Earlier today we reported that the American Hotel & Lodging Association had released a study saying that 15 million online bookings in the US have been affected by “deceptive rogue affiliates” -- defined as online travel agency affiliate members that masquerade as direct hotel booking sites.
Immediately, the lobbying group for online travel agencies, the Travel Technology Association (TTA), contacted Tnooz to remind us about its own survey, which found that nearly 70% of Americans see booking on an online travel platform as "convenient and safe."
The storyline fueling this research is hardly a surprise: TTA is backed by Expedia, Priceline, Sabre, Amadeus, Travelport, Skyscanner, Airbnb, HomeAway, TripAdvisor, and other travel brands, who have a vested interest in the results that were found -- just as we noted that AH&LA had a vested interest in its own study.
A spokesperson for the OTAs' lobbying group emailed:
"The travelers who book hundreds of millions of hotel room nights each year through online travel companies are testament that booking hotel rooms via third-party sites is safe, convenient, and effective...
"Our survey — which looks at a sample size twice as large as AH&LA’s — refutes the large chain hotel association’s claim that consumers don’t trust the third-party distribution channel. In fact, nearly 7 in 10 Americans surveyed see booking on online travel company platforms as convenient and safe."
“It’s unfortunate that AH&LA has decided to use these types of fear tactics in the blatant attempt to scare travelers into booking direct."
So there!
The spokesperson added:
“An important question that AH&LA should be answering, and is not, is: where is the record of complaint against third-party booking sites?
Tnooz reached out to a spokesperson for AH&LA for clarity on the figure, who emailed back:
"In 2013, AH&LA, in consultation with our hotel distribution experts, examined this issue very closely with data that was available and determined that, very conservatively, approximately one percent of the total online travel agency bookings were deceptive, which amounted to about $2.5 million in bad bookings.
Since that time, a poll we conducted – which Tnooz cited – showed that to be much higher, at 6 percent."
So there!
For those judging statistical methodology, here are the comparisons:
"The TTA's study was conducted online between September 25 and 27, among a cross section of 2,015 adults age 18 and over and was conducted online by SurveyMonkey. The data for this survey was weighted for age, gender, household income, region, and device type using U.S. Census Bureau data to reflect the demographic composition of the United States, with a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points with a confidence rate of 95%."
"AL&HA's survey was done by GFK research of 1,000 Americans -- some 6% of whom said they had booked hotels with an affiliate site but were under the impression that it was the hotel’s website. ... The AL&HA survey used an online probability-based panel designed to be representative of the US general population, not just the online population. The study consisted of 1,017 interviews conducted between July 10-12, 2015 among adults aged 18+. The margin of error is +/-3 percentage points. GfK is the fourth largest market research firm in the world."
EARLIER: Hotel group claims millions of online bookings every year are scams