Google Maps to Feature Hotel Rates on Search Results
March 24, 2010 at 4:56 pm | Posted in In the News, Information | Leave a commentTags: Google Maps
Google announced on Monday that it will feature hotel rates in the ‘balloons’ on Google maps. This is currently in the Beta stage.
Currently, they will seek rate feeds from advertisers and will be flagged as Sponsored Results. They will not pick up rates from the GDS and other distribution channels but rely on feeds from the hotels themselves. Below is an example of how it will look for a Search for hotels in NYC.
Google has stated that it will not change search results. This new feature will not change the way that hotels are ranked in Google Maps, the company says. Google Maps ranks business listings based on their relevance to the search terms entered, along with geographic distance (where indicated) and other factors, regardless of whether there is an associated price. (HotelMarketing.com, 3/24/10)
With this feature, when you search for hotels on Google Maps you’ll be able to enter the dates you plan to stay and see real prices on selected listings. You can click on the price to see a list of advertisers who have provided pricing information for that hotel, indicated by the “Sponsored” text, and click through to reserve a room on the advertiser’s site. (HotelMarketing.com, 3/24/10)
My concern is that this feature will only perpetuate competitive rate cutting and discounting, making the industry more rate driven than before. It may have an impact on rate parity and integrity and also become a threat to the aggregators who may feel they are in bed with the 500 pound gorilla named Google!
Let me know what you think!
Guerilla Pricing — Revenue Managers In the ‘War Zone’
March 16, 2010 at 1:21 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 CommentIn an excellent article that appeared in HotelMarketing.com, Brij Cahkra of Preferred Hotels referred to the vicious cycle of rate cutting as Guerilla Pricing.
“In guerrilla pricing, hotels try and do price cuts in short window to pick up additional market share however if done too often this can lead to a dilution of revenues,” said Chachra.
In the battle for increased revenue and market share, Revenue Managers often have no choice but to engage in guerilla pricing within their comp set. But increased market share in a guerilla pricing war at best yields increased market share for maybe a weekend. The increased revenue is consumed by the cost of distribution and/or it is insufficient to generate enough flow through to be worth it.
Gureilla pricing becoems like an addiction from which RMs find it difficult to break free. RMs are under pressure froms senior management to engage in the ‘game’ — to generate revenue and to increase market share.
Everyone loses, noboby wins.
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