Travel websites continue to their steady progress in search listings

A media report has indicated that travel websites such as Expedia and
Orbitz are "shoving" hotel companies out of both paid and organic search
listings.

According to a new study with DM News, web analytics company SEMphonic,
Novato, CA, found that Expedia, Orbitz and Hotels.com hold the "top
spots" in paid search listings on Google and Yahoo. Also,
TripAdvisor.com and Hotelclub.net are at the "top" in organic rankings.
SEMPhonic is a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) technologies company
focused on bridging the gap between web marketing and web measurement.

As per the information available, SEMphonic conducted the study to make
hotel companies more aware of how their search rankings compare with
those of big travel aggregators. "No doubt, the [hotel] companies are
very aware of the Travelocitys and Expedias," SEMphonic chief executive
officer Gary Angel reportedly said. "Even so, they are very unaware of
how their web sites and their efforts stack up against everyone else's."

"No major hotel chain, such as Marriott and Radisson, is in SEMphonic's
top 10 for overall ratings analyzing paid and organic results combined.
And only Choice Hotels, which includes Comfort Inn, Clarion and Sleep
Inn, ranks in the top 10 paid listings. Travel aggregators make up 39
percent of the top 50 sites in paid listings, SEMphonic found in the
study of 247 hotel-related keywords, while hotel companies make up only
17 percent of the listings," said the report.

Paul Legutko, an analyst and consultant with SEMphonic reportedly said,
"We were pretty surprised to see that the large travel aggregators were
really pushing the paid market and squeezing the actual hotel companies
out." He also added that the trend results partly from many of the major
chains not being active in pay per click when search advertising took
off, so now they're trying to catch up. Also, smaller hotel chains and
individual hotels may be unwilling to pay $1 to $2 per click -- the
price range for most hotel-related keywords, he said.

"Hotels fare much better in organic listings, where they make up 48
percent of the top 50 sites while travel aggregators are only 6 percent.
However, only Marriott.com, Radisson.com and Starwoodhotels.com ranked
in the top 10 organic listings. When users search for "cheap" or
"discount" hotels, the traditional hotel companies fare worse than when
consumers search for luxury properties. In searches for "cheap"
properties, lodging aggregators such as Hotels.com make up 62 percent of
the organic listings; travel aggregators, 24 percent; and hotel
companies, 6 percent," says the report.

The report added that hotel companies dominated organic listings when
luxury-related search terms were used, comprising two-thirds of the
total listings. The top hotel chains listed were Four Seasons, Fairmont,
Mandarin Oriental and Ritz-Carlton. It was also reported that
"comparison between the `cheap' and `luxury' categories" suggests that
hotel companies are more likely to focus on their search engine
placement within the `luxury' space, rather than the `cheap' space, the
study said.

Reference: DMnews.com