Another nail in the parity coffin, perhaps, following an Australian regulator's move to restrict rate contracts by Booking.com and Expedia.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says, following an investigation, both online travel agencies have agreed to amend their price and availability parity clauses in their terms with hoteliers in the country.
The development will outlaw any guarantees the pair impose on properties to provide them with the lowest rate - an issue which the ACCC says "prevents competitors and consumers from negotiating better deals directly with the provider".
A statement from the watchdog's chairman, Rod Sims, says:
"Australian accommodation providers will now be able to tailor their offers to better meet the needs of their customers and their own businesses requirements.
"They will now be able to offer lower rates through telephone bookings and walk-ins, offer special rates and deals to customer loyalty groups, in addition to offering deals via Expedia and Booking.com."
But not everyone is happy.
The Accommodation Association of Australia, in a strongly worded response, claims the "offshore global bohemoths" will still be able to ensure travellers pay up to 20% more for a room because of "secret commissions".
The AAA argues that its biggest concern is that hoteliers are still prevented from advertising a lower room rate on their own websites than what the OTAs display.
The organisation's CEO, Richard Munro, says:
"Effectively, this means the online travel agencies can still dictate - from their offshore headquarters - to small motels in regional Australia what price they can charge for providing a service, when many of these accommodation businesses are struggling to be profitable.
"With their dominant market share, the two major offshore online travel agencies are squeezing Australian accommodation businesses and Australian consumers will ultimately be the losers through higher prices or worse still, less choice because smaller operators in regional areas could be forced out of business."
In a statement, an Expedia official says it has worked closely with the ACCC and the changes are effective for its portfolio of brands, including domestic player Wotif from 1 September 2016.
The official adds:
"While Expedia maintains that its current rate, conditions and availability parity clauses are lawful and in compliance with competition law, Expedia considers that today’s announcement is a positive step that addresses the ACCC’s concerns relating to such clauses and ensures that Expedia can continue to invest in technological innovation and maintaining a first class consumer experience on its sites, by offering consumers transparency, value and choice together with a great booking experience.
"We’ve always believed that travellers have the right to feel confident in the choice, quality and price for the travel they book.
"That’s the role we, and many other online travel sites, have played in the global travel market for nearly 20 years, helping hundreds of thousands of hoteliers who want to compete with each other for consumers’ business and helping consumers discover these hotels quickly and efficiently."
Booking.com says the agreement will retain "narrow MFNs" (Most Favoured Nation) with accommodation providers for prices and booking conditions.
"We remain convinced that these “narrow MFN” commitments, which give accommodation partners freedom to charge different prices across different channels, assuming they offer the same rate to Booking.com as they do on their own online channel, are contributing to greater market transparency and healthy competition between online booking portals, supporting global tourism and keeping prices low for consumers."
These MFN clauses are in line with other commitments it has made in a number of European countries, following similar rulings, it says.
An official continues:
"We want all of our accommodation partners around the world to benefit equally from our recent parity commitments, and trust that these changes are setting the tone for an industry-wide solution."
NB:Sydney image via Pixabay.