Hotel groups fail to honour web promises
Hotel companies are failing to honour price guarantees on their websites, according to new research.
Many hotel groups, including InterContinental Hotels, Hilton and Choice, promise on their websites that customers will not be able to buy cheaper holidays elsewhere on the internet.
The guarantees have been an attempt by the hotel groups to get people to book on their websites through third party retailers. Intercontinental, which owns Holiday Inn, even stopped selling through expedia.com and hotels.com because they could not agree a policy on selling beds.
But professional services firm KPMG surveyed 330 hotels in 16 countries and found that of the 142 which offered price guarantees, only 38 of them delivered on their promise when bookings were made 48 hours before departure.
UK hotels performed worse than properties in any other countries surveyed, with only 19 per cent of an undisclosed number honouring their pledge not to be beaten on price.
Of all the 330 hotels surveyed, only 63 of them offered the best deals on their own websites.
Kerrie Osborne, who wrote the report for KPMG, said: “The results are surprising, given the noises hotel companies have made in recent times.
“Bookings for the major groups have picked up over the past year, so you would think that they would be able to control the prices offered on other sites. But it seems they are prepared to allow retailers to discount at the last minute to ensure a sale.
“On the one hand hotel groups want to encourage people to book direct with them, but on the other they are not offering the best deals.”
A Holiday Inn spokeswoman defended its online price guarantee.
“We are absolutely serious about the guarantee. We have set certain standards and that’s why we don’t work with some online retailers,” she said.
“If you can find a better rate elsewhere on the internet, we promise not only to match it, but also to offer a 10 per cent discount. Several people have done this and we have honoured the promise.”
Phil Davies
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