Online distribution
The market of online distribution is getting more and more important for the hospitality industry in Europe.
Unfortunately, the number of relevant market actors is declining significantly and the market shows tendencies towards at least a narrow oligopoly.
In the course of these developments, the hospitality sector in Europe, which is mainly characterised by small and medium sized enterprises, is facing practices in the field of digital distribution, hotel reviews and metasearches that many hoteliers consider to be imbalanced or unfair. Examples are for online marketing practices like brand bidding or domain grabbing.
In addition, hotels are losing sovereignty and control over their rates, distribution and products due to widely applied practices in place, e.g. by having rate parity imposed on them (maintaining identical rates across all online or even offline channels).
Therefore, HOTREC took an initiative to establish some benchmarks of fair practices in online distribution in order to initiate a dialogue with relevant market players with the purpose of ensuring a level playing field for the benefit of guests, intermediaries and hotels.
-
6 May 2022
Factsheet on the implementation of the button solution in the hotel industry
HOTREC shares a memo kindly provided by our German Member IHA regarding the so-called 'button solution', a regulation to increase transparency in online commerce.
-
24 July 2020
European Hotel Distribution Study 2020 - Summary
HOTREC, the European umbrella association of hotels, restaurants and cafés, conducted at the beginning of 2020 in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland Valais (HES-SO Valais Wallis) its biennial study on the European hotel distribution market. This is the fourth study since the series began in 2013.
-
4 November 2020
HOTREC Position Paper on the Digital Services Act
Updated - HOTREC's position paper on the Digital Services Act
-
8 January 2021
Newly proposed EU platform rules can support digitalization of European hospitality SMEs
As the European umbrella organisation for hotels, bars, cafés and restaurants in Europe, HOTREC believes that the Digital Services and Markets Acts, presented on 15 December by the European Commission, are an opportunity to level the playing field, tackle illegal offers of services and give hospitality SMEs more control over their digital presence.
-
16 December 2020
Newly proposed EU platform rules can support digitalization of European hospitality SMEs
As the European umbrella organisation for hotels, bars, cafés and restaurants in Europe, HOTREC believes that the Digital Services and Markets Acts, presented on 15 December by the European Commission, are an opportunity to level the playing field, tackle illegal offers of services and give hospitality SMEs more control over their digital presence.
-
22 September 2020
HOTREC welcomes European Court of Justice ruling on prior authorization for STR accommodation
Municipalities can require a prior authorization from STR (Short-Term Rental) accommodation hosts and regulate their activities for overriding reasons relating to the public interest, such as the prevention of long-term rental housing shortages, according to yesterday’s (22 September) preliminary ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
-
24 July 2020
Hotels more dependent than ever on online travel intermediaries for bookings
The new HOTREC study on the European hotel distribution market shows that the dominance of online travel intermediaries such as Booking.com and Expedia is steadily increasing since 2013 whilst the share of direct bookings continues declining.
-
24 April 2020
NET and EUTT position paper on state-guaranteed vouchers for tourism
HOTREC has co-signed a position paper destined to EU decision makers requesting support to provide customers with state-guranteed, flexible and refundable vouchers for travel and tourism services. The position paper is available on this page.
