by Sean O'Neill, Tnooz
In 2009, Chris Anderson, an associate professor at Cornell University, published a study about Expedia and hotels that was a sensation in the industry. When four hotels in the JHM Hotels US chain appeared on the first page of destination results of Expedia, the giant online travel agency (OTA), they saw a rise in reservations through their own websites.
The hotels had between a 7.5% and 26% uplift in direct bookings as part of a so-called “billboard effect” — as if merely appearing on Expedia acted as a billboard for the properties in general. In April 2011, Anderson published a larger study for Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research that found the same effect.
Does the Expedia billboard effect still exist for hotels?
