The hotel distribution landscape is changing at rapid speed. Technological developments create dynamic and real-time transparency and new actors establish themselves on the market. In the center of this are the hotel guests, who have become more digital in their search for hotel rooms. On one hand, it might seem like the modern guest is much more in control these days, thanks to easily available technology. But the reality is that the complexity of the market is making it increasingly difficult for travelers to ensure they are paying the right price for their stay. One way that Scandic Hotels aims to combat this is by starting to phase out static individual prices towards their contracted B2B leisure partners, and gradually move to a more dynamic pricing strategy.
Scandic Hotels is working with a large number of contracted B2B leisure partners which account for less than 10% of our business. We are happy to see that the Nordic countries are receiving increasing amounts of attention from leisure travelers in general, both intra-Nordic & internationally, and suppliers packaging tours into the Nordics contribute significantly to that development.
In a move to secure transparent and competitive pricing structures, Scandic Hotels has taken a position to support the adaptation of the wholesale and leisure segment to today’s rapidly changing marketplace. A more dynamic pricing structure will be implemented for the leisure travel season agreements in 2020. Our ambition is that this will ensure fair competitiveness but also greater transparency. This will also increase availability and secure that our rates are competitive at any given point in time. By further efforts in digitalization and exploring technological opportunities with partners there will also be opportunities to improve sourcing and reservation processes and securing a seamless connectivity with suppliers.
This will not happen overnight, our aim is to gradually phase out static individual prices where possible over the next few years, and we believe that most players on the market will be moving towards a more dynamic pricing strategy. This is the right way towards transparency and fair competition on the market as well as honesty towards the guests.
Jan Lundborg, Chief Commercial Optimization Officer, Scandic.
For more information, please contact:
Peter Bodor, Director of Communication (interim), Scandic Hotels Group
Email: peter.bodor@scandichotels.com
Phone: +46 70 648 70 65