IHG has taken another shot at the OTAs and hotel booking websites.
From January IHG Rewards Club members will no longer qualify for member benefits on any bookings made through what it describes as "third party" websites.
Benefits will not, however, be affected for any bookings considered to be through IHG which includes the hotel company's own website, the IHG app, the property direct, central telephone reservations or via corporate travel portals which means both an online booking tool and the travel management company.
Benefits that are in jeopardy for those that book through sites such as hotels.com, Booking.com and Expedia include free in-room WiFi, priority check-in, late check-out and complimentary room upgrades.
IHG tells its loyalty club members "we want to give you the best travel experience–from start to finish–every time. And we can only do that when you book with us directly."
It is the latest salvo by a hotel company against the OTAs. Hotel groups such as Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and Choice have all taken steps to disincentivise travellers from booking through such sites.
The reason is simple. OTAs are known to earn large commissions on their bookings. Hotels receive much less revenue per room from bookings made through such channels than they do from any other channel.
A few years ago an initiative such as this would have been dismissed as relevant only to leisure travellers or business travellers who were self-employed or worked for companies with unmanaged travel programmes.
But times have changed. As the booker is increasingly the traveller and as companies more and more allow travellers to choose their own accommodation so long as the room rate is beneath the price ceiling or on the company's hotel programme, those in managed travel programmes are likely to use third party sites as booking channels.
It is why managers need to keep sight of the total cost of a trip and have access to transparent rates. The room rate might be competitive on an OTA site but if one rate — the one via a TMC, say — includes free WiFi but the other, the booking for that same traveller on a booking website, doesn't, the rate comparison will not be comparing apples with apples.
By the same token the OTA's booking fee might look lower than the TMC transaction fee but the latter might entitle the traveller to an upgrade which the former does not.
No one argues with the need for managers and travellers to look for the best rate but the best room rate might not give the traveller the best experience and the company the lowest total cost.