The document discusses online travel agents (OTAs) such as Expedia and Travelocity, and analyzes their pros and cons from the perspective of hotels. It notes that OTAs give hotels visibility and occupancy but charge high commissions. It also states that F-commerce, or booking hotels through Facebook, provides viral marketing and a personalized experience for users.

1. Online Travel Agents

2. OTAs
 Expedia (the largest)  Travelocity
 ebookers.com  Agoda
 eDreams  Tablethotel
 LastMinute.com  Voyage SNCF
 Opodo  Venere
 Priceline  etc

3. OTAs - pros
 Give hotels visibility
 Increase hotel occupancy
 Propose all inclusive packages (flight,
car rental, hotel, transfer etc)
 Allow consumers tools for comparison
shopping
 A place to sell excess inventory before
it expires

4. OTAs - cons
 Ask high commission rates
 Give negative effect on overall hotel
revenues
 Can be too broad to get focused and
clear information
 Ignore luxury

5. Genaral idea
 OTAs improve transparency, efficiency
and is better for the consumer
 Better for the economy as a whole.
 Hotels just need to do a better job at
“keeping” their customers
 Hotels should propose something
unique and special that the OTAs can’t

6. What F-commerce means for
Hotels
 Hotels benefit from a viral marketing within
the Facebook network
 Optimize their sales, customer loyalty and
customer service
 User can book without leaving Facebook wall
 Personalized hotel reservation experience for
the user

7.  Very quick research
 Clear comparison of different sites
 User-friendly
 On facebook
 Mobile application
 Has a promising future