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Online Travel Services losing business to hotel direct marketing
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Online Travel Services losing business to hotel direct marketing
Current trends in the hotel and tourism indicate that hotels are now beginning to attract their own customers directly as opposed to the use of online travel marketing services. This indicates that online travel services are indeed losing business to hotel direct marketing. Major hotels are now offering direct booking services through the internet in social sites such as facebook and through Smartphone application. The convenience of the internet and the direct contact with hotel management is luring the travelers who had been using online travel agencies in securing accommodation (Lonely Planet, 2010).
Starwood, which is one of the major hotels, has facebook pages for its more than nine hundred hotel properties, whereby the management engage the potential customer in a conversation the moment they identify interest in the hotel by pressing the “like” button the facebook page. This is an attempt to ensure that the online booking services are availed to the customers at their convenience other than where the customers have to look for them. Direct marketing has several advantages that have led to the edging out of business of the travel agencies.
