Hotelchamp.
The startup Hotelchamp was created to help hotels in attracting customers on their own, without OTAs (online travel agents) such as Booking.com, Hotellook and others. Hoteliers have mixed feelings about OTAs. On the one hand, they are satisfied with a large audience. On the other hand, they don’t like that OTAs usually take more than 20% of the cost of booking. Hotel profits are falling significantly, as many customers believe that OTAs sell rooms at the best prices.
In our opinion, the idea of Hotelchamp is quite interesting and aligned with our ideas. We have long been urging hoteliers to learn online marketing, improve their online presence and increase the number of direct bookings. We even made free lessons on the basics of Internet marketing, available on our website . Hotelchamp does not offer hoteliers to study. The project creators offer a ready solution based on the technologies they developed. Of course it costs money. And hoteliers need to think carefully – which is more profitable: improve their knowledge, buy ready-made solutions, or continue to give a slice of their profits to OTAs.
On the other hand, increased competition in the industry such as hotel reservations is welcome, as it leads to improved quality, lower prices and, ultimately, development of digital technologies for smart tourism.