THE IMPACT OF HOTEL AND ONLINE TRAVEL AGENT COLLABORATION ON PROFIT MARGIN FOR THE SUMMIT SILIWANGI HOTEL

• Main Author: Pratama Candra, Bryan
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/64382
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

This new era of business, a shift to digitalization in a must for all industry sectors, hospitality is one of them. Nowadays, collaboration between online travel agent to develop and increase more value for small-non-franchise properties. These hotels with no strong branding and system are considered having a fewer value for potential customer who are unfamiliar with the property. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of collaborating with online travel agent. Properties considered as hotel is the one that is managed commercially. To complete this research, The Summit Silliwangi Hotel was chosen to be the subject of the study. Rated with three stars and categorized as business hotel, the subject of this research is considered as a match to collaborate with B2B online travel agent who are not only to market the property digitally, but also to put their branding with the property in attempt to add more branding value and standardized service and amenities exposure for the properties’ potential customer. To complete this research, in depth interview analyzed with qualitative method with also compared with secondary data such as the hotel’s financial report. As the result, online travel agent’s brand image, promotion, and amenities are considered as a huge impact in delivering more value to property’s income in terms of the occupancy room and net profit. Brand image trigger the intention of buying because of the good quality provided in other properties, promotion such as discounts and cash backs are main competitive advantage for price competition between hotels in the same classification, and amenities in standardized system brought a secure feeling for potential customers to make purchase. Those three factors are acknowledged by all respondents divided to three categories (Expert Customers, Hotel Managers, and Online Travel Agent Managements). The biggest effects on the outcome are located in hotel’s occupancy room and profit margin. Since occupancy room is the main source of income, the occupancy room was proven increased with the collaboration with online travel agent. Even the profit margin was proven decreasing, the rise in occupancy room also affected the rise of net profit because of the form of quantity selling.