18th September 2024: Here are some of the stories that caught our attention over the week with some of our takeaways.
Google fined €2.4B after losing appeal in EU antitrust shopping case: Phocuswright reports that “The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled Tuesday it will uphold a former ruling by the European Commission and levy a fine of €2.4 billion against Google with regard to Google Shopping, ending a years-long antitrust case against the tech giant”
The EU’s antitrust ruling against Google, which upheld a €2.4 billion fine for favouring its own shopping service, has significant implications for online travel distribution and the role of technology giants.
Overall it is likely to
- increase competition in travel search by levelling the playing field for travel metasearch engines and OTAs, potentially benefiting consumers with more choices and lower prices.
- empower travel tech companies, encouraging them to innovate and challenge Google’s dominance.
- set a precedent for similar antitrust actions, signalling increased scrutiny of tech giants’ market power.
- influence digital markets broadly, enforcing fair competition and impacting tech company operations across various sectors, including travel. The long-term effects will depend on Google’s adaptations and global regulatory responses to similar competition concerns.
More specifically for hotels, it is likely to
- provide increased visibility for other metasearch agencies: The ruling compels Google to treat its own shopping services and those of competitors equally in search results. This could mean that Google’s hotel metasearch results would need to give equal prominence to other metasearch providers, such as Trivago, potentially driving more traffic to these competitors.
- have a potential impact on hotel ad spending: If hotels see less dominance from Google’s own metasearch results and increased visibility on other platforms, they might shift their advertising budgets accordingly. Hotels may choose to allocate more spending to alternative metasearch engines or other advertising channels, depending on the changes Google implements.
- further impact direct booking strategies: Increased competition in the hotel metasearch landscape could reinforce the importance of hotels’ direct booking strategies. With potentially less reliance on Google, hotels may need to invest further in their websites, loyalty programmes, and other channels to attract direct bookings and reduce dependence on OTAs.
Peter Kern Exits Expedia Board as New CEO Makes Changes: Skift asks “Did Ariane Gorin’s strategy changes speed Peter Kern’s departure from the Expedia Group board?”
The article doesn’t provide explicit reasons for Peter Kern’s departure, but offers some subtle hints:
- Rapid transition: Transition to new leadership under Ariane Gorin was moving quickly and smoothly, potentially making Kern’s continued presence unnecessary.
- Strategy reversals: Gorin has been rolling back or modifying several of Kern’s key initiatives, including the One Key loyalty programme and the tech platform consolidation.
- Performance context: While the article mentions a strong second quarter, it also notes that some brands like Vrbo and Hotels.com were still lagging.
The Expedia loyalty programme seems to be centrestage – and this should not come as a surprise to those who loved the Hotels.com loyalty programme. Dilution of Hotels.com Rewards, performance lag of Hotels.com (along with Vrbo) compared to Expedia.com are listed as the key concerns. This has led to a reconsideration of strategy and Expedia has paused the global rollout of the One Key program beyond the US and UK markets. Another market-specific challenge is that Expedia Group doesn’t have all three brands (Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo) in some international markets, which complicates the implementation of the One Key programme.
SiteMinder Creates Dynamic Revenue Plus With IDeaS Pricing Recommendations: Lodging Magazine mentions the launch of SiteMinder Dynamic Revenue Plus. And that the system offers a unique capability to combine live market intelligence with the ability to immediately act on bookable inventory, pricing, and distribution strategy, all within a single, mobile-first platform.
This move speaks to the additional convergence we see in the world of hotel distribution and commercial tools. We’ve seen lot of Property Management Systems build in channel management capability and now it is only logical that channel managers leverage their data and combine it with revenue management capability providing even more dynamic recommendations. The search for all in one solutions continue!
How Accor’s Kerry Healy addressed rate integrity in Middle East: Web in Travel reports on how removal of offline and static rates is core to global strategy to limit distribution partners and offering best price on ALL.com.
Bold affirmative action with a clear framework makes it possible
- education and partner management
- elimination of static rates from all wholesale partners
- alignment with Accor’s global strategy to limit B2B distribution players
- harmonised promotions and offers across digital platforms, ensuring consistent competitive pricing
I am sure there will be other perspectives, murmurs of dissent and frustrations along the way, but I am a big believer that this is the right way forward to protect hotel rates in the long run.
The evolving role of experiences in travel: McKinsey analyses how travellers increasingly plan trips around activities. How can the travel industry make it easier to discover and book the magical experiences that travellers crave?
Could hotels as key stakeholders in this ecosystem do more with experiences by
- focusing on creating memorable experiences
- using experiences as booking incentives and leverage their brand and digital presence
- enhancing on-premises experiences, such as in spas or with lobby events
