9 years
I haven't used expedia or wotif yet.
Can you explain more their unique payment cards and how this works?
Also do you think they created this new 12% option as people didn't sign up to the new 15% contract.
Wotif/Expedia Commissions
Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories
Hi all,
I don't know how many of you use Wotif, who have now merged with Expedia.
Wotif originally had a 12% commission rate, which I was informed would increase to 15% due to the merger with Expedia.
I declined to sign up to this new contracted commission rate despite them calling me back many times. 15% is too much in my opinion.
I've just received another call from them to let me know that they are now offering a second commission model, with a rate of 12%.
With this model you will no longer receive the unique payment cards as previously (great system, never any issues with charging no-shows) and it will work along the same lines as booking.com bookings (they send through guest credit card details, meaning you may have issues charging no shows and cancellations due to declining cards.
I'm interested to know if anyone else uses Wotif/Expedia and if you signed up for the 15% commission rate? If so, have you also been offered the new 12% commission rate? Or are you now stuck with the 15% rate?
I'm still half tempted to ditch Wotif/Expedia anyway, but we do get quite a few bookings for private rooms through them and since we will also be displayed on Expedia's sites, it increases our reach considerably, making the 12% offer tempting.
I haven't received the contract yet, so hopefully there is no hidden nastiness in there, but I'll be examining it thoroughly...
- Comments
9 years
Hi John,
The unique payment cards work as follows:
- Customer books and pays in full to Wotif/Expedia.
- When their booking confirmation comes through to you, rather than the guest's credit card details being included, there is a unique payment card which has funds on it for a certain period of time.
- When the guest checks in, you charge the full amount (minus commission) to the unique payment card.
It's a really simple system and so easy to use, Agoda also use the same system.
What's great about it is that with no-shows/cancellations you are guaranteed to actually get your no-show charge. I don't know how it is with you, but here we get a lot of no-shows where we can't charge the card due to it declining, whether because of insufficient funds or the card being cancelled etc.
The other advantage is that you get your money straight away, rather than having to invoice them monthly and wait for the payment to come in (this is what Wotif used to do).
That being said I think 15% is too much to opt for this.
Yes, I do think they are offering this option as some people didn't sign up to the 15% contract, since when they first spoke to me this option was also going to be charged at 15% commission (I feel sorry for those who signed up for this then, as I somehow doubt they will be able to swap to the 12% model now).
It wouldn't surprise me if they had this 12% option as a backup plan the whole time though...
9 years
That sounds like a great system.
I just guess many customers wouldn't want to pay all up front.
I find Airbnb great for that as well as they hold the customers money and then transfer to your bank account so you don't have to be dealing with cards.
It is amazing that still there is so much access to credit card information of customers has with employees accessing the backend of OTA's it wouldn't be too difficult for fraud to happen.
Thankfully I could count the number of no-shows on one hand i have had but I think in cities and towns it would be bigger than with me in the countryside.
9 years
"I just guess many customers wouldn't want to pay all up front."
John, it doesn't matter really as the charge is connected with the cancellation policy. If the guest decide to cancel before arrival, then Expedia will refund them back. It does't really affect the number of bookings (but of course some things are inside the mind of the guests). :)
9 years
I actually find some people prefer to pay up front, because they then don't have to worry about turning up without money!
It's a good system in my opinion.
I've just signed up to the 12% contract, mainly because we sell a lot of private rooms through these guys. I really don't like signing up for commissions, but luckily our push for more direct bookings is working!
I've just done an analysis on our commissions for YTD and so far our commissions paid out are down 38.4% compared to the same period last year - pretty massive change! To be fair, this year is much quieter than last year, but even when breaking down online vs offline bookings, our offline (as in direct, phone, email, walkins etc) revenue is up by 51%!
8 years
Hello all,
If you are interested in knowing more about the various OTAs and the other online partners you can integrate to your online distribution strategy, have look at this guide of suppliers :)
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