Online Travel Agents charge your accommodation provider between 15% and 30% in commission when you make your booking on one of their websites. They then try to deny your accommodation provider the right to offer you a lower rate.
Who are these online operators?
The vast majority are owned by two multi-billion dollar companies based overseas:
- EXPEDIA GROUP – brands include Expedia, Hotels.com, Lastminute.com, Wotif and Trivago
- BOOKING.COM – brands include Booking.com, Kayak, Hotels.com, Priceline, Agoda and Hotels Combined.
This means that many accommodation providers inflate their prices to take into account the commission they are being charged and the result is that your accommodation costs you more. It also means that millions of dollars are leaving Australia in commission and being paid to companies who don’t pay Australian tax on those earnings.
Unfortunately, it also means that there are hundreds of small family businesses throughout Austalia who are operating with a “virtual gun” to their head, with many country operators advising that 50% or more of their business is derived from these sites (effectively trapping them).
By all means, use these sites to compare your options when travelling to a destination, but DON’T book through them…. Book via the accommodation provider’s own website, or better still – call them direct!
We’ve included some video viewing to further tell the story, including one from the Australian icon Dick Smith.
Thank you – not just from us at Allure – but for all the other family operated accommodation providers across the country.
