Maybe the regulatory restrictions are starting to get through, or something else - data-crunching has shown that 53% of rates are now cheaper on hotel websites than intermediaries.
Checks on over 200 million price comparisons between supplier-direct and intermediaries for hotels around the world has found the hotel website is starting to turn things around, at least in terms of displayed rates.
There is no indication in the analysis from Triptease as to how many hotel guests are actually noticing the trend and, therefore, altering their booking behaviour.
But it does show that the so-called rate parity issue is possibly having an impact, as regulators impose restrictions on clauses which in some cases until now have barred a hotel from displaying a lower rate than on an OTA partner.
OTAs in this case are inevitably going to be Expedia or Booking.com, the pair of which are collectively predicted to be taking four out of five bookings via intermediaries in Europe.
Equally, it could also mean that OTAs have decided that their own customer volumes are so high that losing a little ground back to the supplier is not worth getting troubled over.
Still, data over the last nine months shows that OTAs have been under-cutting hotels less frequently than in the past, at just 14% of the 200 million price comparisons (down from 21%).
Rate parity is maintained, Triptease says from the analysis, on 32% of occasions (up from 27%).
The company points out that when OTAs are cheaper than a hotel's website the difference is by $1 or £1, which is often due to currency exchange rates.
In late-2015, Triptease ran into a spot of bother after the Priceline Group-owned Booking.com threatened hotels using Triptease's widget (a system that shows comparable rates from OTAs and direct).
NB:Hotel booking laptop image via BigStock.