Consumers have access to an unprecedented number of options to shop and book hotels, with new choices continually emerging. Not only does the popularity of different channels vary due to technology enhancements, but it is increasingly difficult to treat the channels as unified booking sources.

Phocuswright research indicates a recent inverse relationship between OTA and supplier-direct website booking trends. But the environment is more complex, with metasearch impacting OTA share and hotel call volume impacted by mobile device use.

The significant growth in OTA bookings in 2015 that corresponded with a drop in direct supplier website bookings may have been the catalyst that resulted in several major hotel groups launching “book direct” campaigns. While hotel brands and management companies may take a top-down approach to channel optimization, the individual property must always realize that a bottom-up perspective should ensure channels are being optimized for that property.

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Excerpt from the white paper published by Phocuswright:

Phocuswright is the travel industry research authority on how travelers, suppliers and intermediaries connect. Independent, rigorous and unbiased, Phocuswright fosters smart strategic planning, tactical decision-making and organizational effectiveness.

Phocuswright delivers qualitative and quantitative research on the evolving dynamics that influence travel, tourism and hospitality distribution. Our marketplace intelligence is the industry standard for segmentation, sizing, forecasting, trends, analysis and consumer travel planning behavior. Every day around the world, senior executives, marketers, strategists and research professionals from all segments of the industry value chain use Phocuswright research for competitive advantage.

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The company is headquartered in the United States with Asia Pacific operations based in India and local analysts on five continents. Phocuswright is a wholly owned subsidiary of Northstar Travel Media, LLC.

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