OFT opens comment on hotel OTA commitments
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The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has asked the industry to comment on new commitments it is looking to settle for online booking commitments for hotels.
The OFT is proposing that hotels will be allowed to offer discounts in the same manner as online travel agents and will apply to bookings made by European Economic Area residents for rooms in UK hotels, rather than to bookings made by UK residents for rooms in Europe.
It comes after the OFT started a probe after allegations that Booking.com and Expedia entered separate agreements with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) which restricted the discounts that other agents could offer.
The OFT raised competition concerns and has been working with the involved parties to address the commitments, which would apply for two years.
“The OFT considers that these revised commitments should inject a meaningful degree of price competition into the online offering of hotel bookings,” said Ann Pope, senior director in the OFT’s services, infrastructure and public markets group. “We would now like to hear the views of interested third parties, in particular on the amendments being proposed.”
Interested parties have until 17 January 2014 to submit their views.
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