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Possible blow to resort fees by Booking.com

Discussion in 'Casino Industry & Development' started by zignerlv, May 21, 2019.

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  1. zignerlv

    zignerlv VIP Whale

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    "Booking.com has told The Independent: “As an extension of our overarching aim to provide our customers with transparent information about the total price they will need to pay at a property when they make a booking and to create a level playing field for all of our accommodation partners, we are updating our process when it comes to charging commission on mandatory extra fees that customers are asked to pay at the property.”

    A Las Vegas news site, VitalVegas, tweeted: “This could change everything: Booking.com is reportedly informing hotels they’ll charge commissions on resort fees.

    Avoiding commissions on resort fees is a huge reason they exist. Will hotels push back, or is this the beginning of the end for resort fees?”


    https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/resort-fees-extra-charges-hotels-booking-commission-las-vegas-new-york-a8923056.html


    Will this change things? I'll believe it when I see it! I remember 1-2 years ago, when supposedly the FTC was going to rule that resort fees could not be assessed without showing the full pricing, and that didn't happen. We'll see if this makes a difference.
     
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  2. Norman Chad

    Norman Chad Low-Roller

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    It would be nice, but I doubt it. Resort fees are such a slap in the face. $40 a night for the same thing a Holiday Inn can provide for free.
     
  3. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Personally if it's just booking.com, if I was a casino/hotel, I think I take my chances and not let them sell rooms at my hotel.

    It might start the end of resort fees, but in my case, it will just mean my room rate will go up ~$40/night, possibly more!

    I remember when The D began to implement a $20 resort fee. The room rate immediately dropped $20. Lol
     
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  4. sinnerman

    sinnerman VIP Whale

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    I absolutely LOVE this idea. I don't know whether it will result in Vegas hotels dropping the resort fees (I hope so), but I am so glad booking.com is doing this.

    It is absolutely unfair for hotels like holiday inn to pay commissions on their entire price while Vegas hotels avoid this. I find it especially ridiculous when places like hooters charge $9 for the room and $35 for resort fees. I hope all the other booking sites follow this lead and charge commissions on the resort fees and simply combine it into hotel costs up front for very booking.

    Yeah, its possible. But hopefully, all the other booking sites follow Booking.com's lead and then casinos will have no choice in this matter.
     
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  5. Calder

    Calder VIP Whale

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    Well, it's more money in Booking's pocket.

    How does this help me again?
     
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  6. MCann

    MCann I can't complain, but sometimes I still do...

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    They'll probably just raise resort fees to cover commissions. Be nice if I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

    That said, for high player tiers where resort fees are waived and discounts are guaranteed on top of best rates, I think resort fees may work to some customers' advantage, a little, if they spend enough to make upper tiers but don't gamble enough to get comped all the time.

    Of course casinos could just give those players bigger discounts if they wanted to and did away with resort fees, but again not sure they would. One way or another, the resorts will come out ahead on this at the expense of at least some customers.
     
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  7. AllenAndRossi

    AllenAndRossi VIP Whale

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    I've often wondered why the third-party booking sites didn't implement this.

    Booking Holdings, which owns booking.com, also owns Priceline and Kayak. Isn't that interesting.
     
  8. zignerlv

    zignerlv VIP Whale

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    Yes, they are a huge player, and that's why no hotel is going to ban them or whatever term people want to use, from booking their hotels on booking.com's sites. They had a 16% market share, before some of the latest acquisitions, so it is higher now. As another post above said, it's probably more likely that other online sites move to this type of commission calculation.

    Note also, nowhere does it say (although it might be the case) that the overall commission is increasing! What I am saying is that they could reduce the commission rate, so that the overall commission including resort fee remains the same as pre resort fee! They state that they want to level the playing field, meaning that the hotels without (or with lower) resort fees shouldn't be penalized compared to ones with higher resort fees, in terms of the base to calc the commission!!!
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2019
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  9. The Rumor

    The Rumor VIP Whale

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    There's only like 2 real companies left - booking and whatever owns expedia. They own most of the brands you see commericals for.
     
  10. TrewBrew

    TrewBrew I may be right, I may be Crazy.

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    I wonder how many rooms booking.com gets from the hotel I know they don’t get the whole inventory. So if they get 100 rooms s night from the big casinos why wouldn’t the casinos just give that inventory to another site?

    Booking.com may be thinking they will get extra revenue but they could just lose s revenue source.
     
  11. The Rumor

    The Rumor VIP Whale

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    Who are these other sites, exactly?

    Booking is booking and priceline. Expedia owns travelocity, hotels.com, trivago, etc.

    Booking is a big dog. Hotels need them and Expedia. They must feel they can throw their weight around.
     
  12. TrewBrew

    TrewBrew I may be right, I may be Crazy.

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    I did not know booking owned Priceline. I guess I missed that memo.

