Taking it Back at Holiday Inn

The on again relationship hotels have with booking sites seems to be swinging to off again. Holiday Inn has decided to pull their inventory from Expedia.com and Hotels.com. Business travelers are becoming more and more savvy in their use of the internet to book their own travel plans. When a travel department or assistant make arrangements they are likely to shop based on price. Business travelers booking their own travel are interested in the experience factors of the hotel. Factors such as location, comfort/decor, service and frequent stayer clubs come into play in the decision process. Hotels are realizing that the promotion of these factors is better done on their own websites.

Taking back the sales and promotion of their hotel properties gives the hotels the opportunity to develop their marketing communications, customer relationship systems and the customer intuition data that will drive innovation and growth in their businesses.

I think this is part of a broader trend in America where prominent brands are moving away from resellers and towards controlling their own brand experience. Exhibit A: The Apple Store. Exhibit B: Tupperware pulls out of Target and sticks with their "party" model.

So how do you make you travel plans? Do you use a travel agent, booking site, provider site? What are your tricks of the trade?

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