At 123Compare.me, we published February’s World Parity Monitor results, our monthly report tracking global hotel price parity evolution.
We conduct this analysis using the “Beat – Meet – Lose” KPI, which compares direct hotel prices against OTA and Meta offers.
February 2025 Summary
- Expedia Group sees a decline in its lose rate compared to January 2025, positioning two points lower than in February 2024.
- Booking Holdings maintains its January 2025 lose rate across all platforms.
- Metasearch engines report a 4-point increase in lose rate from January 2025 and a 10-point increase from February 2024, reducing the beat rate.
1. Average Beat Meet Lose (BML) Rate
February shows an increase in price integrity, with the meet rate rising by 2 points at the expense of beat y lose.
However, the likelihood of a hotel offering lower prices than an OTA remains the highest at 45% (-1 point) (Graphs 1 y 2).
As we’ve noted before, the direct channel’s average BML results in a much higher loss rate when compared to the best OTA offer. In February 2025, this loss rate reached 78% when comparing only against the best of 20 available offers (Graph 3).
In other words, 4 out of 5 times, an OTA offers a price that breaks parity (a trend that has intensified recently) (Graph 4).
2. Channel Typology
2.1. Major OTAs, Other OTAs, and Metasearch Engines
To analyze different OTAs, we classify them into three groups:
- Major OTAs: Includes OTAs from the Booking and Expedia groups.
- Other OTAs: OTAs not belonging to Booking or Expedia.
- Metasearch Engines.
This analysis shows a slight lose rate decline for major OTAs (-1) and other OTAs (-3), reaching 22% and 32%, respectively.
Metasearch prices logically show the highest lose rate, as they highlight the ‘best price’ among listed OTAs. In February, the average lose rate reached 44%, which is 4 points higher than in January (Graph 5).
2.2. Booking Group vs Expedia Group
The lose rate analysis in relation to aggressive pricing strategies by major OTAs shows a downward trend on Expedia Group platforms. Meanwhile, Booking Group’s lose rate remains unchanged from January.
Over time, the gap between both groups not only persists but continues to widen. the difference has grown from an initial 7-point lower lose rate to 11 points less for Expedia Group (Graph 6).
- Within Booking Group, Agoda and Priceline follow a more aggressive pricing strategy, showing the highest lose rates at 34% and 27%, respectively. Meanwhile, Booking.com registers 19% in February, positioning Booking Group as the most aggressive in pricing among major OTAs (Graph 7).
- Expedia Group sees a significant decline in lose rate: Hotels at 14% (-3) and Expedia at 15% (-2). Notably, all brands within this group follow a similar pricing competition strategy (Graph 8).
Examining the lose rate trends of major groups Booking and Expedia Group, the gap between them narrows.
As noted earlier, Booking Group’s most aggressive pricing is seen in Agoda and Priceline. However, comparing Expedia and Booking.com directly, Expedia offers a better price than the direct website only 15% of the time, while Booking.com remains around 19% (Graphs 9 and 10).
We understand that Expedia may have adjusted price to respond to market pressure. Meanwhile, Booking already dominant in presence and visibility, prefers a more sustained pricing policy, even if slightly more aggressive.
Even so, it is important to point out that both groups overwhelmingly dominate the share of impressions in organic and sponsored links. This is especially true for booking.com, as shown in Graph 11. These data indicate a strong presence of major OTAs in search results. This reduces visibility for their competitors, smaller OTAs, and hotel establishments.
These data indicate a strong presence of the major OTAs in search results. This reduces visibility for competitors, smaller OTAs, and hotel establishments.
