Ctrip announced that it has signed exclusive distribution agreements with more than a thousand hotels, among them Lakeview Xuanwu Hotel Nanjing and Shanghai Narada Boutique Hotel. The dominant OTA in China also said that it will closely cooperate with its hotelier partners on marketing channels and big data applications in the future. 

ChinaTravelNews learned that the hotels that have signed the agreements with Ctrip are currently top ranking on the search results of the booking aggregator’s intra-city listings. These hotels are also listed on the OTAs in which Ctrip holds a stake, such as eLong, Qunar, Tongcheng Tourism and Tuniu, as well as on international OTA channels such as Booking.com and Agoda.    

However, these hotels are not available on domestic OTA platforms such as Alitrip and Meituan.com, though they are still listed on Meituan’s consolidated partner Dianping.com, as the Chinese equivalent of Yelp has agreements with Booking.com and Agoda, and bookings of those hotels must be completed on Booking.com or Agoda. 

ChinaTravelNews also learned that the hotels that have signed the exclusive agreements with Ctrip are mostly individual hotels. The agreements mean that Ctrip gets an exclusive right to the hotels’ online booking in China. This has been verified by a senior executive of a hotel company who declined to be named. 

It remains to be seen if it is wise for the hotels to put all eggs in one basket by signing exclusive deals with Ctrip. （Translated by Jerry）