Explaining How Online Travel Agencies can Help or Hurt your Travel Experiences

It’s a question that hotel guests are not always asking when booking accommodation. The Online Travel Agent (OTA) has made booking a hotel convenient, but often confusing to the consumer. It’s convenient because travelers can simply enter a key phrase into a search engine and a list if options are quickly available. It’s confusing because travelers often do not realize that they are NOT dealing with the hotel directly. Additionally, when the hotel guest asks “Are you the <insert hotel name>?” on the phone, the response is “Yes”. Some OTAs are specifically trained to make an inquiring mind feel like they are talking to the hotel directly. [Read more…]