Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Other Local Resorts & Areas => Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum => Topic started by: kaptainkrunchie on March 29, 2017, 17:04:27 PM
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https://www.dailysabah.com/tourism/2017/03/29/turkish-court-suspends-bookingcom-activities-over-unfair-competition
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Booking.com has 15,000 properties in Turkey on its books.
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Means you wont be able to use booking.com in Turkey, but fine outside Turkey. That's about it as it stands.
It's still happily taking bookings for Turkish hotels etc.
Petted lip action by Tursab.
JF
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(http://www.investmentnews.com/storyimage/CI/20130217/REG/302179981/AR/0/nail-in-coffin.jpg)
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Maybe not so bad,when booking hotels for a trip within Turkey two weeks ago got fed up when every advert led back to Booking.com seemed as though they had a monopoly.
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I think it is often better to get in touch with the Hotel yourself, often works out cheaper. We tend to do this nowadays.
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Maybe not so bad,when booking hotels for a trip within Turkey two weeks ago got fed up when every advert led back to Booking.com seemed as though they had a monopoly.
They don't have a monopoly but they are the biggest and own a lot of travel & leisure oriented sites. Priceline (the company's original site), Kayak, Opentable, rentalcar.com, Agoda are some of the better known ones but there is a complex network of minor brands and sites that all ultimately lead back to booking.com.
Expedia is another company with lots of different brands - Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Trivago, CheapTickets and eBookers plus a whole range of lesser known brands and sites.
Basically, the online booking market is controlled by two companies - the only other serious competitor is possibly Opodo which is owned by a consortium of airlines but it appears to perform as well as the airlines themselves, i.e. poorly!
JF
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I didn't have a clue about the "duopoly" - I've used Hotels.com for ages without knowing about the Expedia involvement.
Do all Expedia or Booking. com subsidiaries compete price wise and offer identical awards or bonuses e.g. "book for 10 nights and get one free"?
Being lazy here - I should research it myself......
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A few years ago we booked an Hotel in Amsterdam, where we had stayed before. We booked with Booking.com.
When we arrived we had a small room at the back of the Hotel that was dark and gloomy and had a view of a brick wall. We went to Reception and complained and they showed to a front room with a view, when we returned to reception they looked us up on their computer and found we had stayed there before and offered us a suite with a big discount, it was lovely and we decided to take it. They told us to always ring or email them and not go through an agency as they would always give us a good deal.
This also happened to us in Icmeler, the Hotel Manager told us next time to contact the Hotel directly.
I think this is a good idea, as you can speak to the Hotel and discuss the room you would like. ;)
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Thanks for the info John,do you know if there are any Turkish based booking companies?
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Sorry George, not that I know of - maybe try Google? Most folks I know in Istanbul use (or did use) booking.com
JF
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Tatil Budur, Tatil Sepeti, tatil.com, etstur, tatil vitrini
We just used Tatil Budur to book our Greek Island trip.
By sending evidence of our residency we saved 140€ each compared to Celestyals English page.
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk
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Last year I booked our hotel in Portugal with lowcostholidays. Like other companies they book rooms up front (in this case in €) and then don't settle the bill (in this case by changing their £s into €s) until just before you go. You know the story ... referendum, £ drops 10% in one day against € and stays down, cost of rooms goes up 10% in £s, lowcostholidays can't pay and goes bankrupt, hotel booking cancelled. Booking direct with hotel all you have to worry about is the hotel going bankrupt not the vagaries of international currency fluctuation.
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Not the biggest fan of booking.com since they let us down on NYE. Also since we found out that they charge the hotel/B&B 17%.
Always worth looking at booking direct or ringing to see if they can offer a discount. Mention booking.com and they often either discount or add something extra.
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Booking. com's base commission is 15%. Smaller, independent establishments can end up paying up to 30% while the big chains, Hilton et al, pay a negotiated rate which I've been told is a lot less than 15%.
If you increase (voluntarily) their commission, you get more prominence on the site and appear higher up the page(s).
JF
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I have found going direct to hotels in Turkey is often more expensive than the booking websites. I have also enquired direct and been told to book via the websites, again more than once.
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Shows how different the hotels are in Turkey. The one in Icmeler told us they would always beat booking.com.
Also, when my son was married, a wedding guest coming from Malta, contacted the Oykun by phone and got a great cheap deal.
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If hotels will always beat the booking sites, why then bother to allow their hotels to be listed on them. I use booking.com all the time and hotels have never been cheaper when I've looked at their web prices. One hotel we use for an occasonal weekend away, will say they will price match, but never has been cheaper.
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Stayed AI for 3 nights in Antalya recently, 517tl total, booked with Booking.com. Price at reception 478tl per night.
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I don't think Hotel will always beat the booking price, but does no harm to check, as they are on booking sites to get publicity and obviously, they have to pay the booking sites commission on bookings.
We stayed in an Hotel in Istanbul, we paid cash got 10% off the price and we did check it on on booking sites, but it as cheaper to book directly. Before we left, they told us always to contact them for a price if we were coming back.
We have just dealt directly for a place next New Year, again cheaper by contacting the accommodation directly.
I can only speak as we have found.
