๐’๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ถ๐.
Best Available Rates โ the pricing parity standard that has locked hotels and Expedia together for over two decades โ is officially dead.
Why? Expedia Groupโs OneKey Member Pricing now consistently undercuts hotel BAR rates, rendering traditional rate parity irrelevant.
Example: For next Tuesday night in Boston, more than half of hotels listed on Expedia offer member-exclusive discounts of 10% to 25%. (Screenshot in comments.) Yet, the hotels’ own websites must still display higher “Best Available Rates,” bound by parity agreements.
Notably, 95% of these undercut hotels in Boston are independent propertiesโnot franchises of Marriott, IHG, Accor, Hyatt, or Hilton.
What can independent hoteliers do?
1. ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ต๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐น ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ. The EU restricted Expediaโs parity agreements in 2015 because they were found to be anticompetitive โ likely why over 60% of Expediaโs lodging revenue now comes from the U.S.
2. ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐
๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐ด๐ต๐๐ณ๐๐น ๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ asking nicely if they could kindly stop undermining your rates.
3. ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ผ๐๐ป ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ โ just like Expedia โ by offering exclusive discounts below BAR to your loyalty program members. Chains already use this strategy effectively, and itโs becoming the go-to approach for an increasing number of independents as well.
With OneKey Member Prices, Expedia leverages a contractual loophole that allows them to disregard BAR agreements. Itโs time that hotels, and especially independent properties, stopped playing by the old rules and regained control of their pricing.ย
