The Rise of Indirect Bookings

By Mark Lomanno

Prior to the digital age, hotels viewed their competitive landscape in a very traditional manner. Their primary competition was with other hotels, generally those that were in their same general geographic vicinity and price range. There were, of course, exceptions to this rule, but generally a hotel’s competition was pretty easy to pinpoint. At that time, as a hotelier, your job was to use your sales and marketing expertise—along with a superior guest experience—to entice guests to your property.

Hotels today operate in a totally different world than the one that existed just 20 years ago. For both brands and properties, there are now two levels of competitors, rather than the local competition that existed historically. The first level of competition is for the customer’s attention. In this arena, hotels vie for customer attention against large technology companies like Google, Expedia, and Priceline, which are significantly larger than any company in the hotel industry. The second level of competition is with their traditional competitors—other hotel brands and properties.