Expedia ‘happy to cooperate’ with ACCC as questionaire targets OTA market competition concerns
The Accommodation Association is keen to see as many operators as possible provide their views through a questionnaire which has been launched by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Expedia sent the following statement to accomnews: “The Expedia group is aware of the consultation and is happy to cooperate with the ACCC during its enquiries.
“Expedia has always believed that travellers have the right to feel confident in the choice, quality and price of 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 accommodation providers, including in particular small accommodation providers who want to compete with each other for consumers’ business and helping consumers discover these properties quickly and efficiently.
“The result has been a marketplace where accommodation providers gain global exposure to consumers who find value and efficiency in shopping for travel through our world class travel brands and our significant investments in marketing and technology.”
“The Accommodation Association has been advocating for the ACCC to re-examine the level of competition in the online travel agency market for some time, therefore the Association is pleased that the ACCC is currently consulting with operators in our industry on this issue,” said the Association’s Chief Executive Officer, Richard Munro.
“Concerns about a lack of competition in the online travel agency market were raised at the time of Expedia’s takeover of Wotif.com last year.
“These were amplified when operators were recently notified that the other dominant player in the market, Priceline (Booking.com), would increase the commission rate that it charges accommodation operators from 12 per cent to 15 per cent.
“With the dominant collective market share that the two leading players have among Australian operators, our industry is facing a similar scenario to the dominance that the two major supermarket chains have in Australia’s retail sector.”
On behalf of operators, the Accommodation Association intends to make a submission to the ACCC which highlights these important competition policy issues.
“It’s vital that the voices of individual operators of accommodation businesses are heard in this debate, which is why the Accommodation Association would like to see them complete the questionnaire,” Mr Munro said.
“The more that the two leading players are able to dominate the online travel agency market, the more that margins in our industry will be squeezed.”
The questionnaire can be accessed on the ACCC’s website.
AccomNews is not affiliated with any government agency, body or political party. We are an independently owned, family-operated magazine.
