Europe gains pricing control as hotels tackle rate parity

The European hotel market is leading in price parity by outperforming OTAs and Metasearch engines with more aggressive pricing, according to the World Parity Monitor by 123Compare.me, giving hotels real-time control of their pricing distribution strategy.

Compared to Asia and America hotel markets, Europe improved its pricing during "Peak" season* - between October 2023 and October 2024 - with over 48% of direct rates better than third party channels. This marks an upturn in success compared to 2023 when hotel rates were only achieving better rates than OTAs in the "Somewhat Busy" and "Not Busy" seasons.

The ranking of top-performing cities worldwide in October 2024 is also owned by Europe with Paris exceeding 67.3% with the best direct rates followed by Lisbon (66.56%)

Top Performing Cities Worldwide October 2024:
Paris (67.35%)
Lisbon (66.56)
Palma de Mallorca (66.02%)
Barcelona (62.22%)
Venice (61.91%)

While at the other end of the spectrum, Macau, Las Vegas and Zurich have experienced increased competition from OTAs this year, with properties in Ho Chi Minh City losing 54.8% of rates to OTAs, consistent with 2023. New cities like Rio de Janeiro and Vancouver have joined the list of locations losing out to third party channels.

Global brands have doubled-down on pricing strategies with visible changes in price parity performance for leading hotel groups. By October 2024, Eurostars took the lead by improving rate distribution securing the best room rate for direct bookings, up 39% percentage points from 40.1% (2023) to 78.8%, followed by Choice Hotels (49.9%) and Millennium Hotels and Resorts (46.1%). Meanwhile, Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) demonstrated the strongest rate parity among the chains, with 44.5% of rates matching third party channels. In contrast, IHG pricing controls slipped from 2023, with better rates available across OTAs than direct in 2024.

"Our data shows patterns changing in the EU where more hotels are winning the war on rates during peak and non-busy periods," surmised Jordi Serra, CEO founder, 123Compare. "The difference emerging between Europe and the rest of the world illustrates the importance of strong revenue policies, where less sophisticated markets give better rates to third party channels."

"Over the last six months particularly, we believe that DMA [Digital Marketing Act] regulation in the EU has impacted pricing by giving hotels more opportunities to beat OTAs on rates. We also see a distinct pattern that OTAs 'strategic' or aggressive behaviour is in the mainstream or "default" searches - where there is more traffic."

"From the increased performance in rate parity, the large hotel chains appear to be more focused on controlling their prices. Therefore, they have been reducing disparities across third-party channels - which we see reflected in more equal price distribution where price parity is higher - while improving tactics for stronger direct rates."

OTA Booking.com dominates the market, appearing in over 90% of offers, despite hotels' direct prices beating Booking.com's rates 47.4% of the time. This strong presence makes it the number one channel.

The World Parity Monitor is a reference in the market and a tool to track and monitor hotel pricing strategies across the distribution channel, for the full October report, please visit 123Compare.me

Media Contacts
C/O Unit 3 Ingworth Road, Poole, England, BH12 1JY, United Kingdom
Michelle Brown - +44 (0)7779 993976 - michelle@haynesmarcoms.agency
Ryan Haynes - +44 (0)7919 510 051 - ryan@haynesmarcoms.agency

ABOUT 123Compare
123COMPARE.ME ensures hotels have full control over their Pricing and Distribution.

123COMPARE.ME is a digital technology company that allows major hotel groups to gain control of their room distribution through the hunting and elimination of price differences in online distributors like OTAs, Metasearchers, and Bank beds.

123COMPARE.ME audits the searches worldwide in real time and for the real demand. We hunt any disparity and eliminate them through the generation of detailed Complaints, creation of a Distributor behavioral map, the education of Distributors, and the deployment of countermeasures through automated algorithms.

Our clients don't lose reservations due to parity issues, and maximize the efficiency of Hotels marketing campaigns. 123COMPARE.ME uncovers the source of any disparity and we take real-time actions to eliminate them.

This release was published on openPR.