Abstract
The use of online reservation systems has become a must for hospitality businesses. This article is focused on the use of www.booking.com as an online search engine for accommodation in a family hotel in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. The aim of the research is to analyze the behavior of people, using one of the best performing online travel agencies in the world for hotel room reservation. The article reveals interesting statistical facts about the nationality of the guests and how far ahead of time reservations are made. Data for the electronic device, which is used to make a reservation, is stated in the article. The “best price” clause of booking.com is taken into account, as it is being banned in some EU countries, but still influencing the decision making process of hotel customers. A brief outlook of the ‘’most favored nation’’ (“MFN”) clause, also known as ‘price parity’ or ‘best price’ clause (“BPC”) and its application in EU countries is included.
Highlights
Technological progress and tourism have been going hand in hand for years (Poon, 1993; Sheldon, 1997)
The behavior of the people booking a room at hotel “Fenix” through Booking.com is analyzed, the nationality of the guests and what device they have used for reservation online
Though many countries blocked or restricted the best price’ clause (BPC) of Booking.com, statistical data shows that the share of the Online Travel Agency (OTA) still increases in EU (Feinstein E., 2018)
Summary
Technological progress and tourism have been going hand in hand for years (Poon, 1993; Sheldon, 1997). The main role is played by OTAs (online travel agencies) in the vast internet market of hospitality transactions. They have created complex and customer oriented platforms that offer the tourists a choice from hundreds of hotels in some cities. Expedia group and Booking Holdings (former Priceline group) have dominance in the world online accommodation sales. According to Hotrec European Hotel Distribution Study for 2017 the 3 main market players within the OTA market remain Booking Holdings (Booking.com), Expedia Group and to a lesser extent HRS, with an aggregated market share of 92%. The dominance of Booking.com has been rising over the last 4 years by more than 6% between 2013 and 2017 (i.e. from 60% to 66.4% (HOTREC 2018)
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