    I will try to do better in my next post.
     
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  13. HHFan

    HHFan VIP Whale

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    You don’t mess with Booking, especially in a market like Vegas. They are the leader in most markets and already get a premium on commissions as a result. If they want this paid bad enough the hotels will have to bend to their will, as they’re more likely to break than Booking is.

    However this doesn’t mean that the RSFs are going away. The hotel isn’t tossing what was free money just because it’s incurring a tiny new expense.
     
  14. mjames1229

    mjames1229 # of visits includes only trips w/ hotel stays

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    I think that's all that's going to happen.... even if all OTAs join the party

    The hotel industry isn't going to eliminate $40 Resort Fees just because they have to pay an extra $4. Resort Fees would just go up to cover it.

    Its got to be in a way that the OTAs combine the hotel price and resort fee on the upfront, and I don't know if it can logistically happen as the Resort Fees are a local charge that aren't collected by the booking site.
     
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  15. ThePicksHub

    ThePicksHub Low-Roller

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    What MCann said is pretty accurate, this would just make rooms more expensive, presumably. Prices would increase to make up for the additional commission they must pay the third-party.
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2019
  16. woodsie

    woodsie VIP Whale

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    Transparency in the market improves the efficiency of competition. If there's money being left on the table by consumers because of the current opacity of resort fee pricing, that's where you are going to gain.

    I would not expect a dramatic reduction in overall room costs but there would be SOME impact if transparency returned to this market.

    Resort fees exist in the first place because opacity and confusion is an opportunity to gain an edge in competitive markets where products are treated like commodities and they know it.

    That's the best I can do to explain it. It's easier to understand if it's a part of your business like it is mine.

    In simpler terms, Resorts Fees allow a hotel to exploit the inefficiency between what a customer THINKS something costs and what it ACTUALLY costs. In the absence of resort fees, consumer behavior would be a little bit different with all other things equal. Poorly informed decisions are made differently than perfectly informed decisions.

    ETA: I'm speaking in general about transparency and resort fees. I have no idea if Booking.com's move is actually going to move the needle with respect to eliminating resort fees.
     
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  17. Calder

    Calder VIP Whale

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    Which is the ultimate question. And if it doesn't move that needle, all that's happened is Booking has added to their bottom line while telling it's users that they 'did it for you.'

    Sorta like the hotels do with resort fees.
     
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  18. sinnerman

    sinnerman VIP Whale

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    Yes, but with booking.com, i am at least partially convinced that it does benefit its customers by making things more transparent. Unlike the case when hotels do it.

    I recently recommended Vegas to my parents for their 35th wedding anniversary. They didn't know about resort fees and got an unpleasant surprise at the hotel check in. For us Vegas Pros, it is not a surprise. But for many people, it is a bit of a WTF moment. Especially when the resort fees basically includes stuff that you get at every single other hotel for free (most holiday inn's provide a gym, wifi, etc, not to mention breakfast).
     
  19. NotFromConcentrate

    NotFromConcentrate It’s a Cassowary :)

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    This actually helps out guests quite a bit. It does hurt some hotels, but that's just because resort fees were only an instrument of offering deceptively low prices by offsetting the "discount" with a big fat resort fee.

    If I'm shopping around on Booking/Expedia, etc., I'm not interested in seeing the room rate, the taxes, or the resort fee. I'm only interested in seeing the bottom line amount. If three nights will come to an average of $75 per night, and it will spit out a quote of "$225 plus taxes and resort fees", what the hell good does that number do me when a $34.95 nightly resort fee plus tax will put my stay total up to about $355? Why not just show me $355 in the first place, since I'll be paying it anyhow?

    The only good that decoupling these fees does, is it allows a competing hotel to "advertise" the same stay dates at an average of $70 per night to look cheaper (and so it will show up first on a "Sort by price: Lowest first" filter since $70 is less than $75), but they're actually charging a $44.95 resort fee, bringing the stay total up to about $370. Wtf.

    Personally, I sincerely do not care what the ratio is. Whether it's $75 at $50 room rate plus $25 resort fee, $1 room rate plus $74 resort fee, or $75 room rate and $0 resort fee, I could not care less. I used to have to do the math in my head, or manually (or simply not bother doing it, only to realize my stay ends up costing far more than expected). But this change is very welcome from my perspective, because it will make shopping for hotels much easier.

    The only hotels that will suffer any negative consequences from doing this are the "liar" hotels who play the low rate/high fee game to appear higher. They had the privilege of fleecing guests for a few years now, but it looks as though that's being corrected now.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2019
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  20. Chuck2009x

    Chuck2009x VIP Whale

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    Eh, when a casino puts out a flowery statement like this, most people dismiss it as bullshit and say they just want more money.

    Why should BKNG get the benefit of the doubt?
     
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