According to RateGain’s latest report on hotel rate parity trends in Middle East, in this holiday season, travellers would find cheaper rates and deals on OTA sites instead of hotel brand sites. Similar on the lines of their last week’s report on Europe, hotels in Middle East are offering cheaper rates on OTAs than on their own website.

In 3 star Category – Overall rate parity is just 3%. Except in Sharjah where 55% hotels are cheaper on their own websites, OTAs have better rates in cities like Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and even Dubai. On an average 72% of hotels in these cities are cheaper on OTA sites and 26% hotels have cheaper rates on their brand sites.

In 4 star Category – Overall rate parity is just 1%. 67% of hotels in these cities are cheaper on OTA sites and 32% are cheaper on their brand sites. Some of the main cities where hotels in majority are cheaper on OTA sites are Sharjah, Dubai, Kuwait and Istanbul. Doha, being an exception in this category, has a balanced ratio of hotels cheaper on OTA sites vs. Cheaper on brand sites.

In 5 star Category – There is no rate parity at all. On an average 63% of hotels are cheaper on brand sites. In Sharjah, for the time period between December and February, 100% i.e. almost every hotel is cheaper on OTA sites. More than 70% of the hotels in Dubai and Doha are placed cheaper on OTA sites instead of their brand sites. However, hotels in cities like Amman, Kuwait, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi are trying their best to offer best rates on their websites to generate more online bookings sales. On an average between 40-50% of the hotels have cheaper rates on their websites.

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