Creating strategic relationships with online travel agents to drive hotel room revenue: An OTA perspective

Abstract

Purpose

Hoteliers are often frustrated by the significant fees charged for bookings by Online Travel Agents (OTAs), and they try to encourage more direct bookings that circumvent the OTA system. However, there are billions of dollars of room revenues generated by OTAs every year; and many companies in other industries sell their products through multiple channels. The purpose of this study is to investigate how hotel revenue managers can collaborate successfully with OTAs.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative methods are applied in this study, specifically focus groups and in-person interviews with market managers of a leading OTA. Content analysis is performed, using ATLASti 5, to discover emerging themes and categories from the transcripts.

Findings

This study highlights several OTA value propositions and how hotels can benefit from them. Additionally, the findings of this study reveal that effective two-way communication between OTAs and revenue managers is the key to success. An “optimization loop” is established, which specifies that partnership and collaboration between OTAs and hotels must occur in a circular sequence of communication, engagement, collaboration and strategy.

Research limitations/implications

A major limitation for this study is that interviews were conducted only with market managers, limiting the perspective to that of OTAs.

Originality/value

There is a paucity of research and dialogue discussing productive relationships between OTAs and hotel firms. Through in-depth in-person interviews with a diverse set of market managers from a leading OTA, this study brings to light an array of perspectives of what is required to optimize the OTA/hotelier relationship.

研究目的

酒店经营者常常受到在线旅行社（OTA）收取高额预订费用的困扰。酒店试图鼓励客人直接预订房间，绕过OTA程序。然而，每年OTA贡献仍有数以十亿计美金的订房收入; 其他行业的很多公司采用多渠道销售产品。本论文研究目的在于探索酒店经理人们如何能够成功地与OTA合作。

研究设计/方法/途径

本论文采用定性研究方法，主要以小组讨论和个人访谈的形式，与一家行业领先的OTA市场经理们进行深度访谈。本论文借用ATLASti 5 内容分析工具进行样本分析，总结出主题和分类。

研究结果

本论坛提出了多个OTA价值组成，以及酒店如何从中盈利。此外，本论文还指出了OTA和财务经理的有效双向交流的重要性。其中，需要建立“循环展开”（Optimization Loop），即OTA和酒店之间的合作交流需要建立在循环、有序、通畅、以及战略的基础上。

研究理论限制/意义

本论文一个主要的理论限制就是只采访了OTA的市场经理。

研究原创性/价值

理论上，关于OTA和酒店之间的战略合作的讨论，我们知之甚少。本论文采用与一家行业领先的OTA市场经理们的深入访谈，将这一合作关系进行积极讨论分析，提供一系列优化战略合作的方案和见解。

关键词

在线旅行社（OTA），酒店订房收入，合作关系，Expedia，市场经理，收入优化

Citation

Raab, C., Berezan, O., Christodoulidou, N., Jiang, L. and Shoemaker, S. (2018), "Creating strategic relationships with online travel agents to drive hotel room revenue: An OTA perspective", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 125-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-10-2016-0069