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Comment by lifeisstillgood | Hacker News Reader

I had always assumed Booking.com had some resale agreement with hotels and airlines - there was always some weird issue where if I called a hotel and asked for a room it was more expensive than booking.com or was not available yet was on booking.com

What gets me is why on Earth any provider would allow this - dealing direct is so much more sane 99% of the time, and a package holiday provider already has a reseller agreement.

Just stomp booking.com into the ground - I simply don’t understand why hotels and airlines don’t do it?

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> Just stomp booking.com into the ground - I simply don’t understand why hotels and airlines don’t do it?

Classic prisoners dillema. The problem is all the hotels, etc. need to be on the same page.

No that’s the search engine trap - which hotel shall I go to is a map not a search page. It’s a marketing exercise - which influencer, which email drop, which word of mouth.

It’s everything that was before Google captured all the advertising revenue there ever was. And reduced it to a list on a black ink on white page

Airlines are in a race to the bottom because there are only 8 bits in the 1970s booking system so there is only a competition on seat price. Chnage that to be able to have different parameters and we compete on other factors

If hotels are just competing for price on booking.com then they are heading to the same trap - beautiful architecture, fantastic location, smiling staff, 1950s movie stars making films in the courtyard- none of it matters if it’s price per room in NYC.

The only way cows stop being treated like cattle is to make sure every human sees them as individuals - it’s a lot of work. But the struggle is worth the abbatoir.

Hotel owners like working with booking, and yes, they have resale agreements with all hotels and other accommodation providers they list on their website.

Booking.com is a travel agent and they do have agreements with most airlines using GDS such as Amadeus or Sabre. It's a symbiotic relationship.

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