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The contention between these OTA's and Google is a bit confusing and requires further research, but I think what is essentially at hand is severe competition. Google Flight has implications to cross over into OTA territory, which puts GDS's in a difficult position: support the OTA's or enter another profitable partnership with Google. Amadeus seems to be backtracking on its stance regarding new Google Flight Search, originally implying forming a partnership with Google, and now stating it is taking the sides of "anti-Googlers Expedia and TripAdvisor.

The article states that future Revenue Managers must be very tenacious in balancing the power of technology and managing the data process. With the advances of technology, social networking, e-commerce, online travel agencies, and mobile technology e-business have a great impact in our industry. Mourier claims "Already schooled in the way in which mobile has radically altered the air travel booking and in-flight entertainment experience, hotels guests are using everything from social media to online travel agents, (OTAs) to seek out and locate the best value." With the influence of social media, e-commerce, and travel review sites such as tripadvisor, Revenue Managers have to consider the impact those have in their businesses. Revenue managers need to understand what drives potential customers to stay in their hotels. The future Revenue Manager should possesses technological skills, understand the global market conditions, advances in technology, being cost effective, understand the importance of overall package deals and incentives, familiarize himself with the great impact of social media and advances in technology. "What's the cost-benefit analysis of launching a mobile-enabled web page versus an app and is having both redundant? Admittedly, there's no single answer to these questions and no one size fits all so the sooner RMs and hotel executives begin this conversation, the better," and have great leadership skills. It is really important that hotel managers understand that in todays' world technology can be a competitive advantage of their hotels if the use it adequately.

Your description of the article is very enlightening. Revenue managers really need to step up their game if their hotels are to remain in the running. This places a lot of pressure on them, but I like how you addressed their meeting with hotel executives. Perhaps the need for review of e-commerce and social media along with travel review sites will create a new position within the organization, it seems like too much for one RM.

Recently, the Priceline Group has acquired Buuteeq, Hotel Ninjas and Open Table. They are looking to merge Hotel Ninjas' web based PMS with Buuteeq's digital marketing software. Integrating both of these programs would mean that Priceline would be able to offer hoteliers a well-rounded system that could keep track of customer folios and housekeeping processes through cloud based web interface. The Priceline Group has plans to integrate their two cloud-based systems for hotels. Many properties are concerned with the security that Priceline may have in place and they do not want their information getting out to competitors. While the new processes that Priceline Group is offering seem very worthwhile and efficient many properties may buy into it and ignore the security concerns. One of the main considerations of this new venture is that Hotel Ninjas is a young company and the Priceline Group does not have much experience on this end of the industry. These changes could start a fast growing trend with the way online travel agencies and properties are communicating and doing business.

Mark Starkov, President & CEO at HEBS Global provides advice as to how to understand and optimize several tools hotels use for bookings. We live in a world where mobile connectivity is on the rise with no fall in sight. More and more people are spending more time and money on and through these devices, and it is something that our travel and hospitality industries are booming from. In 2014, nearly 40% of web visitors and page views were credited to non-desktop computers. In terms of hotels, these devices can also account for over 20% of bookings and 17% of sleeping room nights. Between 2013 and 2014, hotel revenue generated via tablets more than doubled and booked over 77% more room nights than non-"pure" devices. These stats alone should have all hoteliers seeing opportunity. The world of e-commerce is allowing hoteliers and other travel companies to open up many revenue streams. Between DGS, OTAs, and CRM, we are able to reach a much wider audience and bring in an exponentially larger amount of business. These tools do not work for free, as there are often commissions or subscription fees these companies are compensated for. As valuable as these third-party tools are, it is equally important to invest in your direct-booking outlet. Booking direct business keeps the most money in your pocket. Not only will you get optimum rates, you will also save on commissions, referral fees, etc. Just imagine not having to pay a third-party commission of 10% of a $100,000 dollar piece of business. That's 10 thousand saved. Sometimes, when large corporate events are booked, there can be two referral services involved, resulting in 15% commission payout. In terms of direct vs. third-party business, a hotel could not survive on only one.

Beginning in 2018 the financial accounting standards for hotel business are changing. One of the changes is the way OTAs charge for the rooms. Typically the OTAs operate under two methods the retail model and merchant model. The retail model uses the OTA to reserve the room but the final payment is made to the hotel. The hotel then gives a commission back to the OTA. Under The merchant model the payment is made to the OTA. Then the OTA takes the commission off and sends the remaining payment to the hotel for the price of the room. This comes out as a net transaction. The new standard is saying that the company that controls the transaction for the room has to mark the transaction or sale as a gross transaction. The new model forces the hotels to record the transaction on a gross basis. This can be a big difference for hotels because now they will have to increase the amount of costs and reduce the hotels bottom line.

This explores how the OTA Expedia is bypassing the rules of the rates they are given by hotels to show unauthorized prices and thus affecting how the customers shop for rooms in the future. Customers will see these lower rates, which are only meant to be sold as part of a larger package, then compare them to the hotels site, which of course will be higher and in the future disregard the direct buy from the hotel, not knowing that the rates they were given should have never been available without a package which includes airfare and car rental.

In the last 10 years bookings online have increased drastically. Guests are no longer picking up the phone and making reservations. Guests are booking through OTAs such as Expedia, booking.com, Hotels.com and more. Millennial's especially don't want to pick up the phone and waste their rime talking with someone when they can book easily on their mobile phone in mere seconds. Most hotels would prefer direct bookings to their site. They make more money this way, but with the increase of OTA bookings hotels are having to turn to social media to push their own sites. They are also using things like loyalty programs to drive direct bookings as well.

As the entire travel industry, OTAs suffere a lot because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article are described not only financial losses of the OTAs, but also the steps that they are going to take towards the safety of the travelers, and the possible future conditions for the OTAs operations.

OTAs identified an unmet customer need and created digital destinations that became the first stop for prospective travelers. Unfortunately, the very thing that made OTAs the original travel disruptors- the ability to aggregate digitized data to create economical, do-it-yourself travel planning - could be what gives rise to another innovative disrupter: Google.

The relationship with OTAs should be about finding the right balance (or mix of business) for your specific hotel. A commonly held point of view is that OTA commissions are exorbitant (in dollars, or as a % of revenue), but shouldn't we be glad if they sold a room we were not going to sell otherwise?