With more guests checking in, hotel companies are handing online travel agencies fewer rooms to sell, making it more difficult to find discounts.
Room prices on sites such as Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline were on average $31, or 22 percent, lower than rates offered on hotel chain Web sites in the first quarter, according to the industry research firm Rubicon, which analyzes data supplied by Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Starwood, Gaylord and Intercontinental Hotels Group.
Those chains supplied travel Web sites with 9.1 percent of their inventory last quarter, down a little less than 1 percent year over year, but a marked difference from 14 percent in 2009.
Read the full story at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/hotels-handing-fewer-rooms-to-online-travel-agencies/2011/05/05/AF2QSsRG_story.html
