Digital marketing in the hospitality industry : what influence does digital platform economy have on the booking rates of the hotel industry

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the influence of the platform economy on the booking rates of hotels. This thesis concentrates on two platforms important for the hotel business, the Online Travel Agencies (OTA) and the Metasearch platforms. Booking.com is used as an example for the OTA and Trivago for the Metasearch platform.

The research is conducted with five different hotels located in Germany. The hotels differentiate in size, management style, classification and location. The online appearance on the mentioned platforms is analyzed for each hotel. Based on the findings a phone interview with the responsible employee of the hotel is held. The interview was typed down and analyzed according to the research questions. The questions concentrate on how the hotels use the opportunities provide by the platforms in order to increase their direct booking. On how many bookings are generated over third-party distributors and what the advantages and disadvantages of those platforms are.

The result shows that the OTAs are essential for the hotel industry as around 30% of the generated bookings are received over them. Metasearch platforms such as Trivago are not actively used as the risk of spending a lot of money without generating bookings is high. The main disadvantage of the OTA is the commission paid but it is a great channel to gaining awareness for hotels on such a highly competitive market.