After months of development, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) announced that its online reservation system www.mybesthotelrate.com is now bookable. Guests are now able to search online and book hotel rooms across the country, including both franchised and independent properties. The system offers inventory of more than 40,000 hotels throughout the country, and it is anticipated that the participation will grow as a greater number of AAHOA members register their properties.
AAHOA members are able to register their hotels for free and will receive “preferred” status once they join the system, providing higher placement in search results when customers use the mybesthotelrate.com portal. The purpose of creating the AAHOA-sponsored online reservation system is to decrease commissions paid by AAHOA members to competing online travel agencies (OTAs). Some OTAs charge commissions as high as 25%-30% of a room price, while mybesthotelrate.com’s commission is a much more affordable 8%-10%.
mybesthotelrate.com is able to offer lower commission rates because the revenue is used solely for operating and marketing costs, which differs from the profit motivation of competing OTAs. The portal should provide a benefit to consumers, as hoteliers consider sharing some of the OTA commission savings through lower room rates, and the lower OTA commissions charged by mybesthotelrate.com may create competitive pressure for other OTAs to lower their commissions.