Ex nasty-gram

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notAgrandma

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Forgive me for the lengthy post, but I'm
angry_smile.gif
. I opened my email this morning to find the following from the "Exped North America Lodging Team":
"Hello, I hope you had a good weekend. I received the attached report showing the newest data on what rates or inventory our systems are not able to show for your property. If you can please provide any insight into this, that would be great.
Thank you,
Ariel"
The "attached report" listed various dates that Ex had searched on my website and listed which room(s) showed up on my website with availability, along with the prices for the available rooms. The dates they searched had NO AVAILABILITY in their system. My response:
"If I understand correctly, the attached "Channel Comparison" is in regards to the availability you're able to view if you were booking directly through my website. I list ONE room on Expedia - the X room. I refuse to list my premium room - the Y room, on your platform for discounted prices. Our Z room is the most frequently reserved room through direct bookings. Why would I pay Expedia 15% commission to list our most popular room? The X room is NOT AVAILABLE for every date you've looked at on my website. The X room is our least frequently reserved room. I use Expedia to boost my occupancy, which is what I thought was the entire purpose of listing on your website. If listing only one room on Expedia is a problem, I will terminate my relationship with Expedia. If you can provide any insight as to why you are scanning my website for availability, that would be great."
I have a generic description of "Queen bed, private bath" on Ex, which could be any of my 4 rooms. This allows me to move the OTA reservations to any room I want. I believe a few innkeepers also list only one room on Ex to provide this same flexibility. Has anyone else ever received this sort of nasty-gram email?
 
They're scanning that information because:
a) Your contract with them allows them to
b) They're hoping to pressure you into listing all your rooms
c) They're hoping to pressure you into selling them to them for even less than you already do.
Glad I could clear that up.
 
Probably want you to feel that you are losing out by not having all your rooms on their site...
 
I don't list on there, but it's pretty standard procedure from some ota's to point out how we are doing it wrong by not listing everything with them.
Look how they are targeting state tourism associations to get them to buy into the OTA model and force their members to join or be left behind.
I don't answer Airbnb when they tell me what I'm doing wrong. You should verify everything in your account that you have signed up for and fix what you can to stop them from expecting you to list all of your rooms.
 
The reply is simple. My contract with Expedia doesn't require me to list all rooms on Expedia. I appreciate your interest, would you be willing to lower the commission to get me interested in giving you more inventory?
 
Thank you everyone for shedding a little light on Ex's tactics. I was 99% sure I didn't have to list all of my rooms with them. Sneaky, underhanded buggers! Of course, no reply to my email.
(As usual, Generic, I like your phrasing even better!)
 
There's currently a big class action lawsuit against Ex over its practice of saying you have no rooms available when your one room you list with them is filled. I got interviewed by the attorneys but got skittish when they asked me to be part of the class itself. The thought of ending up in Ex's crosshairs made me nervous.
 
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