Intereting realization at Phocuswright that Priceline is no longer charging a fee to consumers for air bookings. Why? To build their brand reputation as a low-price retailer.
They confessed at PCW that, for these bookings, they don't really add service value over a carrier site, and they don't offer the customer care tools of their OTA peers. Bravo! What have we been saying for some time?
Don't look for other OTAs to match, because they've invested too much in pitching their service proposition to throw away that revenue stream. Unless Priceline is able to make up some ground in share of course, which may be unlikely, but actually could happenen. Especially through savvy partnership with meta's.
The important takeaway here for FMV is that this is another chink in the armor of the OTAs. We simply beleive that they are really going to struggle to stay relevant in the long run when: a) meta's are there to provide cross shopping, b) carriers remain commited to driving shift to internal channels, and c) traditional Travel Agent's provide a much clearer service proposition, for a competitive fee...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment