To consume locally is to book your hotel directly!

For many of you, these 2020 summer vacations will be “French” with sometimes a real preoccupation to consume locally to participate in the revival of the economy or even to bring your contribution to the fight for the climate.

You will therefore choose a hotel in France, why not favoring independent hotels, favoring restaurants that make homemade food or have adopted short circuits etc…

These are laudable concerns but maybe you will ruin everything by booking your hotel on an online travel agency (or OTA) like Booking or Hotels.com

Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com are killing small hoteliers…and not only them

As we mentioned in an article about the leaders of the hotel distribution, or the wars between the big chains and Expedia: the OTAs, whether Booking, Expedia, Hotels.com etc… are killing the hoteliers’ business by taking a commission that can reach or exceed 20% on the price of your room! Sometimes it goes up to 30%! When your name is Marriott and you have 6700 hotels, you can try to arm-wrestle, but not when you are a small independent.

What this means is that the hotelier (independent or not, but a fortiori independent because it does not have the strength of the brand and the loyalty program to attract a customers who book directly), which in general does not make a huge margin, sometimes has only a seasonal activity, and suffers in addition to the impact of the COVID will lose up to 30% of their sales. In other words, OTAs bring them customers, volume, but do not make them money or very little.

If you have booked via an OTA a room at 100 euros per night he will get only 70. Deduct his fixed costs and he has little left to live on in the end.

If you booked directly on his website or by calling him, the 100 euros will be for him!

So you’re going to tell us that Booking, Expedia and other OTAs are often cheaper than booking directly with the hotelier! Well that’s not true!

Most of the time, the hotel owner is subject to the pricing policy of the OTA or does not know how to make his direct prices more interesting so that you see them in search engines.

OTAs are not cheaper than hotels

But from the moment an OTA offers you a lower price than the hotelier directly while taking on average 20% of commission, it means that the hotelier can align with the OTA by recovering in addition its 20% or even lower its price by 20% to earn as much as if you had gone through the OTA.

All you have to do is contact him directly and tell him the price you have found. He offers his room at 120 and you find it at 100 on the OTA. If you book it with him, he will receive 120 euros on which his operating costs will naturally be charged. If you book on the OTA he will only receive 70 before deducting his costs. If you contact him and he aligns with the OTA he will earn 100 instead of the 70 if you had gone through the OTA and it is neutral for you. Even at 80 euros he is a beneficiary (and in this case you too).

And more often the situation is even more vicious: you will realize that there is a lower rate on his site than that of the OTA but it is not proposed by the search engines! So you don’t have to make any other effort on your side except to book directly with him.

How to book your hotel in a “responsible” way? : TravelGuys’ tips

So for this summer we propose you our method and we advise you to adopt it even after these complicated times are over.

1°) If you want, use Booking, Expedia, Hotels.com or others to find the hotel that suits you.

2°) Go to the hotelier’s website. If you find the same price or less, book.

3°) If the price posted by the hotelier is more expensive than the OTA, call him and tell him that you have found a cheaper price on an OTA but prefer to give him the commission. We promise you that he will match the price. And if he doesn’t do it, go somewhere else because it means that he doesn’t understand anything about his business and has no commercial sense whatsoever, which will lead to other disappointments once you are there.

This is true for small hoteliers, for independents, who do not have the means to fight against the OTAs and are even more struggling this year, but also for chain hotels often operated by a local entrepreneur. In this case you just need to be a member of their loyalty program (for free) to be sure that they offer you the best price if you find better elsewhere.

Come on, be responsible, consume locally, but go to the end of your steps. Book directly with hoteliers!

PS: one last tip. Hoteliers, especially in tourist areas, will have a very difficult year. Ask them to match the OTA but if you have a bit of ethics and morals do not negotiate to recover the amount of the commission of the OTA. If the OTA is 100 ask 100, not 80. The goal is for them to earn more without it costing you more, not for you to push them further down.

Photo : hotel during vacations by NicoElNino via Shutterstock