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Expedia needs you, hoteliers

December 12, 2011 | Hotel Marketing

HotelNewsNow reporting from Expedia's annual partners conference, where the company acknowledge that without hotel partners it would not exist, and that it needs to do better job at explaining its value propositions to hoteliers around the globe. Or is the company just worried about Google Hotel Finder?

The partners conference attracted approximately 2,500 attendees this week and a majority of them were hotel owners and GMs, as well as airline and car partners. During general sessions, Expedia executives spoke directly to hoteliers, touting how the two can work together to create a “winning ecosystem.”

They talked about evolving travel technology and how speeding up search results can benefit hoteliers. Instead of classifying Expedia as a distribution channel, Expedia executives said they’d rather think of themselves as a marketing channel. They spoke often about the secondary benefits of online travel agents and the billboard effect.

Also, Expedia took a page from Google’s playbook by saying their ultimate priority is satisfying the consumer because “if the consumer wins, we will all win.” But that’s about the only props Expedia executives gave Google. Instead, they shared more concern about where Google’s travel products will go and asked hoteliers, airline executives and car rental business owners to start thinking about how they can collaborate to stay relevant.

“The single biggest thing we’ll be dealing with next year is the entrance of Google,” said Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide.

Get the full story at HotelNewsNow.com

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