Is Expedia's Automatic Rate Match worth it? What hotels need to know

Expedia is currently promoting its Automatic Rate Match (ARM) option, encouraging hotels to activate the tool in exchange for credits to use towards their TravelAds campaigns. While this offer might seem appealing at first glance, hotels shouldn’t take the decision to activate ARM lightly. Expedia’s tool automatically matches or beats prices from other OTAs — and without the ability to choose which OTAs to match or how much to discount, hotels might see their rates cut unnecessarily.

In this article, we’ll look at what Expedia ARM offers, its potential downsides, and how you can use Price Match strategies without hurting your margins and losing control of your pricing strategy.

What is Expedia ARM?

Expedia ARM automatically adjusts your hotel’s rates to match or beat OTA competitors, aiming to keep your Expedia hotel listing at the top of the SERP.

Expedia is encouraging opt-ins to ARM by offering TravelAds credits

The Triptease team has learned that Expedia is reaching out to individual hotels, inviting them to join the ARM program in exchange for Expedia TravelAds credits. At first glance, this might seem like an easy choice. However, it quickly becomes clear that this offer mainly benefits Expedia, not partner hotels.

Pros and cons of enabling Automatic Rate Matching: Boosted visibility on Expedia, but with less control — and lower margins

Upsides:

• Boosted visibility: ARM helps keep your property prominently displayed in Expedia searches.
• Price transparency: It simplifies rate parity across platforms, reducing discrepancies.
• Time savings: Less manual rate management frees up your team’s time.
  
  

Downsides:

• Loss of direct bookings: If Expedia consistently offers the best rates, you risk losing direct bookings.
• Lack of control: You have no insight into which OTAs Expedia is using to compare and match rates. For example, if a wholesale rate appears on an obscure OTA, Expedia ARM could lower your rate by 20-30% below your BAR (Best Available Rate) without your agreement.
• Expedia’s interests over yours: Any incentive to keep guests booking through Expedia can be seen as a strategy to drive more loyalty bookings and prevent guests from booking directly with you.
  
  
  

Auto-match OTA rates with precision discounts using Triptease Price Match

Expedia have invested in this product because they understand the importance of having the lowest possible rate - Triptease’s research has proved the same! But while Expedia’s ARM helps to ensure that Expedia beats out their competitors, it leaves hotels with lower margins - plus that expensive OTA commission. At Triptease, we’ve developed a solution that works in a similar way, but prioritizes hotels, leading to higher margins and direct bookings.

Triptease Price Match auto-matches OTA rates with precision discounts as low as 1% or 2%, ensuring your website offers the best price and driving more travelers to book directly with you.

Key advantages of Triptease Price Match over Expedia ARM:

• Automated price matching that you control: Select which OTAs to price match and the discounts you’d be happy to provide. Triptease applies the minimum possible discount to win booking. You stay in control and OTA undercutting is gone.

• Small discounts, big wins: Data shows that direct prices only need to match or be slightly lower than OTA rates to win the booking, so lose the blanket offers and focus on targeted, precision discounts.

• Self-serve performance data and instant insights: See impressions, clicks, bookings and revenue as well as your price competitiveness vs OTAs and which discounts drive the most impressions and clicks

Expedia's Auto Rate Match is a quick fix that significantly damages your profitability

Expedia ARM might seem like a quick fix for staying competitive, but it comes with potential downsides. For hotels looking to boost direct bookings while maintaining control over their pricing, Triptease’s Price Match is the smarter choice. It helps you compete with all OTAs, including Expedia - and ensures that your best rates are available on your own site, where they belong.

Want to learn more about Triptease Price Match, and how it can boost your pricing strategy? Get in touch with our team of experts today.