Hilton moves to stop online booking rip-offs

Hotel group Hilton has started a campaign to crack down on online rip-offs that hammer customers and damage its reputation and profits.

As a first step, Hilton has signed a deal with lastminute.com to protect customers which it plans to extend to all its online dealers, distributors and other agents.

The problem, according to Hilton Group CEO David Michaels, is that distributors often promote hotel offers with the highest margin rather than those that are the best deals for customers. He said in a statement: "We will cut ties with any distributor that misrepresents our products in any way."

A Hilton spokesman explained the company objects to sites which only show its most expensive deals to get a higher commission and hide its more economical offers. She said: "They must show the whole of our offering."

The group says it has also suffered from sites which overcharged for rooms, leaving the customers dissatisfied and the hotel embarrassed and looking greedy.

The chain expects online booking to make up 20 per cent of its bookings by 2007. Currently, eight per cent of bookings are online, with seventy-five per cent of those coming from its own site.

Hilton plans to roll out new agreements - like the one with lastminute.com - to all of its 2,000 agents and distributors with the aim of keeping control of its brand. It has set out five objectives for the agreements.

The spokesman explained: "We want sales transparency. We want to ensure that all available Hilton deals are promoted, not just those that bring the highest commission. And we want to stop predatory marketing – people putting Hilton on their sites to attract searches but not offering Hilton rooms."

Those are the two points for the customers. Hilton's other three points are more about its relationship with its dealers. It'd like them to pay on time and it wants sensible commissions. The spokesman said: "Anyone can sell a room in the Caribbean at Christmas. They shouldn't get as much as someone who sells it in the hurricane season." Additionally, distributors which sell hotel rooms alone will not do as well as outfits like lastminute.com, which package the rooms with flights, entertainment and other extras.

Hilton has its own scheme which guarantees that anyone booking through its approved agents or its website is guaranteed the 'best rate'. If the customer finds a better Hilton deal, the group will match the lower rate and hack $50 off the price.

The hotel group also has an arrangement with Travelocity.