For years, hotels and online travel agencies (OTAs) have maintained a frenemy relationship.
But now, as bookings through OTAs have surpassed direct bookings for the first time ever, a number of major hotel brands are more aggressively battling the middlemen who generate billions of dollars in revenue for them but eat their margins and commoditize their brands.
In 2016, almost half of Airbnb consumers were reported to be between the ages of 18 and 34. In contrast, only 28% of hotel guests who booked with Marriott online were millennials.
So, with younger generations embracing the sharing economy, Marriott has decided to do something about it by turning to every millennial’s sort-of-favourite app – Snapchat.
Augmented reality and virtual reality are the source of growing buzz.
For brands interested in exploring them, which is the more worthy technology?
Virtual reality technology can be downplayed as being limited to only niche applications.
Even Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Facebook-acquired VR company Oculus, believes that it will be most widely used by gamers and enthusiasts over the next several years.
However brands in the travel industry are already exploring how they can use it to market and sell more effectively.
Marriot International has come top in a usability report that includes eight of the world’s top hotel brands.
The report also looks at the onsite effectiveness and brand awareness of Holiday Inn, Radisson, Hilton Hotels, Best Western, Choice Hotels, Accor Hotels and Starwood Hotels.
As mentioned, Marriott International was the top performing hotel with an average score of 83%. Hilton came second with 81% while Accor came third with 78%. The overall average among all eight hotels was 64%.