Is Expedia’s Last-Minute Deals a Good Deal For Hotels?

Expedia is actively promoting its Last-Minute Deals and brands them as hotelier’s’ opportunity “to target high-converting last-minute audience with same-day deals and last-minute campaigns.”

Last-minute sales in travel are not a new phenomenon. There have been many attempts to find a way to dispose of these empty airline seats, idle rental cars, and empty hotel rooms at any cost.

Why last-minute discounting is bad for hotels?

Many industry experts claim that last-minute sales in hospitality at lower discounted rates are not sustainable as this approach jeopardizes all other distribution channels (hotel mobile site, hotel traditional website, GDS, phone reservations, even OTA distribution). Travel consumers are shopping around like crazy – Google claims that the average hotel booker goes through 48 digital touch points before making a hotel booking. How would they react when they find out that the $200 room they booked a week ago could now be booked for $125 on Expedia Last-Minute…