Analysis of hotel reservation prices in Spain depending on the distribution channel

Resumen

The hotel management in the Spanish businesses shows a considerable delay when compared with the rest of Europe. In the context of a project “Smart decision support system for hotel management” ?nanced by the National Plan of Research and Development, that intends to propose an advanced system that would help decision taking in this environment, this article surveys the present situation of the sector in the world and particularly in Spain through a review of the state of the art. Particularly, we develop the functional speci?cations of the system: history, offer and demand, costs, prices, distribution channels, agent’s cooperation, management techniques. The article studies the differences in reservation prices in the hotel sector in Spain depending on the distribution channel. Intermediary agents, such as travel agencies, increase reservation costs up to a 30%, but there are signi?cant variations depending on the product and the channel. The average rate offered by travel agencies is more expensive, in general, than direct reservation. However, surprisingly, if a more detailed research is done, the best rate in any travel agency improves direct reservation in 58% of the cases. This proves the lack of con?dence of providers in their own services, but some hotel chains are counterattacking giving low-prices guarantees. Keywords: hotels, reservation prices, distribution channel.