INTERVIEW: Magnuson Hotels CEO Tom Magnuson On The Global Hotel Exchange

Magnuson Hotels cofounder and CEO Tom Magnuson is developing an online agency model in which hotels pay no commissions or distribution fees, and travelers instead pay a booking fee of a few dollars. Magnuson's Global Hotel Exchange is set to launch in the United States and the United Kingdom in January; he reports "thousands of hotels" included in the platform. The appeal to hotels is clear: Some hotels pay as much as 30 percent of their room revenue to online travel agencies, Magnuson said, and