In March of this year, hotel consultant Thibault Catala posted on LinkedIn about his frustration in trying to help a new hotel in Greece become listed on Expedia Group websites. Catala shared the response he received from Expedia Group, which said that ‘due to the reduced demand for your market, we will not be able to effectively support your business.’
Catala’s post generated more than 60 comments, some from people who had similar experiences with Expedia and with other online travel agencies, and many questioned whether pausing onboarding was a result of strategy or lack of resources – or both.
When asked, Expedia Group vice president of market management for North America, Rachel Bird, says via email: “We are still adding properties to our site. However, we are carefully managing that process and onboarding properties once conditions in their market are prime for them to thrive. … Our priority is ensuring that our travelers have sufficient choices when searching for a destination, while also ensuring that lodging partners that choose to work with us receive the type of bookings and guests that suit their business needs.”
Catala – who is now in the process of getting the property listed on Expedia Group – says he understands prioritizing existing customers, but he also believes the pandemic has highlighted the need for more efficient onboarding systems across all distribution stakeholders.
Some hospitality technology partners are working to address this need.
SiteMinder has just launched a new package of automation tools for its Little Hotelier brand, which provides a reservation and hotel management system for small properties of about 30 rooms or fewer.
“One of the biggest challenges for technology adoption in hotels has been the complexity of bringing hotels online,” says SiteMinder CEO Sankar Narayan.
“We are intending to bring the onboarding time from a matter of weeks to well within a day. In fact if the hotelier has all the information ready, very soon the hotelier will have full distribution within an hour.”
The product is available in the United States and the United Kingdom and will soon be available in more markets. Hoteliers use an online wizard to sign up and can get assistance through a chat function.
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