Last night in our hotel room, Himself has TV on looking for our usual Saturday night program - but it is a station out of Pittsburgh so had different programming. There was a Rick Steves special on about how to get the most out of travel. He said B & Bs are an excellent way to see the Country (this was focused on European countries) BUT the thing that caught my ear was him pointing out that although the booking sites were convenient he said, "You often get the best deals booking with the B & B directly as they get charged heavy commissions by the booking sites." It was music to my ears - and I do not use OTAs..
exactlt what i said in another thread. why put up with OTAs? keep the money in your own pocket. if i were still in business i wouldn not be using any of them either.
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EmptyNest said:
exactlt what i said in another thread. why put up with OTAs? keep the money in your own pocket. if i were still in business i wouldn not be using any of them either.
I have decided to stay on my own. I am lucky that our area is so popular and has been for ever, that I really don't think I want to muddy the waters. I just have an uneasy feeling about the OTA's - all of them.
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My local competition has been using the OTAs heavily for the past couple years. I joined book com this year but only gave them my midweek rooms as I'm always full on weekends -- I was hoping to use them to fill up midweek rooms but have found that neither myself nor my competitors are getting lots of midweek business no matter who we list with. I got 3 reservations from them which did total over $3k but I got so many more from my TA connect link that I've realized it's a better way for me to go. Keeping up with the coordination of the calendars drove me crazy and I hate that they also put up price line link which then said I had no availability - didn't see that because they own price line they would add that to take guests there and then say no availability. I'm done with them and plan to cancel the account to get this deceitful price line link off my TA page. Also we're adding a new room to make more revenue so I just don't want to deal with them any more (but I do understand that lots of properties really need to work with them and I'm happy that it works out for them).
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It really is an unethical way to do business. They got you (the global you) over a barrel and ...
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I agree, after following the issue very closely over the years. This forum helps a lot to see through to the truth of the issue. I think that the fewer of us that use them the less power they will have. The name brands are even trying to go independent of them.....
And people are and will get wise to the OTA scam, because that is what it is. Not sure we want to put all the power into TA's hands either.....
No matter if we are a "destination" location or a necessary magnet, don't ya'll think that if we put half the energy into improving our properties and marketing as you have to put in to participate in that OTA scam that we wouldn't be better off in the long run?
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