Hotel Business seems to be at a very interesting point, where OTA’s are trying to give experience of hotels and hotels are trying to become a OTA themselves. “Grass looks greener on the other side”

Accor launched a Hotel Marketplace, chosen independent hotels will be part of Accor Booking Engine, Distribution and Loyalty programme they wanted leverage the technology and build large independent hotel content. Roomkey with backing of Hilton, Hyatt, Intercontinental, Marriot and Wyndham was launched in 2012. The trend seen in Europe or US they started with luxury hotels came down offering services till a economy hotel. In India it is in different direction where branded budget hotels are now climbing up the ladder to give more premium hotels and fight is on to make the booking engine and direct bookings a more powerful platform in hotels business. Marriott also partnered Accenture to work on their direct booking strategy.

OTA’s are working on a invisible mode on their interest in hotel space, priceline has done bunch of acquisitions in Hotel tech space like HotelNinjas – PMS, PriceMatch – Revenue Management System, Buuteeq – Hotel Digital Marketing Platform looks like they are preparing well for the next show in Hotel Business. Our Indian OTA’s I came across GoStays by Ibibo and TGStays by Yatra, still yet to know their offering other than the distribution strength they have.

Looks like we have twist in the love hate relationship of hotels and OTA’s, irrespective what and how it happens there is still a space for innovation in the hotels space.