ITB Berlin Hotelliers Agree with Interbed – Travelers Want to Book Reservations Direct
Hotelliers in attendance at the ITB Berlin conference have discovered the truth about the online hotel reservation and booking industry in a report completed by Herman Thuy and released through Interbed.
[USPRwire, Wed Mar 19 2008] Hotel owners and managers attending the ITB Berlin conference discovered a report that reveals how online hotel reservation and booking agencies are blocking travelers from making reservations directly with the hotel of their choice.
More than 60 percent of travelers are now going online to make reservations, but often cannot book directly with a hotel because the reservations agencies use tactics that make it nearly impossible for consumers to make a direct connection with a specific hotel.
The free report – “The Hotel Reservations Scam, and What to Do About It” – authored by travel industry expert, Herman Thuy, is offered online at http://www.Interbed.com. In it he details what he calls the “dirty tricks” used by booking agents and booking web sites to control the travel consumer. He then explains how hotel managers and owners can quickly and easily reverse this to regain business the booking agents are trying to take away.
“Use a search engine the way travel consumers use it,” Thuy advises hotel owners and managers. “Search for two words, your city and hotel. Your web site will not be on that first page because the scam artists control all those listings. Consumers cannot find your hotel, simply because it doesn’t show up when they do a search,” explained Thuy.
Thuy’s report clearly shows how individual hotels can overcome this disadvantage and be found by travel consumers, and beat the reservations brokers at their own game.
“Market surveys of travel consumers reveal that when given the choice, travelers prefer to deal directly with the hotel of their choice,” said Thuy. “Booking agents do not want that to happen, so they hijacked online reservations with their desperate tactics.”
Hotelliers are learning the value of listing their hotel on www.Interbed.com where the traveling consumer can quickly and easily locate a hotel and then make a reservation directly with that hotel, without going through a booking agency.
“Consumers do not like the idea of a booking agency charging high fees to hotels any more than the hotel owners and managers do. Travelers always prefer to book direct with a hotel, and that is why they use Interbed to find local hotels, make comparisons, and then book direct,” said Thuy.
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