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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (71776)	12/19/2022 11:33:11 AM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78744

"it's not good for business (it's just a commission taker)" You perhaps are more upset about BKNG, etc. than objective? What BKNG is doing is good for BKNG. That, as a stockholder, is what I care about. Not that it's raking too much from the hotels or house-renters. Or that consumers should and would save more if there were more competition. "If travelers know that a harder to find OTA has better prices, they will make the extra effort and find the harder to find OTA." That seems to be a big "if", and doesn't seem to be supported by facts that there are OTA's with better prices,consistently. Here's a link I found to the best hotel booking sites: tripsavvy.com. They rate BKNG best overall. They may be right or not. You will have your opinion, and I will have mine. I will bet BKNG does well over the next five years. I'm looking to add more to my few shares if stock drops a bit more.

To: Elroy who wrote (71776)	12/19/2022 1:03:58 PM
From: A1111	Respond to of 78744

If i want to book three nights in the New York Hilton what exactly is booking.com's moat compared to JoeBlowHotel.com? If JoeBlowHotel.com is 10% less for the same room, I will use it instead of booking.com. Booking.com is a marketplace. If price is a factor consumers will apply a price filter on Booking.com's vast choice of hotels. IMO, travellers aren't stuck on one hotel then search the web for a cheaper hotel, so I don't agree on the simple model. If travelers know that a harder to find OTA has better prices, they will make the extra effort and find the harder to find OTA. I think you're really underestimated their SEO capabilities and consumerism. I did three searches: "hotels in berlin", "hotels near the Eiffel Tower", and "hotels near the Niagara Falls", Booking.com is on the top line. 99% of travellers search these quick phrases if not already using Booking.com. Now for the hotel owners. How do they benefit? Posting on Booking.com is free and they only pay commission if consumers pay for their hotel. So starting off marketing is free. They still make money after commission (unless they price for a loss) for no risk. They get access to to Booking.com's SEO and large consumer traffic that JoeBlowHotel.com doesn't have. Why advertise on JoeBlowHotel.com's for lower commission if no one sees the advertisement? Booking.com is not doing anything special, they are just hiding the commissions from the consumer, and then marketing themselves into the monopoly number one position. This can be said about Fiverr and Ebay. It's their networking effects which gives their competitive advantage.