Direct way cheapest for booking rooms in Australia: survey

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23/03/2004

Direct way cheapest for booking rooms in Australia: survey

The cheapest method of booking a hotel room in Australia is still to go direct to the property, according to a new survey by KPMG.

The survey found that in 68 per cent of cases it was cheapest to go direct, rather than to a travel agent or third-party website.

The Global Hotel Distribution Survey 2004 researched room rates from more than 310 hotels in 13 countries, reviewing rates offered to customers via both direct and indirect distribution channels, including direct calls made to the hotel, the hotel's own website and central reservations department, online intermediaries and corporate travel agents.

The survey said Australia achieved the highest percentage of cases where it was cheaper to book direct.

In Australia, using the hotel website tended to be more expensive than booking with a direct call or by CRS.

Australia’s result compared with the UK, where 58 per cent of the cheapest hotel rates were obtainable through online travel companies rather than by booking direct with the hotel.

In the US, just over 10 per cent of the cheapest rates are available on the Internet.

Worldwide, the survey found that just 2 per cent of hotels were consistent in their pricing across all booking methods, while 15 per cent of prices were consistent when booking through direct channels.

The survey also revealed that the Internet was likely to offer the best deals when travelling in the UK, western Europe or Canada, as hotels in these regions faced competition from a large selection of third-party travel websites, including Expedia, Travelocity and lastminute.com.

But in the US, hoteliers were more likely to release discounted room rates to corporate travel agents than to online companies.

“Hotel groups still have some way to go to demonstrate that their distribution channels are effectively controlled and managed,” the report said.

23 March 2004

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