Booking Holdings leads in undercutting hotel rates

Why the group’s platforms pose the greatest threat to rate integrity and how hotels can respond

In its June World Parity Monitor report, 123Compare.me reveals that Booking Holdings’ platforms are the most frequent and aggressive undercutters of hotel direct pricing. This analysis highlights which intermediaries pose the highest parity risks and offers strategic guidance to hoteliers.

Key takeaways

• Disruptive intermediaries dominate parity risk: Major OTA brands like Agoda (39.8 % lowest), Priceline, and Booking.com, plus affiliates like Traveluro and Super.com, are most often undercutting direct rates—even exclusively—with a high volume of “lose cases”.
• Three behavioral profiles shape strategy: Intermediaries are classified as disruptive (high risk), reactive (participate in price wars but seldom lead), or passive (low involvement), guiding action priorities.
• Reactive channels amplify price war effects: Mid‑sized OTAs, resellers, and metasearch engines often mirror pricing battles—significant in number but rarely lead disparities alone (e.g. Bluepillow, Destinia, Trivago).
• Passive platforms pose minimal threat: Niche or local resellers rarely publish lower rates and involve few concurrent OTAs, making them lowest priority for monitoring.
• Targeted response actions vary by risk group: Hotels are advised to exclude or renegotiate disruptive intermediaries, monitor reactive ones continuously, and passively observe low‑impact channels.
• Robust KPI framework supports detection: The report uses metrics such as % Lowest, unique lowest cases, lose cases, and average OTAs at lowest price to identify and rank intermediary behaviour.

Get the full story at 123Compare.me