Parrie Bunnell

🛏 Hotel Directors of Sales are challenged by Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) which enforce rate parity, manipulate pricing, and damage hotel brands, pushing dependency on OTA platforms. Rate parity clauses prevent hotels from offering lower rates on their own websites than on OTAs. Tactics used by OTAs include loyalty member discounts, hidden fees, bundled pricing, and geo-targeted discounts. These practices undermine hotel credibility, control hotel presentation online, and force hotels to pay commissions to stay visible. Hotels are encouraged to respond by offering value-added incentives, exclusive membership rates, and metasearch marketing. Some countries are pushing for legal changes in rate parity laws to combat the restrictive agreements imposed by OTAs.