Aggregator
What is an aggregator?
An aggregator is a proximity-based hotel (motel, Airbnb etc) meta search engine that searches travel websites, hotel-websites, airlines etc. for availability and (the best) rates available. They are in fact the new 'middle man', the new shops, where consumers can compare offers, rates, availability etc. They are, by now, a very important factor in the distribution in hospitality.
They do much more than just 'reproducing' the data; they offer the customers filters and additional information (reviews, maps, cross-products etc). And, they offer the industry possibilities to promote their products by ads, or a higher ranking, a better listing.
The business-model is mostly fee-based, or commission. So each client (or lead) they bring to a hotel, they get rewarded. The professional sites will ask for commissions anywhere from 5 to 15% or even 20% of the sales value. Remember, especially in leisure bookings in hotels, the percentage booked by the hotel's own website is slim, often under 30%. Over 70% of the bookings by leisure guests is done via all kinds off aggregators.
Management tools
In addition to offering a platform, some aggregators, like Trivago, also offer Hotel management tools. Trivago introduces the Rates Insights; a system that gives suppliers insights into the (expected) rates in the industry and especially those of the competitors.
Check the explanation Bookings offers its partners on working with Booking.com.
Read more info on this in Hotel manager, rate insights or The economic impact of OTAs in the EU: summary report.
Best rates
To make the sites more attractive, most aggregators not only ask for a fee paid by the hotel (supplier), but they also ask for special rates of special guarantees. So, many times your hotel will only be listed if you guarantee that the rate offered on their platform is the lowest of all the channels: Even on your own hotel's website, you are not allowed to undercut this rate. This also means, a high risk of dependency on the aggregator. The difference between an OTA (online tour operator) and an aggregator is sometimes hard to tell. The difference between review sites and affiliates in most cases is also irrelevant; most review sites are affiliates etc. As all of this is online, new developments and business models are developed every day.
List of aggregators
Popular aggregators are:
- Expedia.com
- Trivago.com (also over 50% owned by Expedia)
- Hotel-scanner.com
- Momondo.com
- Lastminute.com
Deal sites
There is also a large number of 'deal sites' like Groupon, Social Deal e.g. They have a selected offer only, and do not compare hotels. Still, they also have a market share in the leisure market on hotel bookings of a few percent.
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