Expedia is pulling no punches after American Airlines decided to change the way it conducts business online. Not liking several of the changes the airline has implemented, Expedia has made it harder to find flights on its site, according to Business Insider.
The trouble began earlier this year when American's contract with rival online travel aggregator Orbitz expired. The airline decided to try something new with its ticket distribution by cutting out the middleman to get direct access to the customer in order to make additional pitches for other services such as car rentals and hotels. This, of course, is a direct threat to Orbitz’s and Expedia’s online business model.
The Google Example
None of this is surprising – the online travel industry is a very profitable one, and any proposed change to its practices is sure to meet with fierce resistance. One only has to look at the battle brewing between the online travel industry and Google, which is seeking to acquire ITA Software for $700 million.
ITA Software provides airline travel software used by most major airlines and travel sites such as Hotwire, Kayak, Orbitz and Microsoft's Bing. If Google acquires it, these companies say, Google would be able to manipulate and dominate the online air travel market. They argue that not only does ITA provides the technology behind 65% of all carrier-direct online flight searches in the U.S., Google is already source of more than 30% of all search engine traffic to online travel sites.
Travel Search is Misunderstood
The irony is that the drivers behind online search in the travel industry appears to be misunderstood at a fundamental level, according to a recent survey from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research.
It found that while many trips start with information gathered from internet search engines and social media sites, two "old-fashioned" information sources are still heavily used by would-be hotel guests.
Based on responses of 2,830 recent travelers, the social media study found that the information source most frequently used by business travelers is their company's hotel recommendations, while the top source for leisure travelers by far is the recommendations of family and friends.
In the planning and information-gathering stages of the trip, most travelers cast a fairly wide net. This early stage is where travelers consult social media and search engines, in addition to more traditional channels. When it's time to book, the survey found travelers most frequently used hotel websites and online travel agents.
