It's tough to be an online travel agency these days.
So many booking fee cuts and a plethora of rate guarantees to navigate.
Thus, Orbitz, feeling a pinch from the Travelocity Price and Service Guarantee, basically matched its terms by extending the Orbitz Low Price Guarantee to the gamut of travel websites.
In other words, when consumers find a lower room rate on OneTravel.com, for instance, and other travel websites [other than bidding/distressed inventory websites] for the same itinerary as they booked on Orbitz.com, they can submit a claim and Orbitz will refund the difference, plus a $50 discount on a future booking.
Previously, Orbitz guaranteed low prices on hotel bookings only when its customers found a lower rate on Orbitz.com prior to the stay. In these cases, Orbitz automatically refunds the difference and will continue to do so with no claim submission required.
With the Travelocity guarantee, there is no automatic refund under any circumstance. Consumers must submit claims whether they found a lower room rate on Travelocity.com itself or any other hotel-booking website.
There are some other differences between the Travelocity and Orbitz programs, but basically they mirror each other.
Orbitz heaped scorn on the Travelocity program when the Roaming Gnome crowd unveiled it in late October, but now Orbitz has been forced to implement a similar program when it comes to rate guarantees.
That's because Orbitz, with its Total Price Assurance and other programs, seeks to market itself as the place to book hotels.
Like I said, it's tough to be an OTA these days.