. I'm shocked that the hotelier has done that, it's terrible control of mark-up's and revenue!!...."
From that i take it they are in the tourism trade, perhaps a rival hotel, but is a hotel undercutting an OTA really that shocking??

peachyprice

Morally I don't consider that the hotel have done anything wrong. They were able to undercut because by you booking direct they will not have to pay Lastminute commission, they win, you win.

However, legally I think they will be in deep do-do, their contract will most likely forbid them from undercutting bookings from a LM enquiry.

Obviously you didn't realise this, but I think the error was your's in posting on social media that they are breaking the terms of their contract.

I still don't understand the righteous indignation of the person who responded, you would think they were losing money out of their own pocket. A polite 'Do you realise this is against the terms of their contact, probably best to remove your post advertising the hotel have been kind enough to do this' would have sufficed.

In fact, if you can, it probably is a good idea to edit your message on facebook, otherwise you might find your booking cancelled!

richardw

er sometimes one should keep one's successful negotiations to one's self.

leylandsunaddict

I'm surprised the hotel did that. Perhaps they're desperate? Not surprised because they did something they shouldn't be doing, but surprised they price matched an OTA (and a very shonky one at that) that doesn't have live pricing or availability. The price they beat may not have existed in the first place. Strange behaviour. Not a hotel I'd be trusting.

Raymondo111

I am pretty sure that recently a Hotelier posted some very useful information on a post concerning exactly why it is often cheaper to go direct to the Hotel for pricing because then they don't have to pay the hefty commission fees to the OTA's. Perhaps in hindsight the OP made a mistake in posting on FB the difference in pricing using the OTA pricing structure versus the direct pricing but thought it would be beneficial to anybody else looking to book a deal.

saintscouple

Thank you all, i've deleted the post.
As someone who knows nothing about tourism i was unaware that contracts would have been broken, i posted simply to advise others in the group how they too could save a few euro's and even linked to Martin's article where he advises the same.

lea2012

I worked in travel for many years and you haven't done anything wrong and neither have the hotel.

The hotel won't have a direct contract with Lastminute, they will have a contract with a local supplier who sells on to LM I would imagine. (sometimes there are 3-4 agents involved!) These days it's not as common to have it in the contract that you can't undercut the OTA, a Tour Operator perhaps as they negotiate prices based on selling power and can bring in much bigger volumes of customers.

LastMinute might not be very happy about it, but perhaps said hotel does very limited bookings through LM and isn't that bothered about losing their business anyway? A lot of hotels will advertise cheapest prices if you book direct with them so it's not a new thing, nor is it a sign of a shoddy or not to be trusted business! I think you've done the right thing to remove it but I wouldn't worry about what is posted on FB by some random stranger who is probably just annoyed that they didn't think to do the same thing!!

saintscouple

lea2012 wrote: »

I worked in travel for many years and you haven't done anything wrong and neither have the hotel.

The hotel won't have a direct contract with Lastminute, they will have a contract with a local supplier who sells on to LM I would imagine. (sometimes there are 3-4 agents involved!) These days it's not as common to have it in the contract that you can't undercut the OTA, a Tour Operator perhaps as they negotiate prices based on selling power and can bring in much bigger volumes of customers.

LastMinute might not be very happy about it, but perhaps said hotel does very limited bookings through LM and isn't that bothered about losing their business anyway? A lot of hotels will advertise cheapest prices if you book direct with them so it's not a new thing, nor is it a sign of a shoddy or not to be trusted business! I think you've done the right thing to remove it but I wouldn't worry about what is posted on FB by some random stranger who is probably just annoyed that they didn't think to do the same thing!!

thank you overtaking the time to post this, it has put my mind at ease.

jonesMUFCforever

I know a local B&B owner close to where I live - if you knew the amounts of commission and charges these OTA charge - I would be over the moon to accept direct bookings!

johncas1

Dont worry a lot of hotels b and b's etc will advertise on these sites and other ones like booking.com trivargo hotels.com etc but will take bookings direct like if you phoned them up and wanted a room and booked it on phone or booked it on therre own website most of the hotel chains say best rates when booked direct with them. But the person who was moaning on facebook properbly works for lastminute.com or the OTA and is unhappy about loosing the sale but nothing wrong with booking direct to get the best deal