Each year, many French people book their holidays on online comparative platforms such as Booking, Expedia or Kayak.
But hoteliers greatly prefer that customers go through their own website or switchboard.
And for good reason, they thus save commissions and the customer often has a preferential rate.
REPORTAGE
At Riesling, a hotel located in Zellenberg in Alsace, as soon as a guest books a room via an online platform, Mélanie Bronte steps in.
Like many hoteliers, hit hard by the coronavirus health crisis, the manager calls the client and suggests that they do not go through the platform to book.
The objective: to reduce costs by not paying commissions to Booking or even Kayak.
>> Find the morning show of the day in replay and podcast here
Booking a stay directly by phone or on a hotel's website, rather than via Booking, Expedia or Kayak is proving to be a win-win practice.
This is advantageous for hoteliers and for vacationers.
"Customers have access to a cheaper rate and flexibility in terms of cancellation. For us, that's fine, we don't pay any commissions," explains Mélanie Bronte.
For each reservation on Booking, the platform pockets 15% of the amount.
"And this commission is not taxed in France", specifies the manager of Riesling.
A way to support hoteliers
Mélanie Bronte's incentives, also visible on her website, are starting to bear fruit: only 13% of reservations at the moment are made via Booking.
For Ludovic, who came to spend three days of vacation with his family, it is also a question of "supporting" the managers of the hotels.
"With the period of Covid and the closures of restaurant establishments for a year, it was quite complicated for them," he laments.
>> Find all the newspapers of the editorial staff of Europe 1 in replay and podcast here
"It's easier to work directly with hoteliers than to go through a reservation platform. Sometimes you pay more," says Ludovic. This holidaymaker thus saved ten euros per night. And he will even be entitled to a discount on his next stay at the hotel.