This is another of the recurring questions that friends and acquaintances ask me, along with those of the stars, the wifi or why the prices of hotels and airlines change so much. Unfortunately the question does not have a conclusive answer … and the most accurate would be a disheartening “it depends”.
As we already mentioned in the article about the tremendous price fluctuations that occur in accommodation or transportation, the tourist distribution system is one of the most complex that exists, if not the most complex, and prices ultimately depend on the supplier’s strategy (hotel or airline), demand and conditions agreed with the distributor, the travel agency, whether it is online, offline or both at the same time.
1st. The strategy: Given that the supplier also sells through its own channel directly to the end customer, in principle it should not be interested in showing a disparity in prices with its network of distributors, the agencies, due to entering into unbalanced competition (which is not unfair). However, the most common is that the price is the same, and the distributor obtains his margin in the form of commission per sale, which means that the final customer does not increase the price.
However, being such a perishable product and dependent on the internet, the sales strategies are increasingly complex and today you can already find all the existing and future cases. Here you can find the best cheap hotel.
2nd: Demand: The law of supply and demand is a fundamental pillar in pricing strategies. The higher the demand, the higher the price, it’s that simple. If you want to travel on dates when everyone wants to travel, you will pay more. There’s no turning back.
In the vast majority of cases it should not be more expensive to buy from an intermediary as you might think
3: The conditions of the distributor: And this is where things really get complicated. There are online travel agencies, the ones we all know, that have achieved such power (traffic, brand recognition) that in their distribution contracts they require the hotel to maintain price parity. That is, the guaranteed minimum price is the same in your hotel / airline as that of the travel agency. Although the EU is already forcing these agencies to withdraw these clauses because they understand them abusive, in Spain they are still in force and very few hotels dare to skip this obligation. The risk if you get caught is practically unaffordable for independent hotels or small chains without bargaining power.
In conclusion, that in the vast majority of cases it should not be more expensive to buy from an intermediary as one might think, since it is the suppliers who pay the commission to the intermediary, not the end customer. In any case, it is always better to make sure by searching online, or directly in a Meta search engine, that that is its reason for existing.
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