Expedia Exec Believes His Company is on a More Collaborative Path with Hotels

The relationship between hotels and online travel agencies has been built as an uneasy alliance, with hoteliers regularly complaining about the cost of commissions for bookings through third parties.

But Greg Schulze, senior vice president of strategic travel partners for Expedia Group, said the two sides have a clearer path to a more holistic partnership than ever before.

"The least productive thing that we can do is fight over the last piece of the pie," he said. "We absolutely see opportunity to provide great experiences to travelers, to encourage more travel and to help our partners to reach demand that they certainly could not reach on their own to help them be successful in not just filling hotel rooms or airplane seats but to provide an integrated experience. The more we can do that, the more they're going to want to work with us."

The latest news signifying a change in the hotel-OTA dynamic is Expedia's announcement that it has entered into a "preferred partnership for optimized distribution" with IHG Hotels & Resorts, which will put Expedia in charge of making sure that IHG's brands' wholesale rates are consistent and less costly.