International Journal of Marketing and Business Communication

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Managing Distribution Channel Conflict in the Hotel Industry


Affiliations
1 School of Marketing, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia
     

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Online travel service companies allow the consumer to compare shop for hotel rooms. This makes it increasingly difficult for hoteliers to create a balance between revenue goals and channel management. In an effort to capture new markets and new customers, companies may choose to open new sales channels. This can lead to channel conflict- selling the same product in a market through multiple sales channels with different pricing.The paper addresses the problems for hotels that arise due to the lessening of control over pricing of rooms within a brand and the potential transfer of pricing authority to third party online travel service companies, identifying the different types of channel conflict and their causes. Some of the adverse effects of channel conflict are discussed prior to exploring some strategies that hotel companies can employ to manage and potentially overcome this problem.

Keywords

Channel Distribution Management, Channel Conflict, Internet, Hotels, Accommodation.
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  • Managing Distribution Channel Conflict in the Hotel Industry

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Authors

Juliet Tan
School of Marketing, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia
Larry Dwyer
School of Marketing, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia

Abstract


Online travel service companies allow the consumer to compare shop for hotel rooms. This makes it increasingly difficult for hoteliers to create a balance between revenue goals and channel management. In an effort to capture new markets and new customers, companies may choose to open new sales channels. This can lead to channel conflict- selling the same product in a market through multiple sales channels with different pricing.The paper addresses the problems for hotels that arise due to the lessening of control over pricing of rooms within a brand and the potential transfer of pricing authority to third party online travel service companies, identifying the different types of channel conflict and their causes. Some of the adverse effects of channel conflict are discussed prior to exploring some strategies that hotel companies can employ to manage and potentially overcome this problem.

Keywords


Channel Distribution Management, Channel Conflict, Internet, Hotels, Accommodation.

References