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Category: Business, Economics and Finance / Company News / Consumer Finance / Consumer Protection / Travel and Tourism

Travel sites to amend price clauses to allow cheaper hotel rates

Friday, 2 Sep 2016 11:04:20 | Thuy Ong

Homepage of Wotif website. (wotif.com)

The competition watchdog has reached a deal with travel sites Expedia and Booking.com to amend price and availability parity clauses that prevent hotels from offering the cheapest price anywhere other than on those travel sites.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the clauses guaranteed the online travel sites would always have the accommodation provider's lowest rate, preventing consumers from negotiating better deals directly with the provider.

"Australian accommodation providers will now be able to tailor their offers to better meet the needs of their customers and their own businesses' requirements," said ACCC chairman Rod Sims in a statement.

"The ACCC commenced its investigation after accommodation providers raised a range of concerns, including that these parity clauses were anti competitive as they stopped consumers from getting different prices from competing online sites."

The ACCC said Australian accommodation providers could now also offer cheaper special rates for telephone bookings, walk-ins, to loyalty groups, while still offering deals through Expedia and Booking.com.

Over 500 responses were submitted to an inquiry about dealings with online travel sites and the ACCC said the key issues were broad price parity and room availability clauses.

From September 1, Expedia, which includes Wotif.com, and Booking.com have removed the contractual requirements.

In July 2014, US online travel giant Expedia paid $703 million for Wotif.

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