Google in the Travel Market a Threat or an Opportunity

Google in the Travel Market. Threat or an Opportunity?

The Online Travel Market is pretty much sewn up between a relatively small amount of players at the moment. But as with all lucrative market sectors, it appears to be attracting the eyes of potential competitors, the one with the ability to be the most disruptive is Google. Google already has a foray into this market with Hotel Price Ads, (allowing hotels to display their OWN rates and availability from their own website) but there is talk of a 'Captive Demand' system that allows hotels to display their prices behind a password protected system preventing the OTA's from complaining about Rate Parity.

We will sit on the fence for a little while longer, but here are some interesting comments from industry experts;

http://www.travolution.com/articles/2014/09/19/8206/why-googles-designs-on-travel-arent-good-news-for-the-big-otas.html
http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/google_expected_to_roll_out_new_captive_demand_platform_for_hotels