:: Travel Weekly - The National Newspaper of the Travel Industry ::Quote" Asked whether Expedia and Hotels.com will be selling (IHG ) franchisees’ rooms in 2005 and 2006, Young said, “Possibly, but it will be a small number of hotels and at minimum contract conditions, which in most cases will mean a small allocation of rooms and a high minimum rate.”
IHG last month certified Travelocity and ended its relationship with Expedia and Hotels.com over issues including technical interfaces, the disclosure of taxes and fees, displays of “sold out” inventory and trademarks.
An Expedia spokesman said IHG’s new standard isn’t about consumer-protection issues, as IHG has said, but financial issues and margins, and which online player “would take a weaker deal...
We can’t just void the contracts overnight,” McArthur said. “We don’t want to get into a situation with hotel owners ABC, where we get sued for breaching our contract with them.”
McArthur argued that Expedia doesn’t have much flexibility in breaking out taxes and fees, a key IHG demand, on Expedia.com.
“We have contracts with major chains that prohibit breaking out taxes and fees because it’s exposing the cost of goods,” said McArthur.
Expedia officials said the loss of InterContinental inventory will not make a “material” dent in the rooms available on its site.“City by city, where it used to be an IHG brand promoted, you might see another brand,” McArthur said.
InterContinental, meanwhile, is moving on. Young said, “IHG is not in negotiations with Expedia, and we don’t expect to be for some time.” He added that IHG is in talks with “hundreds of other online distributors.”
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