Hotels Magazine just broke a nice
story on a squabble that has erupted between Choice and
Expedia that is eerily
reminiscent of a fight between
Expedia and
IHG several years ago.
This time around, Choice Hotels brands are no longer showing on
Expedia and Hotels.com. This even includes white labels such as
Expedia's co-branded
AARP product. It is unclear if Egencia users are also shut out from Choice properties. It also isn't clear (yet) if Choice made the move or
Expedia did but one thing is for sure - it is lights out for Comfort Inn
et al on
Expedia.
As you may recall, the last time we saw a major, public hotel riff was when Intercontinental Hotels (
IHG) and
Expedia went to war several years ago over a number of issues including display, content and, of course, margin. All the parties closely involved in that dispute (on both sides) have moved on to bigger and better things (think real estate site
Zillow for the
Expedia gang) but everyone we've talked to would largely like to forget the incident. There were no real winners in the long term.
The timing of this fall-out is interesting. The lodging sector is hardly strong right now - most hoteliers are looking for every penny of revenue they can scrape - harder to do when you are not appearing on the world's largest online travel agency. And
Expedia has been working hard to cultivate a new culture of positive supplier relations. On the other hand, the budget-oriented chains such as Choice have fared better in this downturn than the up-scale brands so maybe Choice felt they could withstand going dark in order to make a point.
So, did Expedia make a choice or did Choice make a choice? We'll be watching this closely....
These insights are excerpted with permission from Tom Botts' Hudson Crossing blog.