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We were staying at Jiva Beach before and liked it sooo much we wanted to book an extra night so i looked on booking.com to see how much then went to reception to ask about booking another night, the hotel was more expensive then booking.com same thing happened at the Tirayki ( now blueberry) both times I made the extra nights booking via booking.com...
I have just heard back from Jiva re our April booking as made that ages ago with booking.com and all is fine Jiva said as did I think John that this court thing is for Turkish customers only...
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I was staying in Antalya for 3 nights liked the hotel so much we asked to stay another 2 nights at reception they gave us a price which was dearer than their web site price and booking.com after a discussion with the manager he let us stay for the same price as the web site witch was a saving of £30 per night :D
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I have checked into a hotel in London with someone who thought it had also been booked there but hadn't. The rate quoted was way more than I paid online but they would not budge.
So I got my laptop out on their reception desk, using their wifi, and booked online. Turned my laptop round to show the receptionist the booking confirmation and she checked him in as if he'd just that minute walked in.
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Back to the original question, it means that, at the mom, you cannot book any Turkish hotel thro Booking.com from Turkey. A message to that effect comes up if you try
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We always use Sunshine.co.uk. find them very good and cheaper than most when we book hotels in Turkey.
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Looks like Tripadvisor is next on the hit list.
HDN (http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-tourism-association-set-to-warn-other-websites-including-tripadvisor-upon-bookingcom-ruling.aspx?PageID=238&NID=111484&NewsCatID=345)
JF
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I wonder just how many organisations will be cited before they discover that there is competition out there?
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Trivago also mentioned in that article
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I wonder just how many organisations will be cited before they discover that there is competition out there?
All of the ones that aren't Turkish companies
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Resently booked my wife and four friends into an apartment complex in Liverpool. Checked booking.com then checked the direct website. It worked out cheaper to book direct.
Also booked the wife and her mum into a hotel in Torquay. Direct was same price but included a full English.
Always worth a phone call.
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Back to the topic.
I wonder what would happen if bookin.con decided not to offer holidays to Turkey on any of their non Turkish sites?
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Trivago also mentioned in that article
Which is part of the Expedia group, who no doubt will be targeted the same as they're considering doing to Tripadvisor.
I think the crux of this conflict between TURSAB and the online booking portals boils down to the fact that domestic travel agents cant get the same deals from hotels (and hotel groups) that the online companies can. In addition, the hoteliers would much prefer to deal with companies that dont charge the level of commission and fees the online companies levy on bookings.
For the hotel industry its a difficult one - on one hand they get international exposure, but get less per room. On the other hand, if they dealt with the more traditional agents (in Turkey) then they'd get higher room rates, but less international exposure and ultimately less trade.
Given the choice, I think a lot of hotel owners might apply the first law of Turkonomics, less trade... higher prices.
The travel agency sector (in their mind) just want a level playing field. Sorry, that's not going to happen. The same thing that's happened to the traditional travel agent all over the world will happen in Turkey unless the change their business model.
I've been hearing more and more recently about some serious lobbying from several of the major hotel operators within Turkey, mainly as a result of the disastrous season last year - someone mentioned to me yesterday that it was very similar to the campaign carried out by the Catalan tourist body in Barcelona a few years ago. The difference being that it was done at a very high level and (the lobbying) received very little publicity. If memory serves correctly, some of those major operators are very close to the wee fella and his family.
It'll be interesting to see where this ends up, given that blocking foreign owned online booking portals who don't toe the TURSAB line will ultimately damage an industry thats currently on its knees.
JF
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It's not just that the domestic booking companies can't get the rates the big multinational ones can - there's also the dubious practice of offering great rates, then pointing out these prices are not available to Turkish people.
Now that one I can sympathise with.
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Runs deeper than that mate. A close friend from the 'Bul is the tech savvy half of a couple and she's the one that does the bookings for holidays etc - several times over the past few years they've turned up to hotels or resorts in Turkey and when they see her partner is Turkish the attitude is less than welcoming. She's had a few rammies with snotty hotel staff and on at least one occasion they actually got turned away. He's a pretty passive guy so its always her that has the rows!
JF
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Well at least the shoebox industry is one that must be benefitting from all the "lobbying". ;)
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Hoteliers from Turkey’s touristic Aegean region have voiced their anger against a recent court decision against Booking.com, blasting a leading sector association that filed a case against the online reservation portal over competition concerns.
An Istanbul court on March 29 ordered the suspension of the activities of Booking.com in Turkey, citing accusations of unfair competition, following a lawsuit filed by the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB).
The website can still be used from foreign countries to make reservations for Turkish hotels.
The head of the Aegean Touristic Hoteliers Association, Mehmet işler, accused TÜRSAB of “harming Turkey’s tourism” with the move.
“Booking.com offered our tourism players across the country a chance to introduce and market themselves in a fair and equal manner. Can there be a fairer move than this? The website did not create unfair competition; on the contrary, it offered equal opportunities,” said işler in a press meeting on April 3, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.
Full article (http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/aegean-hoteliers-voice-anger-against-bookingcom-decision.aspx?pageID=238&nID=111551&NewsCatID=349)
JF