In recent news it was rumored that Amazon is looking to expand their travel booking services starting with independent hotels and inns.
“Amazon was planning to introduce a travel service next year that would enable hoteliers to load their rooms and rates onto an Amazon extranet in return for a 15% commission on prepaid bookings.” Skift
This could be huge for independent hotel owners if Amazon does it right. With such a large audience to take advantage of, hotel owners are very interested in what this new relationship could mean for their businesses.
“According to one of the hoteliers Skift spoke with, Amazon intends to use the merchant model that Expedia and Hotels.com used as a foundation for growth, but Amazon would entice hotels to sign up by taking a considerably lower margin, around 15%. Expedia’s usual is 25%.” Skift
A 10% difference in commission costs for independent hotels will give Amazon a big jump on competitors like Expedia right out of the gate. And if hotel owners can book more rooms while saving money it could be a no-brainer to take advantage of in 2015.
The only downside it seems is the timeline for payouts from Amazon, which isn’t as speedy as getting paid immediately by guests.
We’ll have to wait and see how impressive the user experience is from a customer’s perspective. Since Amazon isn’t known for travel currently it could be a change that takes time to start disrupting the industry.
Keep your eyes peeled for more news from Amazon in 2015. Who knows, you might just start filling more rooms through Amazon instead of Booking.com or Expedia as early as next year.
