Hotels’ Proprietary Web Presence Moving Forward

NEW YORK CITY— Six Continents’ David Smith told attendees at the Lodging Industry Investment Council (LIIC) meeting here June 2, the proposed proprietary lodging industry portal currently being developed jointly by his firm and several other leading hotel companies is a technical as well as reservations solution that can’t come soon enough. During the course of the LIIC conclave immediately preceding the opening of the 24th Annual NYU International Hospitality Investment Conference, Smith reiterated the need for the on-line development of the Hospitality Distribution System, noting the lodging industry “can’t allow third-party [websites]to continue to play us against each other in terms of room rates… and taking a 30% cut in the process. “They’re selling rooms [over the Internet]for $100 per night that they purchased from us at $70 per night. At the very least,” Smith said, “the consumer should be buying those $100-per-night rooms from us directly.” Agreeing with Smith was Boykin Lodging’s Richard Conti, who contended it’s imperative the consumer comes to recognize “the lowest price for any room will be available on the hotel chain’s website. We absolutely have to take control of our own destiny,” Conti added, noting it may take two to three years to do just that. Finally, as Hilton Hotels’ Eva Wasserman similarly maintained, it’s not just a matter of controlling the industry’s reservations process that’s at stake. “It’s also a matter of cost control” vis-à-vis that process, she said, explaining there’s a veritable world of difference in the expense related to room reservations coming through the GDS, bookings made directly with the hotel (company) via an 800 number, and those arranged through the hotel firm’s website.—Michael Billig