A new venture by Amazon might send a seasonal wintery chill down the spines of travel agents. An exclusive report cites hoteliers who say that they have been approached by the online retail giant concerning the creation of accommodation listings on the site. We are told that 'Amazon Travel' will roll out by offering "a curated selection of hotels within a few hours’ drive from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle," from the New Year onwards.
Travel news specialist site Skift says that it knows of at least three hotels that have been approached by Amazon to advertise their accommodation on Amazon Travel. The hotels would provide room types, availability, pricing and relevant photos to the Amazon cloud and pay the online giant 15 per cent for any bookings they get.
Amazon seems to be kicking off this new service by concentrating on the New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle areas and has apparently cherry picked hotels with good Trip Advisor ratings and at least four stars to be included in its online store. The hotels are not part of large chains, so have smaller marketing budgets and might otherwise find they face difficulty rivalling the famous name hospitality chains.
One hotelier said that it decided to sign up for the Amazon deal because "First and foremost, it’s Amazon.com". The company is said to be offering up a "huge customer database to leverage," customers who could see these hotels first and foremost when searching for travel related activities and or products. Skift adds that these independent hotels targeted by Amazon have been "neglected" by online travel industry rivals.
The report says that Amazon doesn't plan to offer flights or other travel products, at least initially. However it could do well selling products such as cameras and travel accessories to would-be travellers. Skift concludes its report by suggesting that Amazon could be "a disruptive force" in Travel if it does things right and this strategy follows China-based Alibaba's recent Alitrip venture.
