Cornell Study says Hotel Chains, Travel Websites in Race to Offer Lowest Room Rates

Hospitality Net: "The report, Why Customers Shop Around: A Comparison of Hotel Room Rates and Availability across Booking Channels, was co-written by Cornell Professor Gary Thompson and Alexandra Failmezger, master's degree candidate. The study sampled rates and availability for 137 possible booking dates in four different hotel segments, as provided on hotel company websites and three travel websites, as well as in telephone calls to the hotels.
Key findings include:
Travelers face a complex picture of rates and availability of hotel rooms.
Hotel chains have made considerable progress in offering lowest-cost, last-room availability on their own websites, as compared with sites operated by third parties such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity.
Telephoning the hotel is the most accurate channel for determining room availability, but also has the highest cost room rates.
The chains' websites were reasonably good at ensuring availability, while travel websites, notably Expedia, often showed rooms as unavailable at a given rate, when in fact the room was available through other channels. "