Whether it's the handsome bearded guy touting one brand, or that cute little gnome in the alps, there are a plethora of online travel agencies or "OTAs", right? William Shatner touts one brand. Melissa McCarthy another. There are meta search companies finding you the 'best rates' and like most consumers, you probably have a favorite or two. So here's what most people don't know about online travel agencies.
There are two.
Just for fun, here's who-owns-what.
#1 Booking Holdings owns and operates: Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline, OpenTable, Agoda, RentalCars.com, HotelsCombined, CheapFlights, FareHarbor, Rocketmiles and Momondo.
#2 Expedia Group owns and operates: Expedia.com, Hotels.com, VRBO, Travelocity, Trivago Hotwire, Orbitz, Ebookers, CheapTickets, CarRentals.com, Expedia Cruises and wotif.
Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but like so many industries seeing 'consolidation' it means the little guys have a hard time making an impact. These are companies with billion dollar advertising budgets. What's interesting is there is very little difference in pricing when it comes to hotel rates in particular. Sure you might save $10 here or there, maybe more if you are lucky, but you don't get your reward points. See our post about what you are really paying in 'taxes and fees' too.
Even some of the smaller brands you may book with are nothing more than white-label iterations of these same two big brands.
At Stayker, we're connecting to hotels in the same way as these big two multi-billion dollar companies. What's different? There's no middle-man. We're also leveraging our growing buying power to get rates that are better, pricing that is transparent, and.....get your points. You'll continue to see Stayker powering reservations for many of your favorite events, destinations and venues. Please visit our sister brand at FanPlans.com to get a glimpse of what is possible.
Bring us your brand or create a brand and we can have thousands of the worlds hotels, online for you in hours, in a SaaS model (so you can make commissions, and still pass real savings to your customers). Our CEO would love to hear from you.