Online travelers have learned to book their reservations on travel suppliers’ Websites to avoid intermediaries’ service fees and collect loyalty points. Suppliers save money from direct bookings and thus encourage this behavior with aggressive, lowest-price guarantees.

Yet market share does not tell the whole online travel story, PhoCusWright said.

OTAs and travel service suppliers appeal to different types of travelers. Infrequent leisure travelers, who may take just a few trips a year and are more price-sensitive, prefer OTAs. Those companies are therefore concentrating on unconverted lookers.

Frequent, loyal leisure and unmanaged business travelers, who focus on schedules, convenience and specific suppliers head straight to those sites. Suppliers are catering to this audience with more personalization, loyalty and community.

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